Lancaster Bangkok — Hotel in Bang Kapi Subdistrict

ROOM PROS : comfortable bed with good pillows; mostly clean room (with the exception of strange display case holding quite a bit of dust); closet lights turn on automatically when opened; in case you still write letters by hand the desk drawer holds stationary and envelopes for you; comfortable arm chair next to the window (offering a slightly better view than pictured (if seated there). In the bathroom was a Sunken shower with a side sprayer, a pressurized rainfall showerhead; next to an elongated toilet was a bidet side sprayer and deep tub for a rejuvenatjing soak;

AMENITY PROS: The salt Block sauna is stunning and gets quite hot if you splash water on the rocks. The pool was the perfect temperature to refresh after a cold plunge into the ice adjacent to sauna & steamroom

BREAKFAST BUFFET RECOMMENDATIONS: fresh fruit; house smoked marlin & tuna; kimchi, and cold cut meats. Unfortunately, the above is all I can recommend.

I had overall better breakfast food at a nearby Holiday Inn express (however, the cold cuts were better at Lancaster Hotel while house smoked fish was not available at the Holiday Inn Express).

BREAKFAST BUFFET CONS:

No cloth napkins are offered at the breakfast buffet, which left me trying to figure out how to use beverage napkins to cover up my white linen clothes from a possible unsightly mishap.

I liked their version of an English muffin plated with the eggs Benedict. However, no garnish was present (such as finally chopped chives or sprinkling of cayenne pepper). Also, the eggs Benedict was under seasoned; with no salt or pepper on the table. the poaching liquid for the eggs should be seasoned.

The pastry I tried (custard) was dry with little custard at all;

the banana “pancake” was flavorful but quite dry as well (kitchen: try banana pudding or applesauce in your re-bake mix).

Chick pea curry dish as well as a beef curry dish offered for breakfast but with no white rice leaving me to pick the chicken out of the biryani so I could have rice with my curry. However, there was no resemblance to chicken biryani in their dish by the same name.

Incorrect rice as well as the seasonings for biryani were not correct; this dish was bland (while biryani is bursting with flavor and includes whole spices, of which there were none in this shameful representation);

The beef in the curry dish had a grainy and gritty texture for which the process of velveting might have helped the texture for the dish. Lastly, I will switch to the cons for the room.

AMENITY CONS: The Garden terrace was locked and unavailable during my stay and into the next day (no reason given)

ROOM CONS:

Outdated rooms with wall to wall cabinetry and very strange built-in display case near window (not a purposeful fixture & dusty when I opened to inspect);

Many of the TV's channels do not come in, and the overwhelming majority of those that do are in languages other than English;

Strange lighting situation: No light access at entryway, which requires that you turn on foyer light at bedside access panel before leaving the room; the foyer is also the darkest area of the room and the light level there is in adequate, in my opinion.

Also, regarding the lights, while the bathroom has a modern look, the recessed “can” lighting appears modern, cheap, and not in character with the overall classic feel of the room;

Tablet at bedside table with outdated and incorrect information on it (as far as the first thing...

I'm really puzzled as to why this place has the audacity to call itself a 5-star hotel. When my family and I stayed there recently, we ran into so many problems that were far from what you'd expect from a high-quality experience. We had booked two twin rooms for a five-night stay, but they ended up giving us rooms that were really far apart, with three rooms in between. I figured it was a mistake because the room numbers were so different, so I went to the front desk to ask if we could switch to rooms that were closer together. But to my disappointment, the receptionist just brushed off my request without even bothering to check if there were any available. They said all the rooms on every floor were equally far apart and separate, and there were no adjacent rooms for us.

On top of that, the condition of the rooms was far from satisfactory. We found all sorts of bugs in the bathroom, which was really gross. And when it came to amenities, the hotel was lacking some important things. They provided shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, body lotion, cotton pads, and a toothbrush kit, but they didn't have basic things like a hairbrush or a razor. The air conditioner was also incredibly loud and noisy, making it impossible for my parents to get a good night's sleep throughout our entire trip. Also, the water temperature in the bathroom keeps changing, going from cold to hot and back again. It's been quite frustrating, especially on the last day of my stay when I couldn't even get enough hot water for my bath. All I had was slightly warm water, or should I feel lucky that the water is at least not cold?

Another point is that the price list for things like food and drinks displayed on the tablet was so confusing. This led to a funny incident where my little brother thought the juice was free and ordered it, much to our amusement. Luckily, they didn't charge us for that misunderstanding. Oh, and one of the rooms didn't even have bathrobes, so we had to ask the concierge to bring us some.

On top of everything I mentioned earlier, the hotel's location is not very convenient. You have to walk about 8 minutes just to get to the nearest MRT station. The convenience stores are on the opposite side, so you have to walk across a bridge to reach them. And when it comes to dining options, there aren't many nearby restaurants to choose from. So you're really limited in terms of where you can eat in close proximity to the hotel.

I will say, though, that most of the staff members were really nice and did their jobs well. They made sure the rooms were cleaned and restocked with amenities and water bottles every day. But despite that, I can't help but wonder how this hotel can justify calling itself a 5-star place when we had so many problems during our stay.

*Photos are showing the bugs in the bathroom. They are a bit blurry because they are the screenshots of videos and the bug were...

I stayed here for two months in room 1008, from 7th of January to 8th of March 2024. The rooms are very clean, its almost pristine, the back of the bath tub, nooks and cranny of the toilet etc. So full points there. However they do miss to clean some spots in the washroom on daily room service. I saw a spot on the toilet that went uncleaned for almost 1 week. There is a tablet in the room for ordering food and controlling all the lights, but controlling the light part never worked during my stay. They said they are waiting on some parts for the server from UK. And since the ambient lights in the room had no physical switch it was never turned on unless you wanted to turn on all lights using the master switch. The HDMI cable provided in the wall for the tv also doesn't work, so if you want on using the tv as a workstation you will need a long cable to plug directly in the TV. The staffs were okay, some were very friendly, some can be slightly rude. The rude ones became friendly after a tip but that's not how it should work. Being non white I definitely saw some preferential treatment towards other guests. During rush hours if you ask for water bottles, at times it may never arrive and you would have to call again. I love the fact that the hotel is guest friendly so you can bring your friends with you to chill in the room. The food was okay, I am not big on Thai food so I can't comment on that but the western foods could have been much better. Pasta was great, pizza was horrible, burgers and sandwiches were a hit and miss. And that is a theme with food I saw throughout my stay. The consistency was never there. For example, room service coffee was never hot when delivered, western breakfast had sunny side up eggs on multiple occasions when you order fried eggs, etc. But I loved that you could order breakfast late in the evening on call if you wanted to. Also the juices were fresh. I did have laundry package with the hotel which I used, and then I used an outside service with pickup and drop which went smoothly as you can drop it off at the lobby. You could also at times order food from outside but I mostly stuck to the hotel in room dining. I once used the concierge to book a taxi to go to Ratchaburi, which went very smoothly.

Overall, a good stay, the staff were friendly and those who weren't, weren't rude. However, attention to details was there, I asked them once not to touch my thermostat during room service and that was never done again, so great job. The rooms are clean. Food can be improved. If I come back to bangkok I will definitely look at...