During my two-part birthday trip to the Golden Triangle, I checked out four different hotels in Bangkok, given that its one of the worlds best value cities for luxury hotels, and the market keeps getting better (separately, Im reviewing the Rosewood Bangkok, Capella Bangkok, and Aman Bangkok).
Continue reading: Review: Four Seasons Bangkok, Thailand (A World-Class Urban Resort)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Free is free, but looking at a dummy cash booking for Oct 9-11, a king river view at the four seasons is $600 a night and capella is $840. Is capella really worth an extra $240 a night? Doesn't seem like it based on this comparison... notwithstanding the capella waiter that wanted to talk about Qsuites!
A "city hotel" that is miles away from any of the city's top attractions. Sure, Lucky.
@ Peter -- The only two things I'd mention is that at the Capella all rooms face the river, and at the Capella you get access to the living room, which gets you drinks all day, an evening happy hour, etc.
But in terms of overall value and experience, I'd say more people would probably find the Four Seasons to be worthwhile.
Do hotels pay to be on the world's best hotel list ? Something is "off" when we see a bag of potato chips . That is the same as an airline giving you one grape for a trans-ocean dinner . The only hotel in Thailand worth the big bucks is the Oriental .
@ Alert -- I've shared my take on the list in the past:
https://onemileatatime.com/news/the-worlds-50-best-hotels/
Essentially I consider it to be a list of great hotels, but absolutely not a list of the best hotels in the world, especially in terms of relative rankings. As a matter of fact, what I'd consider to be the top few hotels in the world have never made the list.
That's because ultimately the rankings are based on a committee of people sharing their favorite hotels they've stayed at in recent times, whether paid or comped. As you'd expect, some of the top boutique hotels in the world just don't give away any rooms, and that makes it hard to be included on the list.
So I tend to think the hotels on the list are very good properties that are also good at marketing themselves.
This Four Seasons is substantially more attractive than the Capella. Thanks for the great review.
Unless these free vouchers were expiring, it makes no sense to use at a “cheap” Four Seasons property like Bangkok while other Four Seasons locations have rooms starting over $3k per night.
Fun fact: The Four Seasons Bangkok used the same design team as the Four Seasons Philadelphia. Despite being halfway around the world from each other and in obviously very different cities, the feel of the two hotels are actually not that far off, and among my favorite city hotels in the world (along with the Capella Hanoi).
we stayed at the four seasons bangkok last year and really wanted to love it. the breakfast was very good, pool area was great, social club was outstanding. but we found the interior to be like a nice office building with hotel rooms upstairs. it also seems that it's very much a tale of two cities when you get a non-river-facing room. (we booked the most inexpensive room through a FSPP TA expecting an upgrade but they said they were full up when we checked in. ~whomp whomp~) to get to the non-river-facing rooms you have to take a left out of the lobby into a dark, design-less void to get to a completely separate elevator. it felt like you were going to a basement car park or something. upon reaching your floor, the elevator doors open up to a completely empty, dark, weirdly large design-less space that is the floor's elevator lobby. it was honestly creepy-feeling. the base room was... fine? totally nothing special. and the view of the empty lap pool was... relaxing?
in addition we experienced several silly service lapses (based on total inattention) unbefitting of what the 4S brand claims to offer. i'm told the "cheap rooms" are for MICE guests, who apparently deserve second class treatment? anyway, can't say we're rushing to go back for the price they charge. funnily enough we stayed at the rosewood a couple months ago and really enjoyed it. the rosewood elite rate was great and we were much happier with our stay there. BUT, we prefer staying on the river than in sukhumvit. oh, all this choice of good hotels in a great city is certainly not a bad problem to have!
No way there is a scent from BYREDO called GYPSY WATER?? In my head i hear the Borat voice go: "Very nice, i like!". So funny.
Agreed. Given Capella is river view, specifically chose the river view room at Four Seasons when pricing out on FHR. Could get the non-river view for even less (was something like $50-75 cheaper), and probably still get upgraded to river view via FHR upgrade. Drinks and happy hour is nice, but probably not $250-300 nice.
Anyway, great review!
I toured this hotel last year. I did not like it at all. The whole thing gave off South Beach vibes to me. Which is the last thing I want (every really, but certainly in SE Asia). I am glad to see they have added a Thai restaurant. That either wasn't there or wasn't open when I was there. To each their own but I would take the Rosewood over the Four Seasons any time.
"I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves". But the pictures only tell half the story. What did you particularly enjoy? What surprised you in a good way? In a bad way? Were there things you'd never tried before? I appreciate you tend not to write as fully on food as on the hotel but I've seen you describe plane food in more detail. The pictures deserved some narrative in my view - I also finds it helps me remember the food when I've had to explain what it was and what I liked about it.
We live just a few flight hours from Bangkok, so we love to visit a few times per year. I haven't stayed at the FS so far, but I do want to try it. I will say a few things though, which are purely my own views. I would book this if the rate is close to the Park Hyatt BKK, but I wouldn't pay much more for it as I don't think it has a lot more to offer.
The interior design looks pretty generic to me. I hate that word but it's the only thing that comes to mind, especially for a Bangkok hotel. The location isn't great either, once you've gotten to the realization that the river is not actually a good location. It might be a good choice if you really stay only at the resort, since it has so many dining options, but there are so many good spots to eat in Bangkok that I'm not sure if that's such a good idea. What stands out is probably the pool area (though I find the PH BKK one just as nice, even if a lot smaller). I will definitely give this a try for a good rate, but probably it won't become my go-to in BKK.