Baiyoke Sky Hotel

Tallest hotel in Bangkok, the thought of staying in the hotel itself already makes me a little bit excited. Right smack in the centre of the busy shopping area Pratunam, you would probably enjoy your stay as much as I did as everything you want can simply be found within the hotel or the surrounding buildings. Its within walking distance to the major shopping malls like Platinum Mall, Indra Square, Pantip Plaza, Big C, Pratunam City Complex, Krung Thung Center and of course the famous but in my honest opinion grossly overrated Pratunam Wholesale Market.

Come night time, the streets outside the hotel will transform into a night market which provides you more opportunity to shop and grab some local food like Pad Thai and snacks that are delicious and cheap. However, being in the centre of such a vibrant area has its pros and cons. The traffic around the hotel at peak hours are horrendous and its not within close proximity to any BTS stations meaning you have to rely on taxis to travel around. Likewise Asia Hotel, ALL taxi drivers know where the hotel is, just mention Baiyoke Sky or Baiyoke 2 and they will know their way. In case you really get lost, all you have to do is to look up and around and you will see the building. It ain't the tallest hotel in Bangkok for nothing.

Anyway, my initial impression of the hotel was not very good though because it has a weird setting with its lobby at the 18th floor and the ground level lift lobby is somewhat similar to what you would see in an office building. The lift system is rather slow and its setting once again baffles me as you do not get direct access from the ground floor to your hotel room. What you have to do is to take the lift to the 18th floor lobby and transfer to another lift that provides access to rooms up to 49th floor. 50th floor onwards have another lift thus if you are going for breakfast, you would have to take the lift from your hotel room to the lobby again and transfer to that lift to access the restaurant at one of the top level. I thought it was slightly inconvenient. My friends thought it was VERY inconvenient.

Given such a lengthy paragraph about how bad it was, you must be wondering by now why I said I enjoyed my stay in Baiyoke Sky. Firstly, the hotel room is really very spacious and well maintained. It would not be a exaggeration to say that the room I stayed in was bigger than my living room. You do not get the crampy feeling like you would staying in a cheaper hotel. The bathroom was well maintained and they have a separate standing shower unlike most hotels which would provide a standing shower over the bathtub. However, I am only mentioning this because one of my friends insisted that only good hotels have this arrangement and she was very impressed. To me though, what's the difference.

The room service provided by the hotel staff was efficient. We did try the room service for supper and the delivery was prompt and the food was fabulous. Baiyoke Sky's in house restaurant won the competition for the best Tom Yum Goong between all the hotels in Bangkok. Housekeeping was also done to a very meticulous level. We asked for an extra hand towel on the first day and on subsequent days an extra hand towel was provided without further prompting needed. That impressed me alot because it meant that guests' needs are being remembered and taken care of.

Other interesting things about Baiyoke Sky would be the restaurant and the observation deck situated at the uppermost levels of the hotel. I will give them a more detailed mention under the other categories which I mentioned earlier.

My conclusion on Baiyoke Sky Hotel. Value for money, a very ideal choice of hotel to stay in if the price range is within your comfort level.