past its sell by date !!!
Hotel convenient for walking to Grand Palace, Wat Pra Kaew and Wat Po - also very close to backpackers Khao San - but difficult to cross roads with very fast traffic all day. Breakfast is adequate but limited in choice and quality - unvaried menu every day. Hotel restaurant food is below average and expensive - but coffee shop chocolate cake was outstanding. There is an excellent restaurant 100 yards along Th Ratchadamnoen - noisy karaoke fun to watch.
Our room maids were charming and helpful - I speak little Thai, my wife is Thai - reception staff were offhand, disinterested and verging on downright rude - don't have free maps of Bangkok which any decent 3* hotel ought to have as standard. Hotel policy is to charge foreigners a higher rate than Thais - book via internet for a better rate or book by phone as a Thai speaker for the lower daily rate. Refuse to pay the foreigner surcharge on arrival provided you have your internet booking rate confirmation voucher.
We were lucky in having a large room at the back of the old wing - most rooms are much smaller and rooms on the front of the old wing have traffic noise all day long and into the night. The room was scruffy and very dirty in places - rotten woodwork - paint missing on woodwork - windows falling apart. There was no shower curtain which meant flooding the bathroom every time you showered - there was a huge water stain on the bathroom ceiling where water from room above was coming through the ceiling. Cockroaches under the TV set were about an inch long - in the dining room at breakfast we saw some 2 inches long being 'collected' by a waitress. The main stairs, upstairs lobbies and swimming pool are filthy and rotten - falling apart in many places. The hotel badly needs complete refurbishment.
Hotel laundry was moderately expensive and slow - usually returned in 2 days.
For a 2-3 day stay to walk to major tourist attractions OK - but wouldn't stay longer - you must expect dirt - not clean for families I think.
