Bangkok - Early Morning Arrival Hotel
by greengrasser@yahoo.com

Arriving in Bangkok in the early morning, 1 am - 8 am, can cause a hotel problem. Do you make reservation for the day before (since hotels count a day as beginning 12 noon of day 1 to 12 noon of day 2), or for the day after arrival and hope for an early check-in (before 12 noon)? Hotels will hold a reservation until about 6 pm. If you pay the first-night stay in advance, then your room is guaranteed to be available upon your arrival no matter when you arrive. These are general hotel practices; exceptions have been reported. Of course, booking a room through a major internet hotel agency usually means advance payment for the entire stay and the same entire advance payment with booking through a US travel agency.

Many Bankok hotels that I have stayed at made my reservation without an advance payment. I preferred this because business changes frequently caused schedule changes, sometimes months ahead of schedule and sometimes a day or more ahead of schedule. For advance payment, cancellation without a monetary penalty depends on the hotel policies, which vary widely with your cancellation notice anywhere from six hours before 6 pm of arrival day to three days before.

I flew to Bangkok in late Sep 2007 and arrived 2 am at the airport, which meant I could be at the hotel at 3 am. Before, I flew Northwest Airlines from the US, I would arrive about midnight at a hotel on/near Sukhumvit Road. So, I paid for that night's stay in advance. However, hotel check-in at 3 am meant only nine hours to many hotel's check-in time of 12 noon. In accords with my own twisted logic on fair hotel rate, I believed that nin hours deserved half-rate payment rather than the full rate.

Also, I knew that some hotels will not charge for early check-in. For example, JW Marriott, Soi 3, allowed me to check in at 8 am when I arrived at the hotel at 6 am. Grand Hotel, Ratchadaphisek Road, allowed me to check in at 6 am when I arrived there at 4 am. Basically, after I registered with the hotel check-in desk, I waited in its lobby's easy chair, reading and snoozing until the hotel told me that my room was ready.

This time I though I try Grand Inn, Soi 3, because it would be my first time there, its ad claimed boutique rooms, and an internet search produced no poor review of it. My taxi driver did not know its location and neither did I. On Soi 3, he asked someone who pointed the location. It was near the intersection with Sukhumvit Road on the left side of the road.. However, its frontage was blocked by the far left lane of vehicles waiting to turn left onto Sukhumvit. My taxi nosed into an alley 50 feet before the hotel door, where I bailed out of the taxi and paid my driver.

The sidewalk was narrow and full of people of the night, namely, transvestites and tough ladies. They left me alone on seeing me dragging a suitcase. I stepped inside the hotel doorway and was in a narrow hallway in a state of re-modeling/construction. About 30 feet further in were two Thai men, one sitting behind a metal desk and the other sitting on a folding chair in front of it and on his other side in front of a nearby elevator and staircase. Around the area was hanging plastic sheeting and construction materials on the floor. There was not enough open space for another chair.

The reception clerk found my reservation, but said check-in time was 12 noon and checking-in now would cost an additional full day rate. I asked how abbut half-day rate since there were only nine hours to noon? He said no. I asked to see the room. I saw it and it was small but tolerable; however, the bedspread looked slightly soiled in the dim room light. I explained that I would pay half-day rate or would wait in the hotel lobby until noon. But, waiting in the Grand Inn lobby was obviously not possible. So, I would go look for another hotel with a lobby to sit. They asked if I would return? I said, honestly I did not know, which would depend on what I find.

AT 3:30 am. I was walking on the sidewalk of Soi 3 pulling my suitcase, side-stepping numerous people. I crossed Sukhumvit Road to Soi 4. I new that Soi 4 had the Nana Hotel, Dynasty Inn, Rajah Hotel, and Omni Tower. It also has an alley that was the entrance to Soi 6, along which were two new hotels, Dynasty Inn Grand and Sofitel's Grand Sukhumvit. If you turn right through Rajah Hotel's parking lot, you would come to Majestic Suites Hotel on Soi 2. All have a big lobby with a lot of chairs where you can sit and wait. Luck was with me and the first hotel had a room and would let me have it at 8:30 am. It too did not have a half-day rate for early check-in and its desk staff were surprised that I replied that I would wait four hours. Reading a good paperback, the time flew.

Later, I saw that there were other hotels along Soi 4. There were Nana City Inn, Happy Inn, Orchid Inn, and Swan 4 Hotel. I checked out rooms at two of them. Nana City Inn, nanacityinn@hotmail.com. 850 baht. Safety deposit boxes at the reception desk. Carpeted room. Swan 4 Hotel, 02-251-0931, no e-mail address, entrance through the bar. 800 baht. Odd thing about the Swan room was the toilet in the front part of the small bathroom and basin next to the shower in the back part. Even further along Soi 4 passed Omni Tower is Woraburi Sukhumvit Hotel, www.woraburi.com. 1,200 baht for a standard room, but its view was blocked by a nearby building and 1,500 baht for a superior room, which has a view and a bathtub. A sign in the hotel lobby said free tuk-tuk to NEP.

While checking out hotels for my next Bangkok visit, I found one really good hotel for a short stay. It is new. Ever Rich Inn, www.everrichinn.com, 113 Sukhumvit Road, between Si 5 and Soi 7, 02-253-4250. everrich_inn@yahoo.com. 1,000 baht for a single-size bed and 1,300 baht for a full-size or queen-size bed. Both rooms I saw were the same size, but were small and thus not for a long stay. In-room safe, shower stall, electronic door lock, cold air conditioning, no view. Only oddity was a used table rather than a new table of a smaller size proportionate to the small room size.

I guess there is a lesson in my experience. If Bangkok was a new city for me, I would have paid in advance to guarantee late arrival for my early morning arrival, and do it for a 3-star or better hotel. For a city that I have much experience with, like Bangkok, a plan can easily go wrong.

Keep on mowing.
GreenG

Thanks for the new info on hotels near NEP. I'm always on the lookout for a good deal on a nice place to stay. I've tried many places around there, but I keep coming back to the Majestic Suites for 1500 Baht.

I think you meant Majestic Grande in your report. The Majestic Suites is 2 doors from the corner of Sukhmumvit and Soi 4.

Majestic Grand is on Soi 2 and Majestic Suites is on Sukhumvit near Soi 4. I have stayed at the first, but not the second. Sorry for the error. I wrote my report in haste.

Bangkok - New Hotels, Oct 2007

For those of you who like to stay in new hotels, I ran across the following new hotels in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok in Oct 2007 with its listed lowest-price room in baht (B):

1. S15 Sukhumvit Hotel, near Soi 15. www.s15hotel.com Opened two months. Offers free wi-fi and available laptop. B3,700++ (promotion B3,050++). (++ means 7 percent tax and 10 percent service).

2. Salil Hotel, Soi 8. www.solilhotel.com Opened Sep 2007. No elevator, walk-up, 5-story building. Free yellow tuk-tuk to and from hotel to Sukhumvit during the day. About 10-minute plus walk from hotel to Sukhumvit on a roadway with no sidewalk. B1,600 net, includes breakfast.

3. Sofitel condohotel under construction, Soi 15. www.europeancentralplace.com

4. Citi Chic Suites, Soi 13. www.citichichotel.com B2,500 net.

5. Ever Rich Inn. Sukhumvit, between Soi 5 and Soi 7. www.everrichinn.com B1,000 for single bed room.