Solitaire Bangkok Sukhumvit 11 — Attraction in Khlong Toei Nuea Subdistrict

Easily the worst experience in all my years of travel. Firstly this hotel is split into 3 buildings that we were not told about on booking or upon check-in. Once we had checked in we were ushered along some dark corridors, out the back of the hotel across a dark lane and into a humid old building with no swimming pool or restaurant which we had paid for. We were told we could use the swimming pool in the first building if we wanted but would have to go down the lane in our swimwear to get there. The room was to include a balcony but this was overlooking a narrow lane and was about 15 ft from another hostels windows and all we could see was floor on floor of bunkbeds and other people so the balcony was not useable. the bed linen was old and tired with the mattress having 4 bed toppers on top of each other presumably so make the bed more comfortable and as we discovered to cover many blood/urine and other stains on all of the layers. luckily the top sheet was clean. The bathroom was relatively clean but there was black mould around the shower and the floor drain had a sewerage smell. On the second night of 3 nights we received a letter under the door with a bill for 3700 baht (£85) for a new duvet cover because there was a mascara mark on the duvet the cleaner had found. Upon challenging this it transpired that they had not even tried to launder the duvet but wanted to charge us for a new one anyway. When I disputed this They tried to haggle the price and threated us with police action, I said I would happily speak to the police as I would not be extorted by the hotel! After continued argument I asked to see the hotel policy on such matters which she refused to produce then she started telling my wife to wash her face before bed and to shower! clearly mortified my wife was in tears as the attempted extortion continued. After a while of going round in circles I insisted on getting the police at which point the deputy manager agreed to close the matter. Upon thanking her she yapped back don't say thank you to me don't say thankyou!! The following day on checkout they refused to return our 2000 baht deposit! and again sent a different deputy manager so start the ordeal again. I explained the issue was closed by the previous manager but they still refused and started to haggle on the mascara mark fine! I threatened them with calling the police and they haggled from 3700 baht down to 200 baht which my wife eventually threw at them just to get out of the place. Utterly disgusted with this place and the vile people that work here, my wife a Thai woman herself said she'd never met Thai...

3/5. Rooms were spacious and clean but generally we found other guests in the hotel rude which dampened our experience. We had been travelling for over 26 hours to get to Bangkok and other guests repeatedly pushed in front of us at check in and hotel staff didn't do anything to manage this which was a bit disappointing as we were so tired and didn't want to be rude back but it seemed you needed an "elbows out" approach to check in here. Location is interesting and we came to understand that this influenced the type of guests who stay here. I would not recommend this as a honeymoon hotel and having stayed in a different hotel (Eastin Pathiya) which is a little more expensive but has excellent airport and transport links you ultimately spend less on taxis and save more. So location - it is 10 minutes from Nana's, the renowned red light district (we wondered why there were condoms when we checked into the room!), it's near a big medical hospital so lots of oversees medics/ doctors use the hotel (we experienced loud, large groups), its close to shopping malls so lots of oversees guests who enjoy shopping at designer malls (think large family groups who were the main people to push in front of you and take forever to check in due to an ongoing list of requests for the hotel to adhere to). In terms of overall cleanliness of the hotel this was fine, there was daily housekeeping and breakfast was okay - it had a mix of Thai, western, Indian and Muslim style dishes so lots to choose from as they catered for their international guests. There is an Indian dining rooftop bar which we didn't try but it's always fun to see Bangkok at night from up high. We went around the corner to Above 11 which was fantastic - sushi and steak and offered the most spectacular views of the city, it's on the pricier side for food and cocktails in Bangkok but it gave more of the "honeymoon" experience! There are lots of Indian restaurants around the corner to the hotel, as well as a 7 eleven, a fee coffee bars and a burger place. The hotel has a small pool which offers pool service (drinks, cocktails and snacks), it's good if you want to cool off after a hot day exploring. There's no coffee machine in the room but there's packet instant coffee and tea (and condoms!). Overall we were comfortable here but having now experienced a different Bangkok hotel we'd say you can get more for your money and location wise this isn't suited for couples. Also brace yourself...

This is a strange hotel to review. It's nice, but nowhere near as luxurious as it's own website suggests.

Just to say, I had been staying down the road for a week at the Radisson Suites, but they'd run out of rooms, so I couldn't extend my stay there.

Some of the Solitaire rooms include access to the Club Lounge, but during booking, if you choose one of the other rooms, you're given an option to purchase upto 8 "units" of "Late Check-Out At The Club Sky Lounge" from 12pm-8pm for about $15 USD per "unit", but I have no idea what this means. Who would check out of this hotel 8 times ?!

Also, this offer didn't include regular Club Sky Lounge benefits like having breakfast upstairs or complimentary drinks/cocktails each day. I visited the Club Lounge to ask them what this offer actually means... but they didn't know. I emailed the hotel itself, and they avoided answering the question.

Suffice to say, if you have a room with Club Lounge access, you get to eat VIP breakfast on their 16th floor, which given the chaos in the regular breakfast area after 9am, would probably be worth the money alone. I was there for 3 nights, and one morning, I arrived at breakfast, looked around at the chaos, and just walked out again. Life's too short.

This isn't a bad hotel by any means, but after spending a week at the Radisson Suites, I would choose Radisson over this hotel every time.

You need to leave a deposit of 1,000 THB when you check-in. The rooms have a fridge, air-con, nice bathroom area, and free Wifi.

My biggest complaint... the hotel needs more staff on reception. It's often like a cattle market, lots of people waiting to check-in and check-out, and it's chaos. They simply don't have enough people.

One other tip: I had to check out of Solitaire by midday, but my flight was 12 hours later at 1.05am. I could've spent 1500 THB on a late check-out at Solitaire (but only until 6pm), or book an extra night for 2880 THB. Instead, I moved to the Grand Business Inn, down the road, and a minute's walk from Nana BTS. It was a drop-dead basic room with air-conditioning, but I paid 1538 THB ($37 USD) for an overnight stay, no rush to check-out, and it just meant I could really enjoy my entire final day in Bangkok, freshen up, then use the BTS train, then airport train (45 THB, one-way) to get to the...