Okura prestige bangkok

We needed a one night staycation, so I chose the Okura for its location, value and photogenic pool. Here’s what I thought.

Location: A-

It’s located in the Ploen Chit area of Bangkok, which isn’t necessarily the best itself, but is very close to some of the better areas of Bangkok. The best thing about the Okura’s location though is that it is directly connected with the BTS. A major, major perk in Bangkok. By virtue of its immediate access to the BTS, Okura is one of the better located hotels in the city.

Rooms: A

Look, the Japanese know how to design. The Okura Prestige is a Japanese style hotel, and the rooms are truly designed to near perfection. The room feels spacious while having many areas within the space. It all flows wonderfully, everything is located where it needs to be, storage space is wonderful, the bath and shower are great, the little mini sink by the toilet is a great plus, and the views are wonderful. Fantastic, fantastic rooms at this city hotel. Nothing extraordinary, per se, but a well laid out and organized room. 

Food: A-

We had some small dishes and a couple lattes while waiting for check in, all of which were great - I highly recommend the seared ahi tuna. The only other thing we ate at the hotel was their ice cream, which was straight fire. So for the tuna, lattes and ice cream, the Okura gets a firm A- from me.

Amenities: A-

The hotel has one of the best spas in the city, as you would expect from a Japanese hotel, along with a nice gym. But the real winner of the hotel is the pool. Perched on the 25th floor overlooking the city, this infinity edge pool is one of Bangkok’s best. There are plenty of lounge chairs and relaxation areas around as well. Did I basically base my booking of the Okura off this awesome pool? Yes, yes I did. 

Service: A-

We tried checking in at 3 (which is the time listed as check in) but were told that our room was not ready yet. It was an ever so slightly annoying way to start the stay, but the staff in general was hyper-polite (mostly Japanese staff, so that is sort of customary), and one staff member even brought us an extra ice-cream because he was worried that one of the ice-creams he had brought was too melted! Never had that before, so it mostly made up for the annoyance of not being able to check in at check in time. I wish I remember that man’s name though, I owe him an ice cream or two.

Scene

Surprisingly, lots of families. Granted, we stayed over a holiday weekend (basically every weekend in the city), so maybe that added more families to the mix, but our first day there, we were the only couple at the pool, which was shocking. The hotel has a very refined, clean vibe to it, catering mostly to businessmen, but to couples as well, hence why it was unexpected to see so many families. Seeing those kids walk on the edge of the infinity pool 80 meters above the ground was terrifying, to say the least. But in general, the scene here is classy, refined and clean.