MUU Bangkok, Small Luxury Hotels of the World — Hotel in Khlong Tan Nuea Subdistrict

I spent 7 plus 4 days at MUU Hotel Bangkok in January 2024. I occupied two different rooms, one on the ninth and one on the eighth floor. They were both 2-bedroom suites. Below is the list of my observations about the hotel and my stay. Overall, I had a good time there. However, I feel that given the price and the fact that they define themselves as a "luxury hotel," the list of cons (see below) is definitely too long.

Pros

• 2-bedroom suites are enormous, and their layout is perfect to offer all occupants intimacy. They have spacious bathrooms and a corner to work with your laptop (equipped with a comfortable office chair). In addition, they include a small laundry room with a washing machine and a tumble dryer (or an integrated washing/drying machine). • High-quality toiletries from Perricone MD. • Excellent sound insulation. Noise from other rooms and the street is minimal. • Most staff members are welcoming, professional, and willing to help. • Rich and delicious breakfast featuring a wide variety of options (unfortunately, croissants and pains au chocolat are not good). • Hourly shuttle to/from the nearest BTS station (the trip takes 5 minutes with the shuttle and 15 minutes on foot). • WiFi is fast enough for remote working (30-35 Mbps both in download and upload) • In less than a 150-meter distance, you have a 7-Eleven, a grocery store, a pharmacy, a couple of decent coffee shops, and a myriad of restaurants (that I have not tried). • Free parking is included in the room rate. • They provide 2-3 bottles of water (0,5 liters each) per day per room occupant, and the bottles are glass, so they recycle them.

Cons

• Average and not consistent room cleanliness. • Lack of iron and ironing board. • The washing machine and tumble dryer were not clean when we checked in. • Lack of paper towels, tea towels, pots, glasses, cutlery, bowls, dish soap, bottle opener, coasters and placemats (to protect the glass dining table), etc. in the kitchen. Forget about preparing the simplest of the dishes. You barely have the necessary to consume delivery food. • The noise from the air conditioning is pretty high, even with the fan speed set to the lowest level. At mid-day, my Apple Watch detected a noise level of 42-43 db with the air conditioning on (at minimum speed) and 36-37 db with the air conditioning off. • None of the TVs in the room have apps to watch videos, shows, and movies online except YouTube, nor do they have the AirPlay feature. If you want to watch anything on Netflix, for instance, you must use one of your devices. • Mediocre toilet paper.

Notes

• Main city attractions are located 60 to 75 minutes away from the hotel by public transportation. This is not an issue if your schedule is not too tight and you plan to leave the hotel in the morning and return in the evening, for instance. But if you want to visit the whole city in 2-3 days, consider a more centrally located hotel. • If you plan to rent a car to spend a couple of days outside Bangkok (as I did), a good option could be Bizcar Rental Sukhumvit, just 35’ away by public transportation and 20’ away by car from the hotel. • If you plan to stay at the hotel for more than 15 days, you can book the room for an entire month at a very advantageous price (compared to daily). The only (marginal) downside of the monthly formula is that no breakfast...

I have stayed in this hotel now four times, thrice when the hotel was under the old management, Akaryn and now under the new management. The hotel has aged over covid and it is showing in terms of furnishings and service.

As a hotel that brands itself as small luxury hotel, the insides of the rooms don’t uphold the tag. The wooden furniture is chipped and the regular decor that made the rooms special like the vases, have been removed from the room.

Mind you, I booked the junior suite this time but it was nothing like the junior suite of other hotels I’ve stayed in. The bathroom has no separate shower, one has to shower in the bathtub which was a huge climb into it and it’s marbled everywhere. It’s an accident waiting to happen. I cannot imagine older folks or anyone ill or even young children managing the climb without injury.

My husband was ill from food poisoning just before checking in, upon discovery of the state of the shower facility, we pleaded with the staff at the reception counter to change room, even to a lower room type just to have a separate shower. But the regular excuse of ‘fully booked’ was used and we suggested that we head out for food so that they will have time to sort it out. Upon returning, the receptionist told us there was a 2 bedroom room available but we would have to pay the diff, which was ridiculous as we were only 2 pax. There was no empathy or understanding to our situation. However after much back and forth, they relented and provide us with the room, which we were very grateful for. But it felt like an afterthought and we were sounding like we begging for anything at this point. Really left a bad taste in our mouths.

The housekeeping service was lagging. They made our room one during the 4 nights we stayed there. We left the room at 1130, pressed the indicator for housekeeping before leaving, and by 4pm when we return, the room was not made. They knocked at the door at 410pm asking if it’s ok to clean now but we suggested they come back at 5pm to which they responded they do not make up the room after 5pm. They only change the towels. I’m just appalled. Really not becoming of a small luxury hotel at all. Tip: call reception before leaving your room if u want your room made, the light indicator is not signal enough to get ur room made by any means.

I will end off with some positives that might , MIGHT, keep me coming back to Muu, its location is central to thonglor and their bellboys and concierge guys are amazing at keeping a happy light mood in the hotel. I can’t say the same for all the staff. I want to thank the guys at the hotel for lifting the mood of the guests when we enter or exit the hotel.

It’s an average stay here now, and it feels like a huge hotel chain that treats every guests like they aren’t valued. It was not the...

There are not many hotels in Bangkok which can provide both 5-star full service and also have 2-bedroom apartment-style residences. We stayed at Akyra Thonglor in the past and knew that it would meet our needs with a newborn baby in tow (less than 1 month old).

We could not get an upgrade at check-in to the room type with a balcony because they were occupied, however the hotel did the best they could in the circumstances: they provided the room next door at no extra charge (once our neighbor checked out) so we had an extra room for 9 nights out of our 13-night stay. They thought it would help provide some extra space if I needed a spot to rest after taking care of the baby which can get hectic at times. This was a great gesture and it turned out even more valuable than the hotel would have imagined because I had a special nurse coming to the hotel 7 consecutive days for 5 hours per day for a post-pregnancy treatment so we used the extra room for that while my husband could stay in the main room with our daughter. Because we had two rooms we could test ourselves and confirm that soundproofing is great at this hotel.

Breakfast was largely the same as last year, and it was still possible to have it in the room in part because of covid restrictions. I think soon the breakfast will be offered in the restaurant only once the situation normalizes. The only difference I noticed in the menu is that avocado toasts were no longer a choice, and mangoes were not available either.

Service at the hotel continues to be 5-star which was one of the reasons we booked there, instead of the limited service executive apartments by large hotel chains. They were quite responsive to our numerous requests during our stay including several printing jobs brought to the room and always cleaning the room promptly, exactly at the time we requested. I would also note the welcome gift for our daughter which was a nice touch and highly appreciated. They also provided their hotel mini-van for local transportation after check-out for free, which was also another nice extra they did for us. Last but not least, at check-out we missed saying goodbye to the front office manager because she was busy but she went out of her way to proactively call us after we left Akyra to ask if the transfer had been smooth and to confirm we were happy overall with our...