You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
This picture at the First House Hotel in Bangkok is not the worst anti-view we've ever seen. Sure, the walls are a bit grubby and the roof looks a bit unsteady, but there's a tree and something like a temple in the distance. But the caption that comes with the photo helps add it to our anti-view catalog:
When we found that there was a huge dent in the mattress there and that the bathroom smelled very bad, we moved.
Apart from the smelly bathroom and dented mattress found in at least one room, the First House Hotel actually features air-conditioning and cable TV in every room, with the air-con being a definite must have in steamy Bangkok. For a standard room for two you pay 1700 Baht (just US$54) for the privilege; dented mattresses and less-than-beautiful views all included.
Seems America isn't the world's only litigious society. There's Thailand, for example.
In Bangkok, the The Oriental has been slapped with a defamation lawsuit by the Thai Attorney General, following a libel claim from another hotel competitor, the lebua. Seems that an internal email memo sent by The Oriental's General Manager Kurt Wachtveitl last year to his hotel managers accused the lebua of poaching 26 staff members from yet another 5-star property The Peninsula Bangkok.
Oh the humanity! Can you imagine some employee actually wanting to work elsewhere, and perhaps for more money. But Wachtveitl's email, which has been reportedly sent to several other Bangkok hotel managers, was leaked to the public. Like that never happens in America.
A recent Bangkok Post article claimed that the Oriental is the first place in the region to offer WiFi access to its guests wherever they are in the hotel complex. And even better, they say, it's all using a 802.11n network which, if you're not quite geeky enough to know, means that the range and bandwidth is a whole lot better than previous technologies. And as manager Paul Jones said:
Today's business travelers demand more than simple connectivity--they value voice, video and data options which are efficient, convenient, highly secure and most importantly can be accessed anytime, anywhere in the hotel.
Hear, hear! And dare we point out, it's not even just business travelers who are demanding good connectivity. Thumbs up to the Oriental Bangkok for getting a decent WiFi network in place and we hope that many more follow.
All across Asia, hoteliers are rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of more and more tourists landing in their hotel rooms. Take India as an example: prices and demand for upscale hotel rooms are both rising, and figures just released show that in 2006, room rates rose by a huge 40%.
That means that large chains like Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons and Shangri-La are all planning big expansions throughout India. Marriott, for example, is planning to add another 15 hotels in the next couple of years, and like most chains is looking at cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kerala.
But further east in Thailand, hotels are looking at other ways to increase their exposure and income. The Millennium Hilton Bangkok, for example, has something interesting starting up at the end of the month. It's providing its Grand Ballroom as the venue for a performance by the British Theatre Playhouse of "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice", which won a stack of theater awards in Britain. The play will then move on to Singapore where it will be staged in the Raffles Hotel. Perhaps the next stop will be one of the many new hotels in India.
Early this year, the Conrad Bangkok was looking to lure lonely travelers with Mercedes limos and chauffeur service. Now the luxury of riding in a bespoke Benz is open to all with a new fleet of tricked out S-Class limos for hire at 1,500 Baht ($47) an hour.
From the back seat of these babies, you'll get to avoid the notorious Bangkok traffic. Seat-back TVs also pipe in movies and Bloomberg news, and you can plug your iPod into the 12 speaker sound system.
If this type of style is a bit too much--or a bit too pricey--the Conrad also has two "Easy Rider" scooters. We're not sure what they have to do with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, but they can easily snake through gridlocked traffic. Even better: Rides on the back of the Benz scooters start at just $1.
The French Hotel chain Accor, which seems to have more brand names than a model's closet, is opening a new 3-star All Seasons outlet in Thailand. The All Seasons Gold Orchid Bangkok is taking room reservations for a week from Saturday on, so this touted opening looks to be real.
Like most Bangkok hotels, this one is a good value, with standard rooms listing for around $50 and junior suites going for $85. This is despite this year's tumble of the U.S. dollar against the Thai baht.
You've got to love the spin on this description from another booking site though: "Strategically located 45 minutes from Suvarnabhumi Airport and 15 minutes from the city...Adjacent to Vibhavadi Rangsit Expressway." So if your strategy is to be far away from everything except traffic, this is your place!
You might need sunglasses to watch this video: the Reflections Hotel Bangkok is really bright and colorful, as these visitors recorded. It's an art hotel with 30 distinctive rooms, designed by both Thai and international designers. The gals who recorded this video had this to say:
The coolest hotel in the world. Every room is individually designed in the funkiest way possible. This is a tour of Room 208 that we decided to splash out on on our last night in Thailand.
Cool and funky it surely is, and with superior rooms costing 3600 Baht per night including breakfast, that's not really the big splash out that it sounds like--it's just US$115. There is also a swimming poool and seafood and Japanese restaurants. Remember, each room is different: try picking your room from this amazing menu.
Bangkok's Oriental Hotel has just got even more cool stuff. Really. It was already home to the Oriental Spa that many guests raved about and now there's more. The penthouse apartment above the spa--it used to house the General Manager, but he gave it up "for the greater good"--now houses Bangkok's first Ayurvedic Centre.
If you're not sure what on earth an Ayurvedic Centre is, trust us that it's a good thing. This particuar one has four suites, where you can get a full-on holistic treatment Indian-style including a steam cabinet for a post-oil massage, have a soak in the copper bathtub (it's bacteria resistant!), and have consultations with an Ayurvedic doctor and a yoga trainer.
But if that doesn't convince you, then here's another angle: a recent Forbes write-up reckons the Oriental is great for honeymooners--especially for those who want to learn the secrets of Thai cooking by taking part in a morning class (perhaps improving cooking skills makes a good start to a marriage?). So you either heal yourself or you learn to cook; or you are still allowed to just relax, if that's what you want.
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by amandak
