Bart Lapers
Visiting Every Country In The World
Grand Suite at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok
Pic: Grand Suite Living Room at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (Aug 2011)
For my second weekend in Bangkok, I had booked two hotels: The Grand Hyatt Erawan and MGallery’s VIE hotel. (booking info) The Grand Hyatt Bangkok is located opposite of InterContinental Bangkok. The building is quite old and looks underwhelming when spotted from the Club lounge at IC Bangkok. Yet first impressions can be deceiving. As it turned out, the power of Grand Hyatt Bangkok is it’s staff. They are all about service and making your stay enjoyable.
Pic: Grand Suite King Bedroom at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (Aug 2011)
Pic: Grand Suite King Bedroom at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (Aug 2011)
Pic: Grand Suite Bathroom at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (Aug 2011)
After check-in, I was escorted to my Grand Suite on the 21st floor (corner room 2122) With it’s colonial interior and 80sqm not the most impressive Hyatt suite I’ve stayed at, but felt cozy. The big comfy sofa in the living room was a plus.
Pic: Breakfast at Grand Club Lounge – Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (iPhone)
As Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member, I had access to the Grand Club lounge on the 17th floor. Complimentary breakfast, high tea, evening Hors d’ouvres and cocktails. Very attentive staff, great food selection. Minor remark: only scrambled eggs for breakfast, why no poached or sunny side up eggs?
Pic: i.sawan’s teak pool deck at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (iPhone)
Pic: Pool at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (iPhone)
Another highlight at Grand Hyatt Bangkok was the pool area. A wonderful sanctuary in the middle of Bangkok by i.sawan Spa & Club. Again, excellent service and fabulous food at The Breezeway (best Tuna Salad ever!) Convince yourself with my iPhone 360 panaroma of the i.sawan teak pool deck.
Deluxe room at Hilton Pattaya
Pic: Lobby at 16th floor of Hilton Pattaya (Aug 2011)
Pic: Spectacular corridor at Hilton Pattaya (Aug 2011)
For my last night in Pattaya, I had booked what must be the most spectacular hotel in town, the Hilton. Via Hotelscombined.com I spotted deeply discounted rates at Octopustravel.com and paid 126,50 euro for a Deluxe Room including breakfast which was 175 euro at Hilton.com
Pic: Deluxe room at Hilton Pattaya (Aug 2011)
Pic: Bathroom of Deluxe room – Hilton Pattaya (Aug 2011)
At arrival around noon, I was told my room wasn’t ready yet. I used the opportunity to discover the hotel and had lunch at Edge. The buffet was limited, but at 300THB (7 EUR) cheap for Hilton standards. Good quality food in a nice setting. At 2.30pm my room was ready, a request for late check-out (1pm) was denied. The 46sqm deluxe room on the 19th floor was spotless and had an impressive interior design. Only disappointment was the partially blocked view. If I ever stay again at Hilton Pattaya, I would book a Deluxe Plus room. It offers better views and has an extended balcony with outdoor bathtub. 
Pic: View from the Edge Restaurant Terrace at Hilton Pattaya (Aug 2011)
Another highlight of my Hilton Pattaya stay was the impressive pool area called Shore. I didn’t bring my camera to the pool since there was no way I was going to beat the photographer who made these awesome shots.
Deluxe room at Pullman Pattaya Aisawan
Pic: View from Deluxe room at Pullman Pattaya Aisawan (Aug 2011)
Pic: My Deluxe room at Pullman Pattaya Aisawan (Aug 2011)
Originally I had booked a 4-night reward stay at Holiday Inn Pattaya. Early August, Miles and More launched an Accor hotels promo which made me reconsider my booking. I reduced my reward stay at Holiday Inn to two nights and booked one night at Pullman Pattaya Aisawan and one night at Hilton Pattaya. Looking back at my Pattaya trip, this hotel hopping strategy was the right thing to do. Not for the sake of collecting miles or points, but to experience the same beach location from different angles.
My stay at Pullman was supposed to earn me 1000 Star Alliance Miles, until I played the Winning Wheel and won my stay for free! All excited for my upcoming free stay, I agreed on the expensive Holiday Inn Pattaya hotel limo (400THB for 10 min. ride) to the Pullman Aisawan. Surprisingly, our overpriced limo driver didn’t know where the hotel was located and had to ask locals for directions. The arrival at Pullman was quite impressive. We approached the hotel along an nice driveway before drawing up in front of the elegant lobby entrance. As A-Club Gold member (a status which I obtained for free via a sign-up link last year) I was ushered to at a dedicated check-in desk and served a refreshing drink. After the usual formalities, I was offered a nice Pullman travel bag as welcome gift and informed my deluxe room booking was upgrade to a ‘Suite’. A free stay and still being upgrade to a suite, nice! A staff member escorted me to my ‘Suite’ only to discover I was not upgraded to a Suite, but an Executive Aisawan Club Room. What I had previously read online was confirmed, this room type offered a nice sea-view but the interior was run down pretty bad. Being quite disappointed, as my exceptions were set on an Executive Aisawan Club Suite Room at check-in, I requested to see my original booked Deluxe Room. As it had a more recent interior, I switched rooms. Too bad the staff didn’t handle this too well. They weren’t quite friendly at this point compared to the initial check-in phase and I had to collect my new room keys at the reception myself. When I complained about this, the front desk manager just stared at me speechless.
After settling at the deluxe room, it was time to relax. Contrary to Holiday Inn, Hilton and most other Pattaya hotels, Pullman Aisawan offers direct beach access. The Pattaya beach is a relatively narrow strip of sand which is unfortunately littered with trash at many places. I found a quite different situation at Pullman’s beach: it was private, well maintained and guarded.
The Pullman Aisawan Beach Club offered private Cabanas with a reasonable 1000THB minimum spend , two big pools and impressive Beach Bar. We had a great afternoon with a nice view, good food and cocktails. Check my iPhone 360 panorama of the Pullman Pattaya Beach Club.
Overall, not a bad stay, but front-desk staff needs some more training and focus should be put on details (i.e. a lot of minor defects in rooms, elevators, corridors, etc…)
City Ocean View room at Holiday Inn Pattaya
Pic: My City Ocean View room at Holiday Inn Pattaya (Aug 2011)
To get from Bangkok to Pattaya I used the services of Mr. T. Taxi (mr_ttaxi@hotmail.com) He offered the cheapest fares I could find online – 1000THB (23 euro) for the 150km ride. The limo was a Japanese compact car offering sufficient space for two passengers and two big suitcases. The car was clean and the driver was punctual.
My two night stay at Holiday Inn Pattaya was paid with 30.000 PriorityClub points (15K per night). With an advance purchase rate of around 80 euro per night, this was not the best value I could get for my 30K points. Still, with more than 200K points in my account, I felt it was time to spend some. Points and miles devaluations happen regularly as loyalty programs require more points/miles for rewards nights and flights. It’s a good idea not to sit too long on your points/miles.
Pic: My City Ocean View at Holiday Inn Pattaya (Aug 2011)
As Platinum member my Ocean View room was upgraded to a City Ocean View room. I had hoped for more, an Executive room or Suite would have been nice. After I entered the room, I got a call from the Duty Manager. He wanted to express his concerns regarding my expectations for my stay at HI Pattaya: “How’s your room Sir? I learned you stayed at IC Bangkok last weekend. Please note that’s a 5* luxury hotel, we are just a 4* hotel” Found it quite funny. I could have used this opportunity to request an upgrade to an Executive room or Suite, but decided not to push it.
The hotel had two swimming pools, one for the kids and one for adults (infinity pool) A nice feature if you want to chill and not be disturbed by screaming kids all the time. We also tried the Terrazzo resto and Havana bar for both lunch and dinner. Great international food but quite expensive for Thai standards. The lovely appearance of PR Exec Miss Cindy was a big plus. 😉 For more info and 360 views of the Holiday Inn Pattaya in recommend the review at At-Bangkok.com
Club Room at InterContinental Bangkok
Pic: My Club Room at InterContinental Bangkok (Aug 2011)
Pic: Nice sofa in Club Room at InterContinental Bangkok (Aug 2011)
Pic: Huge TV in Club room at InterContinental Bangkok (Aug 2011)
Back from a week Thailand: Bangkok and Pattaya. 8 nights, 6 hotels. Hotel Hopping, love it! Made pictures of every room I stayed at, so you can expect 6 hotel reports.
Before my trip, I posted the booking details of my 3 hotels in Bangkok. InterContinental Bangkok was first on my list. The hotel is situated near Chit Lom BTS Sky Train, walking distance from Siam Square and offers views on The Royal Bangkok Sports Club (Horse Racing and Golf). Plenty of luxury hotels can be found in this area, including the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Four Seasons, St. Regis, Kempinski and Hansar Bangkok.
After a +-350 THB taxi ride (incl. 25 + 45 THB road toll) from Suvarnabhumi Bangkok International Airport, I arrived at IC Bangkok. I was greeted by the Bell Boy who took care of my bags. At the front desk I was referred to the Club Lounge on the 37th floor for a personalized check-in (Ambassador benefit). After the formalities were finished, I was escorted to my Club Floor room. (see pics above)
Pic: View from InterContinental Bangkok Club Lounge (iPhone)
Around 5pm, I visited to the Club Lounge. The selection of hors d’oeuvres was impressive and included sushi, sashimi, Thai specialities etc… Complimentary high quality wines and cocktails were served too. The food was so good that I didn’t need dinner anymore!
Pic: Hors d’oeuvre at InterContinental Bangkok Club Lounge (iPhone)
Bart Lapers 