Review: Conrad Bangkok

1. Singapore Airlines Business Class LAX-NRT-SIN
2. Review: SilverKris Lounge at SIN
3. Singapore Airlines Business Class SIN-BKK
4. Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit Bangkok
5. Conrad Bangkok
6. InterContinental Koh Samui
7. Conrad Koh Samui Part 1 (Check-in and Room)
8. Conrad Koh Samui Part 2 (Breakfast and Resort)

The Conrad Bangkok is nearby the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit that I recently reviewed, but it’s about a quarter mile away from Sukhumvit road. It’s possible to walk between the two hotels, but only if you travel ultra-light (I’m talking a backpack and maybe another small bag). You can walk to Sukhumvit Road from the hotel but it’ll be a good 20 minutes of walking before you get to where the action is (which is also basically where the Sheraton is).

I happen to be a Hilton HHonors Diamond member because of spending $40K on the Hilton HHonors Reserve card from Citi. Every penny of that spend was manufactured spend. Here are my benefits from doing that: 2 free nights as the sign-up bonus (which I used at this hotel by the way), top-tier Diamond status for hitting $40K spend, 120K Hilton points since each dollar spent earns a minimum of 3 points ($40K x 3 points/$ = 120K points), and another free night on my anniversary for hitting the $10K spending threshold. All that for basically a $95 annual fee plus the cost of my manufactured spend, which was minimal.

My Diamond status was recognized at check-in and I was given a Deluxe room with two beds on the 32nd floor, which is an Executive Level floor. The room was nice, but obviously much smaller than the one I’d just come from at the Sheraton. In addition to the two twin-sized beds was a small sitting area. Next to the TV was a small desk to work on. The view was facing the same direction as I had from the Sheraton (away from Sukhumvit), and was just as unimpressive.

The beds were very, very firm. I personally don’t mind this but for those of you that do, you should take this into consideration. I was so exhausted from my activities during the day that I fell asleep quickly and had no issues with the bed.

The bathroom had a tub, separate shower, and single sink. The amenities were nice but not ultra-high-end. By far the most annoying part was the fact that there was a clear glass window pane that separated the bathroom from the bedroom. There was a curtain of course, but the controls are outside the room. Some friends on Twitter mentioned this is done for safety reasons and is required because of building codes, which makes sense, but I still find it annoying. If you’re going to have such a feature, the person in the bathroom should control the curtains! Or at the very least, make the curtains manual and put them inside the bathroom! Those of you who travel with friends will know why I say this 🙂

You’ll notice from the bedroom pictures that there were a couple of stuffed elephants on each bed. This is one thing the Conrad does that I’m a big fan of – custom toys! Each hotel gives something a little different. I received a turtle from the Conrad Koh Samui.

I received access to the Executive Lounge thanks to my Diamond status. That’s where you can find free drinks for most of the day, light appetizers at night, and a more extensive breakfast spread in the mornings. Breakfast was adequate, but nothing compared to the Sheraton that I’d just come from. Still, it was free and definitely did the job with both hot items and continental-style breakfast items. The view from the lounge is a little better as you get to see some of the taller buildings in Bangkok, but again there really isn’t much to see. There’s no iconic tower or building to look at, and it’s mostly smog anyway.

My two night stay here was quick and uneventful. I mentioned I used my free nights from the Reserve card here, but that was because of poor planning on my part. The two free nights have a restriction that they must be used on a “weekend night,” which means Friday through Sunday nights. I was hoping to get more value out of these but they were due to expire very soon, so I made sure to squeeze them in to this trip. Bangkok was the only place I could use them, and while I still got about $400 worth of value out of them, I could have gotten something closer to $800 if I planned correctly. Remember, these free nights can be used at almost any Hilton property, including the Conrad Koh Samui that was so awesome it deserved a two part review!