Centre Point Pratunam

We landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport, so we decided to take the Airport Rail Link because we wanted to avoid the traffic jam. The express train was not in service when we arrived, and we had to take the normal train. The journey took 30 minutes and ฿45/pax to get to Phaya Thai Station.

We alighted at Phaya Thai Station and took a tuk tuk (฿120) to our hotel.

This option proved to be faster than taking a taxi from the airport. There was another group of travellers from our flight who also stayed at our hotel. They took the taxi and only arrived when we left the hotel for dinner after checking in.

We booked a deluxe family room in Centre Point Pratunam through Agoda at SGD$194.90/night for the four of us. Centre Point is one of Thailand’s top hospitality chains with a range of hotels and service apartments located around Bangkok, Thailand. Centre Point Pratunam is conveniently located opposite Pantip Plaza, in the well known Pratunam district.

The hotel was built in 1989 and it retains much of the dated furniture and decor.

There was a refundable deposit of ฿5,000 that we had to pay when we were checking in. I was quite shocked as I thought that the deposit was only ฿1,000. We opted to pay for the deposit using our debit cards. The receptionist initially insisted us that they were unable to process a “hold-charge” on a debit card despite the fact that I had managed to do a “hold-charge” on the card. She decided to give it a try after trying to explain to her for a while and the transaction was successful.

We were given rooms on the 11th floor. Four key cards were issued which was great as we were able to hold on to one key each. We were also informed at that point that there would be an “Electricity Maintenance” that happened on our second day whereby all rooms will not have electricity from 10am to 7pm. I personally felt that they could have emailed us beforehand to inform us of the maintenance instead of letting us know during check-in. No compensation was given for the interruption.

The room was huge and furnished with two queen sized beds. There was also a pantry area equipped with a microwave oven, a water boiler and a full-sized fridge. Cutlery was also provided.

Housekeeping came up shortly with two additional sets of water, towel and toiletries as the room only had two sets instead of four. They came up before we informed them of the shortfall.

Other hotel facilities includes a salt-water pool, an outdoor jacuzzi, a fully-equipped gym and two sauna rooms all located on the “F” floor. Laundromat is also available on the 20th floor (You will have to purchase tokens from the reception at ฿90/token).

The hotel also had a side entrance which leads directly to the main streets. (The main entrance of the hotel was located at one of the alleyways)

Though the hotel itself was very old, the hotel was very clean and the staff were friendly and very prompt in reacting to the guests’ requests. The old infrastructure of the hotel soon showed during our 7 night stay in Centre Point. Our room’s air-conditioner started to leak on the second morning of our stay. And it wasn’t just a few droplets of water but a constant trickle of water that seeped through the false ceiling that had concealed the air-conditioning unit. A small puddle soon formed from the leak. Housekeeping was prompt in responding to the situation and came up to help clear up the puddle of water. The maintenance team came up to the room and repaired the air conditioning unit while we were out shopping in the day. The other instance was when we were suddenly unable to connect to the wifi from our room. A service staff came up and instead of assuming the problem lies with our devices, he went ahead to reset the access point for our room which solved the connection problem.

Overall, I felt that it was the staff that really provided the “4-star experience”. The service made up for the dated infrastructure and decor of the hotel.