115-1 Surawong Road, Bangrak, Bangkok, Thailand | (888) 551-4925
Excellent
location: a short walk to Skytrain and subway
Just blocks
from the famous Patpong Night Market
Near to malls,
restaurants, and nightlife, including sky bars
Ground-floor
restaurant and coffee shop/bakery popular with locals
Traditional
homey, Thai-style atmosphere throughout
Pleasant
and quiet rooftop terrace with small pool and bar
Rooms enjoy
generally minimal noise from the busy street
Free Wi-Fi
throughout, though with some connection problems
Many rooms
are dated and some have maintenance issues
Some rooms
suffer noise from the hotel’s laundry facilities
Northern
Thai-style retro design throughout the hotel is hit-and-miss
Few loungers on the rooftop terrace, and often broken or damaged
Reception
is sometimes understaffed, with an impact on service
Reports of
unexpected maintenance charges being made after departure
The
upscale, 73-room Siam Heritage uses antique handicrafts and paintings from
northern Thailand to inject charm into an otherwise aging hotel. Rooms, some of
which are especially in need of upgrading, are decorated in northern Lanna
style, and those staying longer term will appreciate the admittedly dated
kitchenettes in all but the cheapest rooms. But the location is the real draw here -- just seconds on foot to
the famous Patpong Night Market and its raucous bar scene, and a 10-minute
walk to well-connected Skytrain and subway stations. The
ground-floor coffee shop and bakery gets positive reviews and, together with
the street-level restaurant, pulls in the local office crowd at lunchtime; the
small, ninth-floor rooftop pool is also a popular escape, though it suffers from
too few loungers. Travelers looking for more up-to-date rooms could try the four-pearl Anantara Bangkok Sathorn.
Disclaimer: This content was accurate at the time the hotel was reviewed. Please check our partner sites when booking to verify that details are still correct.
Scene
Northern Thai design, colonial in places, but with mixed execution
The Siam has a homey, Thai-style atmosphere, with Lanna style decorations (antique handicrafts and paintings collected
from northern Thailand). But in truth, it's a hit-or-miss approach, garnering
more success in some parts of the building than others. The hotel’s main stairwell
is decorated with wood paneling in a gorgeous shade of pale green, complete
with intricate floor tiling evocative of the colonial era, but the ground-floor
Siam Cuisine restaurant is bland and contemporary in design, with white and gray
seating and out-of-place stained-glass light fittings. The lobby sits halfway
between the two, with pleasant retro sofas and armchairs spruced up with
brightly colored cushions, but still overall it feels a little dark and in need
of a refresh. Cute and colorful armchairs (and rather out-of-place
cartoon-character plush toys), and the use of wooden crates to display products,
give the Bunfe coffee shop more design success than the hotel’s main restaurant
and breakfast room, where a combination of too many clashing colors, marble-top
tables, and wall cabinets of antiquities comes off as mildly garish. Outside is
much more pleasant, where a covered seating area enclosed by the surrounding
skyscrapers is dotted with plenty of potted plants. Guests are mainly couples, though there are some families and a small number of business travelers.
Location
Beside some of Bangkok’s seedier nightlife, with good transport connections
The Siam
Heritage provides something of an oasis from the bustling Surawongse Road, in
Bangkok’s Silom district -- centered on business by day and its notoriously
adult-oriented, often seedy entertainment venues come nightfall. Just a few minutes on foot from the Patpong Night Market and numerous bars and restaurants,
and just a five- to 10-minute walk to the Sala Daeng Skytrain and Si Lom MRT subway
stations, the hotel is also well positioned as a base from which to explore the
city. A number of shopping malls are nearby, including Central Silom, which is a 10-minute walk, and it’s
about a 10-minute taxi ride -- or strenuous half-hour walk -- to the
Chao Phraya riverfront and longtail boat pier at Saphan Taksin. The infamous
rooftop bar at the Lebua State Tower hotel, featured in the movie "The Hangover Part III," is also a 10-minute drive away.
Though the hotel is signposted from the street, the lobby is one floor up from
street level and entering involves passing through the ground-floor restaurant. Locating it can be a bit of a struggle.
Rooms
Acceptable but dated, with mixed quality and maintenance issues
Rooms at
The Siam Heritage vary greatly in quality from one another. But, while
acceptable on the whole, they have seen better days. The rooms we saw on our
visit had plenty of natural light, but there are numerous reports of
dark and dated rooms -- not helped by dark-wood Lanna furnishings. Rooms are finished with a mix of
tired-looking brown curtains and more modern white blinds. Some suffer from
noise from the hotel’s laundry facilities, but noise from the street is
generally minimal and those on higher levels are quieter still. Large
king-size beds are dressed up with colorful cushions, but mattresses tend to
be on the hard side. Numerous reviews cite maintenance issues including leaking
bathtubs and showers, and the smell of stale cigarette smoke. All rooms have desks, satellite TVs, minibars, safes, and coffee/tea facilities, along with bathrooms with either stall showers or shower/tub combos; all but the smallest rooms
also include small, dated kitchenettes with mini-fridges, microwaves, and
hotplates. Each Suite has a separate shower and bathtub, plus a dining table and
reclining leather seats in a separate living room, with old tube TVs in
addition to the flat-screens in the main bedroom. Views of the surrounding
buildings are generally unimpressive, while some of the cheapest rooms lack these
altogether.
Features
Restaurants popular with locals; peaceful but poorly maintained pool terrace
The hotel’s
ground-floor restaurant and Bunfe coffee shop get particularly good reviews;
both are popular with the lunchtime office crowd, and the latter turns out
excellent home-baked pastries. The relatively standard buffet breakfast of Thai
and western dishes, with eggs and omelets cooked to order, gets a mixed
reception, while the small ninth-floor rooftop pool and bar is popular for its
peaceful seclusion, greenery, and views of surrounding skyscrapers, but there are
only a small number of loungers, and they're frequently in a broken state. A small, fan-cooled gym contains a variety of fitness
equipment, while the hotel also offers an in-house spa. A few
computer terminals in the lobby provide Internet access, and meeting facilities
are available for groups of up to 10. Free Wi-Fi is also provided throughout
the hotel, though there are numerous reports of this being slow and coverage
being patchy, particularly in the pool area. Reviews suggest the hotel
reception is on occasion understaffed, and there are isolated reports of
unexpected maintenance charges being made to guests’ credit cards after
departure and without explanation.
