Best Of Bangkok : Mercure Bangkok Siam

Before you leave home for a trip anywhere, I am sure most of you have a checklist of things to bring along and you tick each one off as you fill up your luggage (and even check it twice) but even that isn’t foolproof as I recently experienced a “checked the list twice but still forgot to bring it along” moment.  I was halfway to the airport when it dawned on me that I’d left the laptop behind on the dining table. How to turn back? No way as it was way too late. How terrible is it to a blogger to leave behind her laptop? It probably ranks about an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. Okay, I could take a break from blogging but I’m too addicted to it. I have to see what’s happening on my blog or I might get withdrawal symptoms.

My destination from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport was Mercure Bangkok Siam, chosen for its super close proximity to the National Stadium BTS and my favourite mall in Bangkok, MBK. During my last trip there 2 years ago, I stayed at the Ecotel which wasn’t that close to any BTS and ended up taking cabs everywhere. Not this time. Might as well pay a bit more for accommodation and save on cab fare. Mercure Bangkok Siam is a relatively new hotel as along with its sister hotel Ibis, they were open for business just last year. Reviews on tripadvisor were generally good and the rooms could in no way be as old and worn out as Ecotel’s.

It took a grueling 1.5 hours to reach Mercure from the airport, far longer than it took to reach Ecotel last time. This, despite reaching Bangkok at a non-peak hour in the afternoon. It costs about 400 baht to get to the hotel from the airport which is much more reasonable than a KLIA taxi. Bangkok gridlock is definitely getting worse. Mercure and Ibis are within the same building but have different lobbies of course. Mercure’s reception is on the 9th Floor. All the reception staff speak fluent English and during my entire stay, I asked them lots of questions including where to go for a reasonably cheap and good haircut in MBK, how to get to Jim Thompson House & Museum, the nearest pet shop to the hotel, the BTS station that was nearest to Patpong and all my questions were answered in almost perfect English.

The first thing I noticed upon checking in was that there were 2 big laptops next to the reception desk. I asked them how much it’d cost to access the Internet from there and was told it was complimentary. What a relief. All I needed was a slip of paper from them bearing username and password. It’d be good for an hour access and valid for 2 days from first access. Thank goodness there was this facility because I couldn’t imagine being off the Internet for a day, never mind a few days. Luckily for me, every time I wanted to use the Internet, there was at least one laptop available. Seems most of the guests have brought their own devices. The reception area is very spacious and can accommodate a few large groups. It looks very inviting and there’s a lounge next to it where guests can imbibe in their choice of cocktails in the evenings or even during the day should they wish to.

Room floors are accessible only by key card and a guest on a different floor will have to insert his own key card but what is rather annoying is that sometimes when I’ve inserted my key card and pressed 20th floor, some other guest comes into the lift and presses 18th floor without having to insert his key card, gets off on the 18th floor and I have to insert my key card for 20th floor again or the lift goes all the way back to reception. Rooms are divided into superior, privilege and suite. The superior rooms are on 18th-23rd floors while the privilege rooms are on 24th-27th floors, suites are on 28th floor and the swimming pool is on the top floor, 29th.

The proximity of this hotel to the major and most famous/popular malls means that you can walk back to the hotel to deposit your shopping/for a rest and don’t have to shop till you drop. It was a comfort knowing that the hotel was so easily accessible and I didn’t have to spend the entire day out just to save on transport charges.

Next to the bed is a chaise lounge with colourful pillows, you can use this as a day bed or for parking your shopping bags. The room is bright and cheerful with the striped carpet and there’s room for a writing desk and chair. It’s definitely spacious and there’s coffee/tea facilities.

I found the bed very soft and comfortable, had a good night’s sleep every night. Maybe it was the bed or maybe it was because I was just exhausted everyday from walking around. It’s very quiet and I didn’t hear guests’ voices or their footsteps in the corridor even though I knew the hotel was very full, there were groups from The Philippines and Hong Kong during my stay.

The bathroom is reasonably spacious with a shower cubicle (no bath tub). You can peek into the bathroom from the room by sliding part of the wall. I believe a lot of hotels have this feature nowadays but for the life of me, I don’t see how anyone can appreciate this kind of feature. I wouldn’t want to peek at anyone in the shower and even less if they are sitting on the throne and I certainly wouldn’t appreciate being peeked at. Call me a prude but that’s the way it is.

There are no cotton buds or sanitary bags in the toilet, just a tube each of body lotion, shower gel and conditioning shampoo, all of which are made in China as is the soap which turns into a mess after 2 days. The quality of the soap can be improved. Remember to bring your toothbrush and toothpaste here, none provided.

Breakfast buffet is provided on the 8th floor. Just walk in and inform the staff what your room number is. No coupons are required here. The staff at the cafe are so friendly and they smile all the time. They also speak very good English and understand my requests without me having to repeat myself. I had to enlist their help to translate to the guy cooking the eggs that I wanted them well done because he was churning them sunny side up all the time and I could tell he didn’t understand English from the way he looked at another guest making her request.

The spread isn’t a lot (certainly not a lot by Malaysian standards) but it’s enough for me since I don’t eat much for breakfast. Certain things can better, e.g. the bacon could be less dry, there could be more rotation in choices because by the 3rd day, you might wish you were having more choices.

However, they provided guests with 3 different fruit juices everyday. There were chrysanthemum, pineapple, apple. orange, guava, orange. They also provided 3 different types of spreads other than peanut butter and jams – margarine, salted and unsalted butter. As for milk, you can choose low fat. full cream or soy milk so that is very, very thoughtful indeed.

There’s rice, porridge, noodles, pork in brown sauce, chicken teriyaki, different flavour yoghurts, pork and chicken sausages, pancakes, scrambled eggs, bread and an assortment of desserts which really made me look forward to breakfast.

Mercure Bangkok Siam may not be perfect in every way but for the price they charge, I think what you get from staying here exceeds the value. It’s a place I’d recommend and I’d return to the next time I visit Bangkok. Great location and the service has been impressive. I was very tempted to try their dinner buffet – 350 baht only, where to find this kind of price at any hotel in KL but alas, Bangkok has so much to offer that it seems a little unimaginative to spend one’s time dining in the hotel you’re staying in.