Millennium Hilton Bangkok

Excellent stay some weeks back and looks like all rooms now renovated. The décor and furnishing of the rooms are really great. You can see a new shopping mall being build just accross the road and cannot wait for this to be open very soon. The Executive Lounge is on the top floors with great views to the river and city. Service was quite OK. Had breakfast at the main lobby Coffee Shop and food variety was large. Nice bread. Only cold cuts could be improved the selection nd quality. Had dinner at Prime, their Steak House, not very busy but great meat quality. Food presentation was also very nice too as well as service. For the rest a great stay and will be back.

This is my second stay at the Millennium Hilton. The first time, I was upgraded to a renovated room. This time the hotel was fully booked so no upgrade was available for HHonors Gold. However, I was able to select a good room - 1103 - which was located almost at the very front of the hotel on the IconSiam side and so had a spectacular view of the IconSiam daily lights and water fountain shows. The hotel is located right next to the new IconSiam mall so one can walk over in a minute, much more convenient than other visitors to IconSiam who would have to drive or take the shuttle boats or buses since IconSiam is not on the skytrain system yet with a station being constructed in front of it. However if the focus of one's stay is not IconSiam, then the hotel location is not ideal as it is on the wrong side of the river and as a tourist, one has to rely on the Hilton shuttle boat (every 30 min) or the IconSiam shuttle boat (every 15 min) to get to Saphan Taksin BTS station to transfer to the skytrain to get to Siam or Sukhumvit or other popular tourist locations. The regular King Deluxe room was quite spacious with very familiar Hilton style decor. The King bed was actually two twins put together with an obvious ridge in the center but I am a good sleeper so that did not bother me. The room layout was a bit awkward as there was only one round table located next to a chaise lounge sofa, with the sofa located along the same wall as the TV. Therefore, to use the table for my laptop, I had to move it out in front of the sofa so I could sit on the sofa, but then I could not see the TV. Alternatively, I would have to move the table towards the bed and sit on the foot of the bed facing the TV but then the electric cable for the laptop would run to the outlet next to the TV and I would have to step over it each time I crossed. There was no separate chair to sit on so that I could use the round table and face the TV. There was good closet space with a mini safe in the closet. The small mini fridge was located in a cabinet next to one of the bedside tables. There was a kettle and instant coffee packs, no coffee machine. Free local bottled water is available in the room, as well as Evian water for a charge. The bathroom was quite large and had a separate shower and bathtub. The sink though was a small round above the counter type that was both shallow and with an awkward faucet such that you end up splashing water all over the counter when using the sink. The hotel has a pool that is more a splashing pool than swimming pool. Most of the pool area space is actually a very shallow water area on which loungers are placed. The gym has a decent amount of equipment for a workout, though much of the equipment is very old and a bit rusty. There is a wet area in the changeroom with a sauna, a steam room and a whirlpool tub. The hotel restaurant on the ground floor offers a great breakfast buffet but I will review it separately by its name - Flow. It has a riverfront location so great views as well. When I stayed at the Millennium Hilton last time (in the summer about 5 months ago), there was a major service issue with a breach of guest privacy which I ended up reporting to the lobby manager for action. This stay, I had to speak to the lobby manager again as I had three issues in the first three days of my stay - (1) minor one of my reporting the shower was not draining but being left a message indicating the engineer had examined the bathtub and it was draining properly (had to call again and the engineer came promptly and fixed the shower this time), (2) another minor one of no staff at the gym reception desk to provide locker keys so I went to seek help from the pool staff and the pool staff not really knowing gym arrangements and giving a locker key for the women's lockers, then for a locker on the wrong floor before I finally got the locker requested on a third try, and (3) a more serious impact fault where a phone message was not passed to me (should be by slipping it under the door) for at least over 2 hours while I was in the room with the do not disturb light on, and then put on the table instead of on the bed or other obvious place such that I may have missed it on first returning to the room (hotel subsequently explained message may have been delivered eventually and left on the bed but housekeeping staff may have moved it to the table when cleaning the room). The message related to luggage damage from my flight which I was trying to get repaired before having to take my next flight. Because I did not get my message in time, I did not get back to the repair shop until after it closed, then it was a Sunday so it was two days later before I reached the repair shop. The shop said it was too late to fix and return my luggage but after speaking to the night and then the day lobby manager, they put their concierge department on the task and they ended up arranging a messenger to send my suitcase to the repair shop on an urgent basis so it could be returned the next day in time for me to repack and make my flight. They also extended my check-out time so I could wait for my suitcase to be returned and to repack, but even that extension did not work properly as I found my room keycard disabled on returning to my room on checkout date and had to go back to the front desk to reactivate it given my extended late checkout. As a final little annoyance, I found out on checking out that a car booked through the hotel for the airport to hotel transfer I shared with a friend was charged to my friend's room instead of to my room as we had requested. Bottom line, once a complaint was made, the management team did a great job making extra effort to deal with the problem and solve it. But just in the normal course of a stay, there seems to be service quality control issues in various departments and the hotel has problems getting things right consistently. Because I had issues with both stays, I tend to worry what else might go wrong with a future stay.

We were lucky enough to stay here for one week recently. We enjoyed being at this location on the river a little bit away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. Hotel is fantastic. Staff is great, room was sweet, service fantastic, nice food. It was like a home away from home. Can’t wait to go back