Last week I had the opportunity to spend a few days with my entire family and some friends at WDW. My family are Disney Vacation Club Members and the Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary is a Vacation Club resort (however anyone can stay at the Bay Lake Towers based on availability.)

The benefit of the Bay Lake Towers and the Contemporary Hotel is both the proximity to the Magic Kingdom and that it's on the Magic Kingdom Monorail line.

The room type we had at the Bay Lake Towers is called the 3-bedroom Grand Villa with a theme park view. The alternative view is of Bay Lake and the pools/activity area. The first floor of the room has a full kitchen, living room, laundry room, master bedroom with master bath and a second full bath in the living area. The second floor has 2 bedrooms and each has a full bath and double beds. There's a loft area on the second floor with a sleeper sofa.

[caption id="" width="360" align="alignnone" caption="Courtesy Disney Vacation Club"][/caption]

The views from the room were spectacular because there were floor to ceiling windows. The view from our room looked onto the Magic Kingdom and you could see iconic figures like Cinderella's Castle and Space Mountain.

The room was really comfortable.

[caption id="" width="383" align="alignnone" caption="Kitchen"][/caption]

One of the best parts of the room in my opinion was the perfect view of the fireworks from the park. I love fireworks, I hate crowds. From the room you could sit on the balcony and enjoy the show.

I really enjoyed the Bay Lake Towers and even as a non Disney Vacation Club member I would stay at the Contemporary Bay Lake Towers if I was visiting The Magic Kingdom.

Part 2 of my Disney Vacation review: The New Fantasy Land

 

My regular readers will know that my primary hotel chain is Starwood, however, it's next to impossible to stay at a Starwood all the time. Every frequent traveler, in my opinion, needs a secondary hotel chain you can rely on.

I've tried Marriott over the years, going from Platinum to Silver status. I've tried Hilton off and on without much success. I enjoyed Kimpton, but I'm international now and Kimpton isn't.

So towards the end of last year I was given Hyatt Platinum Status through the purchase of a MilePoint Premium membership. With Platinum status I thought I'd give a Hyatt a spin. Now, the key is that Hyatt's are often out of my per-diem, but the Hyatt Regency Incheon was just under my budget.

The hotel is located just off of the airport property and offers a free shuttle bus. It took about 3-4 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel. The lobby was packed with people checking in, but there were plenty of staff on hand directing people to the appropriate check-in location.

Check-in was easy and I was very quickly off to my room. I had a Club Deluxe King room which was on the floor with the Regency Club lounge. The lounge served Continental breakfast, evening cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, high tea. As a Platinum member I had complimentary wifi access and late check out.

I arrived super late and so I ordered room service and it was delivered very quickly. The food was good too. When I was in my room someone came with a bottle of wine and chocolates. I don't drink, so I asked if I could get something else and they happily replace it with several bottles of sparkling water.

The room was comfortable and spacious. The bathroom had a ton of amenities including a toilet with more buttons and switches than I've ever seen.

Anytime I'm in Seoul or have a layover at Incheon Airport, I will stay at the Hyatt!

 

 

 

 

You know you’ve become a high value customer or prospect when companies start saying happy birthday – in personal ways. This is one topic I can talk about all day long, cultivation and stewardship. Having worked in the nonprofit world for more than 10 years, and now for the largest nonprofit software vendor for 8 years I can, and do talk about these topics all the time. A few weeks ago I read a post from Gary at View From the Wing about Delta’s data mining practices (which were made public somehow and you too can see what Delta knows about you.) So it’s no surprise to me, at all, that every company, nonprofit and agency I have every given my information to knows it’s my birthday today.

Every year I get the form email saying happy birthday, here’s a 10% off coupon if you spend $XX (I’ve gotten coupons from Bliss and Ulta so far). I get a couple of auto-generated e-cards with cute messages that I’m sure 100,000 other people got too. This year has been different, very different. The number of personal messages and gifts from hotels has actually been quite a surprise. Based on the level of personalization I can tell which brands see me as a high value prospect. So let’s breakdown the birthday wishes

Starwood:

Starwood has certainly gone to the most effort to discover what I like and make their birthday wishes very personal, and plenty. Here’s what I’ve gotten thus far:

• From the W Bangkok & my Starwood Ambassador – my favorite drink, a Starbucks cool lime refresher & cupcakes (waiting for me in my room when I checked in) along with a birthday card.
• From the W Bangkok – a Starbucks “Happy Birthday” gift card w/a note saying that they hope I use the card to enjoy cool lime refreshers wherever I am (and oh, I have!)

• From the Sheraton Siagon Towers – a personal email from the hotel Guest Services Manager (whom I met while visiting in December) with the Director of Sales & Marketing, Director of Food & Beverage, the Executive Chef, and the General Manager all in copy. Also copied the regional Director of Revenue and the Director of Business Development & Marketing.

  

• From my Ambassador – a handwritten greeting card and personal note welcoming me back home after 65 straight nights in Starwood hotels
• From the Starwood Social Media team – a Starwood greeting card signed by the members of the team

• From Starwood – a box of chocolates! They were very good.

  

 

Hilton:

• From the Hilton Melbourne on the Park – a personal email from the Spa manager wishing me a happy birthday
• From the Hilton London Green Park – an ecard wishing me a happy birthday

 

Marriott: Nada – I dropped from Gold to Silver for 2013 (though they are offering me the opportunity to buy back my status for 25,000 points.)

Airlines? Nothing. I’m not a high value airline customer. Sure, I fly a lot, but I only buy coach fares and use miles to upgrade. And since I actually know how Delta values me, I’m not surprised I haven’t gotten any personal birthday wishes from the airlines.

The day’s still young, perhaps there are more emails on the way? It will sure be fun to watch and see…but I have to say, Starwood wins this cultivation and stewardship race, by a landslide! I’m sure some people will say I’m getting special treatment as a blogger. And yes, I assume that’s why the Starwood Social Media team sent me a card. However, I stayed over 130 nights in Starwood hotels in 2012, 99 in 2011 and have stayed more than 50 nights a year since 2008. I planned several large events at Starwood hotels in 2012 and spent a lot of money with Starwood. I’m a high value business prospect and kudos to Starwood and the hotels I’ve stayed in this year for going above and beyond to keep my business.

Having spent almost 10 months in Bangkok over the last two years, I’ve seen just about every temple, palace and museum I care to see. So this weekend, a little bored and tired of the smog, I decided to take a tour of some hotels. When you start touring hotels you know you’re a travel geek. I did some research and asked a few locals for suggestions and here’s what I found.

The Bangkok Tree House Hotel

The hotel’s website is straight forward and blunt “The Tree House is not for everyone. For your sake and ours, please read on to find out whether you and the Tree House are a compatible match. We won’t, don’t, can’t fumigate the area to get rid of insects and other local species. As we are in tropical country, we do have mosquitoes but the gentle river breeze helps makes insects less of a problem.” I love that they’re up front about what you’re going to get. You might think their rooms, or “nests” as they call them are a joke – but they’re not.

The hotel has a “View with a Room” nest – a completely open air room 23 feet above the ground.

Photograph from Hotel Website

The “Family Nest”

Photograph from Hotel Website

This nest has three rooms a bedroom, a living room area (which can sleep two) and a large bathroom. The rooftops of the Family Nest are green and can serve as outdoor patios.

The “Beehive Nest” – this is a three level room and the theme is an ode to bees. It sleep up to three people and also has a rooftop patio. They also have rooms inspired by ants and butterflies.

Photograph from Hotel Website

The next nest is perhaps the most unbelievable. The “River Nest” is a floating bed. Yep, that’s it, a floating bed. The hotel’s website says “It’s a unique but simple concept, float a bed on the gentle river and sleep there for the night. The tides rock you to sleep and the morning sun rise is your alarm clock.” The website notes that room availability is depends on tidal season.

Photograph from Hotel Website

The hotel is not cheap – here are their average published rates:

 

The Phra-nakorn Norn-Len

This hotel is self-described as a family-friendly vintage guest house. The website home page is chaotic and confusing, but at the same time intriguing and made me want to see it.

The hotel uses words like “vintage,” “unique,” “boutique” and “funky” to describe itself and that it is. The hotel is also pretty green and tries to fit into the surrounding community. They offer single, double and family type rooms and rooms sleep between 2 – 4 people. Prices are very reasonable and range from 2200 baht for a double room to 3600 baht a night for the family room. The hotel is very open and airy and highly landscaped. I spoke to an American couple at the hotel and they said that the rooms were very clean, small but livable and the staff was very warm. The hotel has a restaurant that uses vegetables and herbs grown directly on their own rooftop. The hotel is very close to the Grand Palace and Chinatown.

 

The Dream Hotel Bangkok

Talk about a moody hotel…the Dream Hotel uses lighting to alter or change a guests mood and experience. The hotel is defiantly avant-garde and reminded me a little of a W hotel – but with more glow-in-the-dark, florescent lighting and tons of blue.

The hotel participates in the Wyndham rewards program, so you can earn points while you Dream. I’m not sure how anyone could actually dream though with all the blue mood lighting. The hotel is on busy Sukhumvit road just behind the Westin Grand Sukhumvit. That means it’s close to the SkyTrain, shopping and nightlife. The hotel is a little too trendy for me, and I like the W…so just imagine.

 

Bedroom Photograph from Hotel Website

Seven

Seven is a new boutique hotel in Bangkok and it only has 7 rooms. Six bedrooms and 1 lobby area, hence the name Seven. The hotel is inspired by Thai culture and art and each room has a color theme inspired by the Thai tradition of tying each day of the week to a color.

Sunday is red and the red space serves as the lobby and multi-function area of the hotel. You can’t sleep in the red room. You can sleep in many other colored rooms. Monday is the yellow room and yellow is the color of the King and very special to the Thai people. Tuesday is the pink room. Wednesday is the green room. Thursday is the orange room. Friday is the blue room. Saturday is the purple room and purple is also the color of the Queen, a very special color in Thailand.

I wasn’t able to see any of the rooms. As you can imagine, with only 6 rooms the hotel can fill up! The lobby is small but quaint and I suspect the rooms have a similar feel.

Reception/Lobby Area

Here are some photographs of the rooms

The purple room

Photograph from Hotel Photobucket

The Orange Room

Photograph from Hotel Photobucket

The Pink Room

Photograph from Hotel Photobucket

Reflections Hotel Bangkok

The hotel’s website is absolutely terrible and impossible to navigate. The website alone would be enough to keep me from booking. You can find plenty of information on 3^rd party booking sites like Agoda and AsiaRooms.com. The Hotel exterior is noting exceptional and in fact, quite odd. The theme of the hotel is recycling and reusing trash. Each room is designed by a different Thai artist or designer. The hotel did experience some flooding during the major floods last year. Have you been?

Based on the photos, I honestly can’t imagine staying in one of these rooms!

Yesterday I had an interesting experience, one that I’ve not had before. I woke up because my hotel room had become very warm. I rolled over and looked at the clock, which was black. No neon numbers glowing in the dark, just black. After a few minutes, it dawned on me that the power was out. The hotel has VOIP (voice over internet phones) that require, you guessed it, electricity. So no phone, I wandered out into the hallway where the emergency lighting had turned on and the hallway was dimly light. I thought about going down to the lobby, but then I realized, elevators probably need electricity too! Nineteen floors were just too many to walk down since there were no emergency signals or sirens.

I went back into my room, where the window shades are operated exclusively with switches (similar to light switches), the air-conditioning, TVs, clocks, lights, Bose radio, coffee maker, tea-pot, fridge, and phone all require electricity. Sitting in the silence was a little awkward and it made me think – I can’t remember the last time I sat quietly without any electronics or noise.

A little while later all the lights flashed back on (I imagined what someone who was still asleep would think if all the lights suddenly turned on) and the air came back on too. I decided to go to breakfast and noticed the hallway was still dimly lit. The elevators were working and I did notice that there was an old-fashioned phone in the hallway near the elevators (good to know in case of emergencies). In the restaurant only about ½ of the lights were back on, but breakfast was still being served and it was in fact, quite busy.

I have no idea why the lights went out, but it gave me a moment to reflect on what it means to be disconnected from the world – electronically. It was nice. And now…here I am, reconnected and blogging.

Earlier this week I posted about a horrible hotel stay in Hong Kong. I was on a limited budget and needed to find something in a specific location. I found what looked to be like a boutique hotel and the website made the hotel seem appealing. Reviews were not too bad either.

I booked 3 nights at the Mingle on the Wing Hotel in Sheung Wan Hong Kong. The hotel is small, I mean, very small. There really wasn’t enough space in the lobby for two people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. The elevator could fit, at most, 2 people and there were no public areas to work, relax, etc… I could have dealt with the small hotel, that is really at the bottom of my list in terms of “issues.”

After checking in I went to my room on the 3^rd floor. The door, which opened with a key card, was very challenging to figure out how to open. Once inside the room I saw just how tiny the room was. It was about the size of a small cruise ship cabin. The room was clean, but there were things that clearly hadn’t been finished during construction. Again, not a huge deal.

On the door to the room I noticed there were no locks. No deadbolt, no nothing. There was a chain, but it was broken. I called the front desk and they told me that the door locked automatically and all rooms were the same. That’s when I promptly wiggled the chair under the door handle so it couldn’t turn. This was my number 1 and biggest issue with the hotel. Safety is critical and I didn’t feel safe or comfortable without visible locks on my door.

The second thing that was sort of an annoyance was that the hotel did not provide any bottled water. Every other hotel I’ve been to in a country where you can’t drink the water has provided at least 1 bottle of water. At this hotel the answer was there’s a 7-11 at the corner. That’s okay, I could buy my water, but at mid-night when I’m getting ready for bed and brushing my teeth I didn’t want to wander out to 7-11. So what did I do? I brushed with Perrier. Yep, you can laugh now, I laughed.

I was awoken times times during the night. Once by the people in one of the rooms on my floor – the walls were very thin and I could hear them around 1am being quite loud. The second wake-up came around 3:30am when it sounded like furniture was being moved. It went on for more than 30 minutes. I called the front desk and the girls reply was that she was the only person at the desk and couldn’t leave to check out the noise. The last wake-up came at 7:30am when the housekeepers arrived and turned on their music. It was loud enough to wake me up in my room. I asked them to turn it down and they didn’t seem to understand my request.

So, because the hotel couldn’t move me to a room with a lock or working chain, I decided to leave and check into the Holiday Inn Express – where I should have booked to begin with!
I would never recommend the Mingle on the Wing – or any of the other Mingle hotels in Hong Kong as a result of this experience. If you need a hotel in Sheung Wan, the Holiday Inn Express is very nice – that’s where I’ll be staying from now on (unless by some miracle I get a gigantic budget and can book the Mandarin Oriental!)

 

I’ll start by saying this is my first post using the word press app (so I have no idea what it’s going to look like), the Internet in my hotel is terrible and I forgot an adapter, so I have almost no battery left (I’ll be hitting the stores at 9am!) This is going to be a short post!

I’m in hotel hell. The hotel was almost impossible to find, down a small street in Hong Kong, very little signage, and no street # on the building. The lobby is about the size of a toll booth and the room is the size of my bathroom at the Le Meridien Bangkok. Thank god I was cognizant enough to book a room with a private bath!

Here are a few pics. Notice the picture of the door – see something missing? I now have the chair wedged up against the handle. The front desk says it locks automatically….

I should mention that I took a picture of every single space in the room, it’s really a shoe box!

I’m not sure if I will end up here more than one night…but I’ll let ya’ll know. I won’t reveal the name of the hotel until I check out, but I will reveal it then.

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VGP

I decided to spend a few nights at the brand new – circa two weeks old – W Hotel Bangkok. I love W Hotels and since I’ve stayed at almost every Starwood property in Bangkok (haven’t been to the 4points yet) I just had to check this out.

I arrived after 5 nights in Khao Lak, Thailand at the Le Meridien. I was hot, sweaty, sunburned and covered in bug spray. I should have arrived at the hotel around 4pm, but due to a late flight and ridiculous traffic it was closer to 5pm when I arrived. The hotel was preparing for an event that night and the hotel driveway (not sure that’s the best word for it) was lit up and looking spectacular. I was greeted by two bellman who helped with my luggage and escorted me into the hotel. Once inside I was greeted by the Director of Rooms and the W Insider. After a quick check in the W Insider escorted me to my room on the 11^th floor.

Pictured below: The W Christmas Tree – so modern and cool – I had to take a photo since it won’t be around much longer!

As we arrived to the room, she said she had taken the liberty of setting up the room and turning on the a/c and hoped I didn’t mind. Nope, I didn’t mind at all and was thrilled the air was cool. As she started to explain the feature of the room, something caught my eye. It looked like there was a Starbucks Cool Lime Refresher sitting on the desk next to two mini-cupcakes. Was it a mirage? How in the world could the W Bangkok have known that I love and I mean LOVE the Cool Lime Refresher. It wasn’t a mirage, it was real. The W Insider ran over to Starbucks before I arrived and got me one! WOW. The hotel staff took care of every little detail down to ensuring I had my favorite drink on arrival. It was great and so were the cupcakes (there were also little candies and some shots of something I couldn’t quite identify, but tasted a little like a non-alcoholic mojito.) My Starwood Ambassador (a benefit you get after 100 nights) and the hotel had arranged for the special treats.

A about an hour after I got into my room there was a knock at the door. The Assistant General Manger wanted to introduce herself and welcome me to the hotel. She handed me a card and said she knew it was a little early, but wanted to wish me happy birthday. Inside the card was a lovely note and a Starbucks gift card. What a great extra touch.

While I was out at dinner they did turn-down service in my room and I returned to find yet another note welcoming me and wishing me a relaxing stay.

The Room

I was in a Wonderful Room that had huge rounded floor-to-ceiling glass windows with spectacular views of the city and the pool! The room is modern and trendy while functional and comfortable. There was a king-sized W bed adorned with two giant boxing glove pillows, a comfortable chair that swiveled so you could see the TV or the view, a very large working desk with tons of outlets and a really bright light.

The room had one of the most fun “mini-bars” I’ve ever seen. It was stocked full of classic candy in addition to traditional snacks and drinks.

The bathroom is separated from the room by an opaque purple wall and curtain. While you can see through to the bathtub, you can’t see into the shower at all and the gold curtain draws closed so that you can’t see into the toilet either. So you have a little more privacy than some Ws. The bathtub was awesome and the shower had both a waterfall shower head and traditional shower head. The water pressure is great in the shower too.

Everything in the room is controlled by this tablet. From the do not disturb ‘sign’ to the lights, A/C, alarm clock and more, everything you need is just one touch away.

The Restaurants

There are several places to eat in the hotel. The Kitchen Table is the hotel’s full service restaurant. I ate at the Kitchen Table on the night I arrived. The menu is very modern and creative, but if you’re not into spicy food, leaves you limited choices. I ended up ordering a pasta and seafood dish. The chef came out of the kitchen to discuss a food allergy I have (tomato!) and asked if he could change the sauce since the sauce on the menu used tomatoes. I appreciated that very much and told him to use whatever sauce he thought worked best. The dish was good, but isn’t something I’d rush back to order again. The hotel, and restaurant, having only been open two weeks will need to continue to work on service in the restaurant. While it wasn’t bad service, it was very slow.

The Kitchen Pantry is a take-away style counter where you can purchase a sandwich, snacks, desserts and drinks and eat them on communal style tables in front of the pantry or take back to your room or whatever. At the pool, you can order from a menu of lighter foods and full drink menu. The service at the pool is excellent and I had lunch there one day. The Khao Pad (chicken fried rice) was delicious – the best meal I had at the hotel, and the cheapest at the hotel (with sparkling water I paid about $12.) In the hotel lobby you’ll find the WooBar, the hotel’s full-service bar. It’s chic and stylish and serves up great drinks.

The hotel also offers 24-hour room service and the menu is expansive (I actually preferred the room service menu to the Kitchen Table menu.)

Amenities

As I mentioned above, the pool is great. Not only is the service really good, but you would really never know you’re sitting 6 floors up from one of the busiest streets in Bangkok. The pool area can become extremely hot especially because the sun reflects off all of the skyscrapers. I melted after about an hour out there and suggested that the hotel have cold towels (like the Le Meridien Bangkok or St Regis Bangkok) so guests can cool off a little. Next to the pool is the fitness center.

In front of the hotel is the old Russian Embassy, or the Heritage Building, which is being renovated and turned into suites, a restaurant and shops. It is set to open in March 2013 and I’m sure will be a great addition. I look forward to seeing what restaurant opens there.

The Whatever Whenever Team, the hotel concierges, are very willing to assist with any request – seriously, whatever whenever. I noticed the a panel next to the TV which would allow me to connect my computer or iPad to the TV. I didn’t have my cords with me, so I called Whatever Whenever and asked if they had any. About 5 minutes later there was a knock at my door and they had cords for me to borrow.

With the introduction of the W Hotel Bangkok the city is also being introduced to Bliss products. I’ve looked long and hard in Bangkok for Bliss products and this is the first time I’ve ever found them! I love the products so much that I actually gave some away on my blog earlier this week.

Location

The hotel is located close to Silom, but feels a little isolated and is surrounded by many office buildings. There is a BTS station about 1 block (or less) from the hotel which makes it easy to get around – if you like the BTS. Getting a taxi is a little challenging during rush hour and traffic around the hotel is a nightmare (of course, there’s nothing the hotel can do about that.) The other challenge is that because the hotel is so new, many taxi drivers aren’t familiar with it – so make sure you take a hotel address card with you (the bellman always have them on-hand) and even with an address card, make sure your driver knows where he’s going. I had one driver who took me to the JW Marriott insisting that was the hotel I wanted.

Overall

I really like the W Bangkok and they’re off to a great start. I look forward to seeing what the hotel does with the Heritage Building and would love to see a suite (suites in the main building open February 1 2013.) The W is a great addition to the Starwood brand for Bangkok and another fun choice.

Pictured below: signature wall in the elevator bay – it lights up in very neat patters which was hard to capture w/a camera.

Have you ever gotten to your destination and thought “this isn’t what I expected”. Well that’s what happened to me today. I arrived in Langkawi, Malaysia and headed to the Sheraton Langkawi.

At first glance things seemed ok. But as I looked closer, they started to unravel. The room I was upgraded to was at the top of a hill, a steep hill. It looked like a nice executive suite at first. Wood floors, island-style decor, partial water view and large bathroom. As I started to explore, I discovered that the property was very, very old. The wifi was painfully slow, so slow that I couldn’t even use Skype or upload photos to my blog.

The living area couch sagged almost to the ground. The bathroom was old and everything was stained. The robes in the closet had dust/dirt on them. The toilet was particularly stained, and the floor surrounding it was rust stained as well.

I walked down several curvy flights of steep and slippery stairs to the pool. The chairs and lounge chairs were old, many had holes in them and they were not comfortable at all. There were stray cats wondering around the pool and eating some human food near the pool bar. The other hotel guests at the pool (and there were only 6-8) were very judgmental of the western women. It was a very uncomfortable feeling.

I will say that the view from the pool, in one direction, was very nice. However, if you looked the other way, the view was obstructed by some sort of industrial buildings.

Back in the room I looked at the bed. It looked like the duvet was dirty and as I looked closer it was not just dirty, it was stained and soiled – it looked like it hadn’t been washed a year. After peeling back the cover of the duvet, here’s what I found. 1) hair, not mine. 2)That’s not a shadow, that’s a stain. 3) Another stain. It was disgusting.

That was it. I decided this just wasn’t the place for me. I went online and booked a flight right back out of Langkawi. So here I sit, at the airport, shortest hotel stay ever! I would not recommend the Sheraton Langkawi, it’s a dump and needs a lot of work! Frankly, I’m surprised it’s still under the Starwood flag.

My first visit to the Le Meridien Bangkok was in December of 2010. I instantly fell in love with the modern, edgy and sophisticated hotel. I’m always worried that when I return to a hotel, years later, things won’t be as I remembered. Worry not, the Le Meridien Bangkok lives up to the memories.

Located on the outskirts of the city’s Silom district, the Le Meridien’s composed and contemporary interior is a stark contrast to the hectic scene on the street. Just steps from the hotel is the famous or infamous Patpong night market jam packed with stalls full of Goach hand bags Polio by Ralph Lauren (there are not typos, everything is a knock off and some are better knock offs than others!), fake Rolex, t-shirts with cliché images and sayings and so much more. The crowded street is alight with the neon glow of bars and club offering up scantily clad women much, much more. Once you’ve had enough of the market, you can retreat back to the comfort of the hotel.

The hotel entrance makes an immediate impact on guests boasting a larger than life James Dean look-alike portrait etched onto the doors.

The lobby is large and provides ample seating, a bar featuring Illy coffee and a great list of cocktails, computers for guest use and access to Bamboo Chic bar and Latest Recipe, the hotel’s restaurant. The hotel also features an outdoor pool and bar high atop the city along with a gym and spa.

At the Le Meridien Bangkok, hospitality is key. The staff is well trained and understands how to make a guest feel at home. From the first welcome you receive at the doors to the genuine care and concern from the front desk staff to the impeccable service from the hotel staff, the guest is priority one. You’re greeted with a welcome drink – mine was an iced mocha or iced frappe or something similar and it was delicious – and cold towels, a standard in Bangkok luxury hotels.

I had two different stays at the hotel – separated by a short weekend in Phuket – and both were exceptional. On the first stay I was upgraded to a suite that had a large bedroom, even larger bathroom (someone could have moved into the shower) and an equally big living room area. Floor to ceiling windows provide great views of the city. The bathroom had an oversized tub next to a sliding door that, when open, provided a view of the TV and city. The shower was a double shower – two shower traditional shower heads, two rainfall shower heads. The room had a great looking coffee maker – or maybe it was a cappuccino machine, I didn’t try it out and a drawer stocked full of teas.

 

The pool is small, but never seemed full. There’s a small bar and a good drink and snack menu. Compared to other hotel pool bars, the Le Meridien is not extremely overpriced. At the pool you’re again provided a cold towel, lavender scented facial spray and cold water to drink. Great service and nice amenities. Unlike the pool bar, the spa prices were a bit on the high side and they don’t offer manicure/pedicure services.

The breakfast at the Le Meridien is awesome (have I used that word too many times yet?) well, it is. The choices are endless and every day the buffet features one of the Jean-Georges signature breakfast items that are exclusive to Le Meridien’s world-wide. I loved the buckwheat crepe with feta and spinach and the oatmeal soufflé with fresh berries.

During my second stay – after a weekend in Phuket – I was upgraded to one of the Circular Suites. I was so excited because I really had wanted to see the suite. The room was similar to the suite I had on my first stay, but the king sized bed was – you guessed it, circular. There were also other circle touches around the room including decorative pillows. It was a fun experience for sure.

I would highly recommend the Le Meridien Bangkok to anyone – it’s a great hotel and a very good value for Bangkok. I will be back to the Le Meridien Bangkok very soon (January in fact) and I’m looking forward to another experience.