Win 25,000 SPG points from the Starwood American Express!
Review: Sheraton Tribeca New York
Attending the SPG AmEx Screening of “Mansome” at the Tribeca Film Festival

Reminder: In connection with my trip to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival I’m giving away 25,000 SPG points through Twitter. See this post for full details on how to win. Also, in the interest of full disclosure my lodging and transportation were paid for by the Starwood American Express for this trip.

I ran into my idol, Johnny Jet, at JFK, and we shared a cab to the Sheraton Tribeca.

Everyone has their favorite area of New York, and Tribeca is certainly becoming one of the more trendy areas. I can’t say it’s my favorite part of the city just yet, but it certainly has a completely different “feel” than midtown or the Financial District (where I usually stay), and was very convenient for the theater at which the Tribeca Film Festival screening would take place that night.

Sheraton exterior

Sheraton entrance

The hotel only opened a couple of years ago so still has a pretty “fresh” feel to it. The agent at check-in was efficient and polite, and I presented my SPG Platinum card, a credit card, and ID. It occurred to me that I hadn’t previously added my SPG number to the reservation, so while I was already pre-assigned a room he also programmed my keys for access to the club lounge.

Lobby

Link@Sheraton in the lobby

I was assigned a room on the 17th floor so headed for the elevators, which require keys for access.

Hallway

The room was definitely on the small side though had a “fresh” feel to it and was nicely furnished. It featured one of Sheraton’s signature “Sweet Sleeper” beds, which I’m starting to like as much as the Westin Heavenly Bed.

Room

Room

Desk and TV

One of the things I do love about Tribeca are the great views of the city if you’re on a high enough floor, since most buildings in the immediate area aren’t high rises.

View from my room

The bathroom was a good size and featured a walk-in shower, toilet, and sink, with Sheraton branded toiletries.

Bathroom

Bathroom

As a Platinum member I had access to the club lounge, which is located on the 16th floor. It was a nice area with high-top seating, tables, and couches for lounging. While I never made it to the lounge for breakfast, the evening spread consisted of fruit, cheese, crackers, and two hot options (like spring rolls, chicken wings, etc.). Service was very attentive, and the attendant seemed to be pretty familiar with most of the guests, so it seemed like they were regulars.

Club lounge

Part of the evening spread

The highlight of the club lounge had to be the stunning terrace overlooking the city. It’s funny because I feel like people overlook the simplest things some time. The weather was beautiful, the temperature perfect, and the terrace had one of the nicest views of the city I’ve seen from anywhere. So I spent quite a bit of time out there.

Terrace

On the whole I quite liked the property. Let me be clear, there are higher end and more premium SPG hotels in the City, including the St. Regis and the Chatwal, but they come at a price. From a value perspective it’s tough to beat the Sheraton Tribeca given that it’s a category five property, making it as few as 12,000 SPG points per night (with the fifth night free). There aren’t many cities with higher hotel rates than New York, so I would recommend this hotel to anyone that wants to be in the Tribeca area.

I’ve been giving hotels a lot of thought lately, and now that I’ve just about requalified for both Hyatt Diamond and Starwood Platinum for the year (in both cases on stays instead of nights), I figured I’d provide my general thoughts about both programs, as well as InterContinental. It’s also worth noting that I’ve now been a Starwood Platinum for a bit over year since status matching last April, so I now have more of a basis on which to judge Starwood. With that in mind, here are my general thoughts about both programs:

Hyatt

I love Park Hyatt properties. I mean, I really, really love Park Hyatt properties. The more I think about it, the more I realize that Park Hyatts are really what keeps me loyal to Hyatt. The ability to redeem no more than 22,000 Gold Passport points per night (or no more than 33,000 points per night for a suite) at a Park Hyatt hotel is really what drives my loyalty to the chain.

Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi

Don’t get me wrong, Hyatt gets tons of points from me for their consistency. There’s not a more consistent hotel chain, a chain that under promises and over delivers as consistently. But the more Hyatt hotels I stay at, the more I realize that aside from Park Hyatt and Andaz properties, most of their hotels are pretty boring.

Andaz Shanghai

But now that Starwood really stepped up the game, especially in terms of incremental benefits over initial qualification, I think it’s time for Hyatt to step up their’s. I actually don’t necessarily think they should start counting award nights towards elite qualification like Starwood does. I mean, I have no problem if they do, but I think what they really need are marginal benefits above the first 25 stays or 50 nights.

In the past Hyatt’s amazing promotions were reason enough to stay at their hotels since you could earn a free night at a Park Hyatt after every few nights. Obviously that’s not sustainable, so it doesn’t have to be that drastic. But I think where Hyatt is missing the boat is that marginal benefits actually decrease after the first 25 stays and 50 nights. You get four confirmed Diamond suite upgrades after qualifying, but then get nothing extra if you stay double or triple as many nights/stays. So they’re not giving any sort of an incentive to stay with them. It’s still a really solid program, though without the promotions and with Starwood recently stepping up their game, I don’t think it’s the clear winner anymore.

Starwood

I’ve always referred to Starwood as the chain that over promises and under delivers. This is because as a chain they offer “unlimited space available suite upgrades” to Platinum members, but in practice a lot of the franchised hotels don’t seem to be aboard and will do just about anything to avoid giving an upgrade. My frustration with Starwood was that as a Platinum member you could have a stay where you literally get no benefits except free internet, since breakfast wasn’t guaranteed either.

Fortunately back in March they revamped their program to add breakfast as a Platinum amenity option, and also to add incremental benefits for those that more than qualify for Platinum status. As usual with Starwood it sounded great on paper, though I was curious about the implementation. Surprisingly enough I have to say that in my experience so far the implementation has been excellent. While the breakfast amenity does have to be chosen in place of the 500 SPG point Platinum welcome amenity, for my stays thus far the hotels have gone beyond the minimum required. At Le Meridien Munich, for example, I even got access to the full buffet.

Le Meridien Munich breakfast

But what’s really tempting me about Starwood is the marginal benefits beyond the initial 25 stays and 50 nights, which really force me to stay at their hotels instead of at Hyatt properties. The most tempting of those benefits are the 10 confirmed suite night awards after 50 nights, which I’m aiming for this year. This allows you to confirm 10 nights in a suite five days before arrival, which is hugely useful in basically “jumping” the Platinum upgrade queue. With Starwood I seem to always get suite upgrades for my one-night airport hotel stays, but not for the “vacation” stays that really count. So being able to confirm those would be hugely valuable.

Furthermore, the fact that award nights now count towards elite qualification with Starwood make this even more of a no brainer, since I can redeem points for stays at mid-range hotels and have those work towards the additional benefits.

But that still doesn’t solve my major frustration with Starwood, which is the number of points required for their high end hotels. I value SPG points at over two cents each, so at 30,000+ points per night for a category seven hotel, there are almost no circumstances under which a points redemption is a good value. Worst of all is that all villa hotels like the W Retreat Koh Samui charge double of the normal points required given that they don’t have any “standard” rooms. I’ll never understand that, since the redemption category a hotel belongs to is already based on the cost of rooms, so you’re basically being penalized twice.

InterContinental

I also have Royal Ambassador status with InterContinental, though for me this is the program which is becoming less and less valuable by the day. InterContinental Royal Ambassador used to be the best top tier status by far, in my opinion, though over the past couple of years has decreased in value to me, partly because the competition has caught up and partly because InterContinental has done everything they can to “standardize” benefits, which is rarely a good thing.

Nowadays I’m not really loyal to the chain, but rather mainly to a few of their individual hotels, which make me want to keep Royal Ambassador status. For example, the InterContinental San Francisco and InterContinental Berchtesgaden are among my favorite hotels, and I’d hate to give up Royal Ambassador because of how much I love these hotels.

InterContinental Berchtesgaden — my favorite place on earth

At the same time, the status really isn’t sustainable. While they’ve continued to quietly reduce benefits they’ve also increased qualification requirements. While the requirements are unpublished, anecdotal evidence suggests it takes at least 60 nights per year to be invited to Royal Ambassador. If Priority Club had more “middle ground” between InterContinental and their other brands that might not be so bad, but as things stand now, I can’t see myself staying 60 nights per year with them. The most frustrating part of the program is the lack of elite benefits on award stays, which is the biggest slap in the face of all.

Finding value in short stays outside the main chains

Here’s the last challenge I’m having. I’m increasingly finding a lot of value in one to two night stays at Virtuoso and American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts properties that don’t belong to Hyatt, Starwood, or Priority Club. For example, if I see a Ritz Carlton available for $250 per night and it comes with a room upgrade, $100 food and beverage credit, and daily breakfast for two, I’d be hard pressed to book a Westin for $200. And while that’s not always the case, it certainly makes me a bit less “focused,” which is never a good thing when trying to requalify for status.

Ritz Carlton San Juan

The bottom line

There is no perfect hotel chain. I love Hyatt for the ability to stay at mid-range hotels and redeem for high-end hotels. I just wish their mid-range hotels were more interesting. I love Starwood for the benefits I receive when staying at mid-range hotels and the reasonable award redemption costs for mid-range hotels. I just wish their high-end hotels would be priced more reasonably for award redemptions.

My hotel decisions for the rest of the year will be dictated first and foremost by which chain gives me the best value on the promotion front. Unfortunately both Hyatt and Starwood‘s second quarter promotions are pretty lackluster. Barring decent promotions, my decisions will be driven by incremental benefits, which is where Starwood wins for now.

Who is everyone else favoring this year?

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Cheesecake Factory. Their food is good, but the menu is too damn big. When I go to a restaurant and am hungry I don’t want to read a 46-page novel before deciding what to eat. I want enough choices so there’s “something for everybody,” but not so many choices that I have to set up a Venn diagram to make a decision on what I’ll have.

That’s also kind of how I feel about Starwood’s “Nice Choice” promotion, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. I love the fact that there are options to choose from (after all, Starwood has become all about customization, so kudos to them for sticking true to that), but there are just too many if you ask me. Maybe I’m jetlagged, maybe I’m just plane dumb (don’t forget to tip me on the way out), or maybe this is confusing, but I’m having a hard time going through this.

On the plus side, Starwood deserves credit for including all of their hotels in the promotion. For most of their past promotions there was a huge list of excluded hotels, which really sucks as a customer. To us a Starwood hotel is a Starwood hotel and we expect consistent benefits, regardless of where in the world we are. So it’s nice to see them running a promotion without any excluded hotels.

So let’s start with the basics (which might just be all I can handle). Registration is required for the promotion by June 30. The promotion runs from May 1 through September 30, 2012, though you have to choose a three month period in which you’d like to participate. It’s worth noting that even if you only register on June 30, the choice will apply retroactively through May 1. So given the options, you’re probably best off waiting until June 30 to register in order to decide which promotion works best for you.

Now on to the “choices.” The first decision you have to make is over which time period you’d like the promotion to run, with the following options:

Sticking to the Cheesecake Factory analogy, this would be the “welcome to the Cheesecake Factory, can I get you something to drink?”

The second choice is the general category of the rewards you want to earn:

In the Cheesecake Factory analogy, this would be the “can I get you started with an appetizer today?” (of course not, because your main courses are big enough to feed a villa of sumo wrestlers).

Aaaaaand this is where it starts to get complicated.  This is the point at which the Cheesecake Factory waiter comes over and says “have you had a chance to look at the menu yet?” Have I had a chance to look at the menu? Yes. Have I had a chance to read even 5% of the contents? No. Please come back in five hours.

Not only do you have multiple categories to choose from, but within each category you have far too many options for your own good, so let’s go through them one by one.

If you select the “Starpoints” category you have the following options:

I like a fun promotion with some options, but you need some serious number crunching and math skills in order to make an informed decision here.

If you plan on staying at least 15 nights, the triple Starpoints is probably your best bet. If you’re planning on staying fewer than 15 nights, I think the 3,000 bonus points for every six stays is more tempting than the double SPG points starting with your second stay. For double SPG points to make sense you’d have to be spending over $500 per night in order for that to be a better option than 3,000 bonus points for every six nights, given that you’re essentially earning 500 bonus points per night through it. Of course that assumes you can stage your stays in increments of six. And if you stay mostly at Sheratons, chances are the 500 bonus points there makes sense. If the alternative is double points you’d have to spend an average of more than $500 per night for that to be a better option, or if the alternative is triple points you’d have to spend an average of more than $250 per night for that to be a better option.

The next category is free nights, with the following options:

Neither of these options is especially appealing to me. Last year during the same period Starwood ran a promotion whereby you could earn one free night at a resort for every three stays, while this year they’re requiring 10 nights for a free weekend night, but capping it at category five hotels (compared to category six last time). Still, at the end of the day a category five hotel would cost 12,000 points per night, so I suppose that’s the equivalent of 1,200 bonus points per night. Of course this assumes you want to redeem your free nights over a weekend, and also that you don’t have substantially more than 20 nights, since you don’t earn anything beyond that.

The next option is a merchandise discount:

Next…

Then the last option is elite night credits:

If you absolutely need them and can’t make any additional stays then I guess go for it, though at the end of the day elite night credits aren’t really “tangible” rewards that can be redeemed for anything.

Interestingly the promotion page has a list of the most popular choices by members thus far, and as of now it stands as follows:

So not surprisingly the double and triple points offers are getting picked most often, probably because they’re the simplest. I still think the 3,000 bonus points for every six nights is more tempting than the double points assuming you can get stays in the right increments, though I seem to be in the minority there.

Ultimate this isn’t a promotion that will drive any incremental business to Starwood for me, but then again, I haven’t seen any enticing promotions from other programs. Hyatt has an offer for 5x airline miles, though it’s not entirely clear whether that’s their summer promotion or just a smaller promotion they’ll run alongside another one (I sure hope it’s the latter).

But before anyone’s too harsh on Starwood, let me give you my outside opinion on their inside thinking. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, in the past Starwood gave individual hotels the option of opting into a promotion or not. As a result, it would appear as if hotels were footing the bill for promotions, and that’s why we saw such huge lists of excluded hotels. Starwood deserves a LOT of credit for running a global promotion for the first time. It’s a step in the right direction, though I’m not surprised the promo is more lackluster than what we’ve seen in the past, since I would speculate that SPG is footing the bill here, as opposed to the individual (mostly franchised) hotels. Not trying to justify it, but just explaining why I think the promotion isn’t super-rewarding as it was last year.

Over the course of writing this post I’ve built up an appetite. Maybe a visit to the Cheesecake Factory is in order?

Introduction
United Global First Lounge San Francisco
Lufthansa First Class San Francisco to Munich
Le Meridien Munich
Lufthansa First Class Lounge Munich, Swiss Business Class Munich to Zurich
Swiss First Class Lounge Zurich, Swiss First Class Zurich to Bangkok
St. Regis Bangkok
Thai Airways First Class Lounge & Spa Bangkok
Thai Airways First Class Bangkok to Hong Kong
Ritz Carlton Hong Kong
Exploring Hong Kong
United Club Hong Kong and Thai Airways Royal Orchid Lounge Hong Kong
Asiana Business Class Hong Kong to Seoul Incheon
Hyatt Regency Incheon Airport
Asiana First Class Lounge Seoul Incheon
Asiana First Class Seoul Incheon to Frankfurt
Sheraton Frankfurt Airport
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt, Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to Seattle
Four Seasons Seattle

While my family is from Frankfurt, my travels have me transiting Frankfurt a lot more than they have me terminating there. Usually they’re one night layovers while connecting, and I always  make an effort to go into the city. There’s a train from the airport to the city, and from there it’s just a quick ride to just about anywhere.

In the past my go to hotel was the InterContinental Frankfurt, which is very reasonably priced and does great with Royal Ambassador benefits. I’ve reviewed the hotel extensively, including here, here, here, and here. During my last transit in Frankfurt I discovered the Westin Grand Frankfurt, which is now my go-to hotel in Frankfurt, given that they seem to be pretty good with Platinum upgrades, and the hotel is a bit more modern than the InterContinental. Furthermore, the hotel is part of American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (for American Express Platinum/Centurion card members), meaning you can get an 85EUR food and beverage credit plus free breakfast there if you book through them, even just for a one night stay.

But I had never stayed at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport, so I decided this would be a good opportunity to try it out. Our layover was only about 16 hours, so it wasn’t quite enough time to go into the city and see anything while getting a good night of sleep. Beyond that, our flight the next morning was fairly early, and there’s not much I hate more than getting up early.

I had actually gone out of my way to avoid the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport previously. While it’s connected to the terminal and therefore very convenient, the outside of the building just looks so tired that I figured the hotel couldn’t be any good.

After landing and clearing immigration we took the walkway to the Sheraton, which can be accessed from the departures hall.

Walkway to the hotel

While there was a short queue at check-in, they had a dedicated Gold/Platinum line, where there was no wait. I presented my Chase Sapphire Preferred and SPG Platinum card, and after typing away from a moment the agent informed me that I didn’t have a booking at the hotel. I’m a complete idiot, and it’s probably a sign that I’m on the road a bit too much, because I had just assumed that I made the reservation. The good news is that they had plenty of rooms, and the agent gladly made me a cash & points booking (4,000 SPG points plus $60), which only took a few minutes. She couldn’t have been nicer about the whole situation, and even commented that I’d be surprised by how often that happens.

Lobby

Lobby

Computer terminals

She gave us the option between being upgraded to a club room in the renovated tower and a junior suite that wasn’t renovated. We went with the former, since I’ve heard that the non-renovated rooms aren’t in good shape at all.

The Tower elevators are located right across from reception.

Walkway to elevators

Hallways

While the room wasn’t huge, it was very nicely appointed, with bright colors and IKEA-esque furniture.

Room

The bed was firm, though not nearly as hard as the one at the Hyatt Regency Incheon.

Bed

The room featured a flat screen TV across from the bed, as well as a desk and chair with ottoman.

TV

Desk

Chair and ottoman

While the room faced a parking garage for the most part, at an angle you could see the airport, which I always love.

View from the room

The bathroom was a decent size and featured a sink, toilet, and shower/tub.

Bathroom

Shower

While I selected the points as the Platinum amenity, we still got a nice welcome plate with some fruit and desserts. Clearly the hotel knew about my sweet tooth.

Welcome amenity

The club lounge had keyed entry and was really the biggest shocker of the hotel, since it was one of the best Sheraton lounges I’ve seen anywhere.

Club lounge

The lounge featured a bunch of seating, both tables as well as couches.

Club seating

Club seating

The evening spread, which was out till after 10PM, consisted of finger sandwiches, fruit, vegetables, salad, and some delicious chocolate cake. Not only was the spread great, but the service was great too, with constant offers for refills.

The only downside of the lounge was the group of five or six Americans sitting at a table at the other side of the lounge that were talking very loudly. It wasn’t just the volume they were talking at, but what they were talking about, and how they were expressing themselves. Dude, I’m happy to hear you were able to “bag that chick,” but I really don’t need to hear about it. And not every second word has to be four letters…

Fortunately their conversation abruptly ended when one loudly exclaimed “I’ve gotta go take a dump.” Again, good to know.

Spread

Spread

Dessert spread

And while I didn’t partake in the breakfast offerings since I had an early flight, I did quickly stop by the lounge to snap a couple of pictures, and the spread was equally impressive, with fresh fruit, breads, and even hot dishes with a chef on site. They even had champagne, which is the first time I’ve seen that in a Sheraton club lounge.

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Anyway, on the whole this is really a phenomenal airport hotel. While I try to leave the airport grounds when I have a longer overnight to get a change of scenery, this place is fantastic for a quick overnight, and I’m sure I’ll be back soon.

Introduction
United Global First Lounge San Francisco
Lufthansa First Class San Francisco to Munich
Le Meridien Munich
Lufthansa First Class Lounge Munich, Swiss Business Class Munich to Zurich
Swiss First Class Lounge Zurich, Swiss First Class Zurich to Bangkok
St. Regis Bangkok
Thai Airways First Class Lounge & Spa Bangkok
Thai Airways First Class Bangkok to Hong Kong
Ritz Carlton Hong Kong
Exploring Hong Kong
United Club Hong Kong and Thai Airways Royal Orchid Lounge Hong Kong
Asiana Business Class Hong Kong to Seoul Incheon
Hyatt Regency Incheon Airport
Asiana First Class Lounge Seoul Incheon
Asiana First Class Seoul Incheon to Frankfurt
Sheraton Frankfurt Airport
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt, Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to Seattle
Four Seasons Seattle

Perhaps it’s one of the more irrational things I’ll ever do, but I decided to arrange a car transfer with the hotel. Bangkok cabs are inexpensive so on one hand it’s a waste, but I figured we’d give the hotel transfer service a try in one direction. The cost was about $90USD, and the transfer was in a pimped out Mercedes S500. I will say that while it was expensive, it was really nice to arrive at a hotel in Bangkok not drenched in sweat, as cabs in Bangkok tend to cheap out on the air conditioning.

Car transfer

Car transfer

Hotel exterior

Hotel entrance

The hotel’s lobby is actually on the 12th floor, though there’s still a fairly grand entrance on the 1st floor including plenty of seating.

1st floor entrance

We were escorted up to check-in on the 12th floor, which consisted of individual tables instead of one long check-in desk, which I always find to be a nice touch at luxury hotels (the Park Hyatt Tokyo has the same).

12th floor lobby

I had booked our stay through American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (the hotel hasn’t yet joined Virtuoso). The rate was identical to the best available rate, which was around $200USD per night. By booking through Fine Hotels & Resorts we received complimentary breakfast and one complimentary afternoon tea once during our stay in addition to the Platinum benefits.

While Starwood Platinum members have always received free breakfast at this hotel, they now have to select it in lieu of the 500 point welcome amenity. This is due to the SPG program revamp that happened on March 1. So by booking through Fine Hotels & Resorts I essentially “earned” an extra 500 points and got free afternoon tea.

It’s worth noting that the alternative was to book cash and points for $90USD plus 4,800 SPG points per night. After crunching the numbers I didn’t think that was worth it. It’s rather crazy that the hotel has since gone up to a category six hotel, meaning cash and points would now be $150 plus 8,000 points per night. That’s outrageous given how inexpensive luxury hotels are in Bangkok.

The agent at check-in was very friendly and informed us of all our benefits. She informed us we had been upgraded to a Grande Deluxe room with a nice view. I was a bit surprised not to get a Metropolitan Suite which Platinum members seem to report getting about 90% of the time at this hotel, though after looking at availability she informed us that we could move the second night if we wanted to.

I was impressed that the GM was “hovering” around the lobby, and as each party checked in he introduced himself and handed out his business card, mentioning that he appreciates any feedback. I thought that was a nice gesture.

Our room was located on the 22nd floor, room 2227. It was easily one of the most beautifully decorated rooms I’ve ever seen, and in the end we decided not to even move the second night, since apparently the Metropolitan Suites at this hotel don’t have nearly as nice views.

Room entrance

By the entrance was the closet and bathroom equipped with a walk in shower and separate tub, as well as double sinks.

Bathroom

Tub

Sinks

Toilet

Then sliding doors led to the bedroom, which featured a soft bed facing a flat screen TV, as well as a couch and desk with comfortable chair.

Bedroom

TV

Couch

Desk

The room featured views of the pool and in the distance the racetrack and city. While I love Bangkok as a city, it’s not one I usually associate with nice views. This was definitely the nicest view I’ve ever had in a Bangkok hotel.

Awesome views

View of pool

Since this is a St. Regis they have the signature butler service. I’ll never quite understand what purpose the butlers serve. Our butler introduced herself to us at the beginning of the stay, though if you need anything you call the “central” butler phone number, and then they dispatch a butler to help. So it’s not quite as personalized (or useful) as the one I had at Aman-i-Khas, for example (not that I was expecting that level of service).

The two things they seem to always suggest doing is helping with packing and unpacking, and also bringing complimentary tea or coffee. The latter is useful, I guess, but does anyone really want a stranger packing and unpacking their clothes? I sure don’t…

It’s worth noting that as a Platinum member you get access to a complimentary evening cocktail reception at the hotel’s bar, Decanter, between 5:30PM and 7:30PM. It’s almost like a mini club lounge with a nice little spread consisting of cheese, meat, bread, olives, etc. They also have a wine list from which you can order whatever you’d like, including champagne. It’s a nice little bonus for Platinum members given that the hotel doesn’t have a club lounge.

Decanter

Buffet

Not too shabby

Breakfast is served daily in Viu Restaurant from 7AM to 11AM, so we took advantage of that both mornings. As is the case in most Thai hotels, the spread was very, very good. It wasn’t quite as good as Le Meridien Bangkok, which is easily the best spread I’ve ever seen, though it was still very good. They had everything imaginable, from Western to Chinese to Japanese to Thai.

Breakfast restaurant

Omelet station

More food

Fresh fruit

Breads

The good stuff

Lukewarm waffles, pancakes, and french toast

More food!

My only complaint is that the service was a bit lackluster. While I found the service around the hotel to otherwise be great, unfortunately the restaurant staff were lacking a bit with efficiency and accuracy. I should also note that a lot of the hot options were lukewarm at best, so I’m not sure if they weren’t replacing them often enough, or if their heating mechanism was no good.

While we’re talking about Platinum benefits, it’s also worth noting that Platinum members get five free pieces of laundry dry cleaned during their stay. They seem to do it overnight, though not faster.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the report we also received complimentary afternoon tea once during our stay, which we took advantage of in the lobby bar. While it wasn’t the seven course afternoon tea I had at the Burj Al Arab, it was excellent nonetheless.

Afternoon tea

Afternoon tea

As far as the hotel’s facilities go, the pool, spa, and gym are all on the 14th floor. The pool is especially nice, including two (cold) jacuzzis.

Pool

Jacuzzi

Hotel from pool

Bar by pool

Gym

Gym

The Elemis Spa was also fantastic, easily one of the nicest I’ve ever seen. The spa was considerably more expensive than Le Meridien Bangkok, though well worth the price. I was especially impressed by the (hot) jacuzzis they have for before or after treatments.

Spa entrance

Spa reception

Post-treatment area

Post-treatment tea

Elemis Spa hot and cold

On the whole I’d say the St. Regis is probably now my favorite hotel in Bangkok. Bangkok has lots of great luxury hotels, though many of them are starting to show their age. The St. Regis has both great service and brand new facilities, so I’d return in a heartbeat. If you’re looking for a cheaper option, Le Meridien is very good as well and possibly has even better Platinum recognition.