The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam — Hotel in Makkasan Subdistrict

The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam - A Stay with a Significant Hiccup So far so good upon check-in at The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam, but our stay had a notable issue that impacted our experience. We booked a family room explicitly for 4 people (2 adults, 2 kids aged 8 and 6). To our surprise and disappointment, the room only provided sleeping arrangements for three family members. The hotel considered our 6-year-old son young enough to share a bed with a parent. Given that our children are quite tall for their age, sharing a large single bed (or potentially squeezing three into two beds) was clearly going to be uncomfortable and tight. We immediately addressed this concern with the staff, but they were adamant that if we wanted an additional bed, we would have to pay a significant extra charge of 1'300 THB per night. For our four-night stay, this would have added up to 5'200 THB, a price we were unwilling to pay on top of the room rate for a room already booked for four. Ultimately, we did not get the extra bed. The sleeping arrangement remained unchanged throughout our stay. While jetlag and exhaustion helped everyone sleep on the first night, it was a very tight squeeze. For the subsequent nights, the kids continued to complain about the lack of space and how uncomfortable it was. This unresolved issue significantly impacted our comfort and satisfaction with the room booking. Putting the bed problem aside, The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam itself has several positive aspects. The rooms are indeed large, which is great. The air conditioning was very effective against the Bangkok heat. Both the rooms and the bathrooms were clean and well-maintained. Regarding other facilities, there is a concierge in the lobby, though we didn't use their services. We did eat at The Oak Bar on one occasion. The food itself was good, but the prices were noticeably higher than street food outside, and the portions were quite small in comparison. We used one of the two pools available; it has a great view and is conveniently located next to the bar on the 11th floor. A minor point is that this pool is in the shade in the afternoon and evening. The other pool was unfortunately under construction during our visit. We also attempted to use the nail salon located near the bar, but the technician was absent, and calls went unanswered. The staff generally seemed happy and friendly. However, they were unable or unwilling to offer any flexibility or generosity regarding our bed problem, which was disappointing. Housekeeping did a standard job, making our beds and providing fresh towels daily. The hotel's location is certainly a major plus point. It's very central, conveniently located near the CentralWorld shopping mall and offering easy access to the BTS and MRT public transport systems, as well as the Airport Rail Link. In conclusion, while The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam offers great rooms, a superb location, and some nice facilities like the pool and bar, the significant issue with the sleeping arrangements for a family of four and the hotel's rigid approach to resolving it cast a large shadow over our experience. Paying for a "family room" that doesn't comfortably accommodate a standard family of four without an exorbitant extra charge is unacceptable. This made the stay uncomfortable for our children. Unless you are confident the sleeping configuration meets your specific needs, or if you are not a family requiring separate sleeping spaces for young children, proceed with caution.

UPDATE: After we raised the initial room issue, hotel management resolved it by moving us to a Family Deluxe room for the remainder of our stay. This room's bunk bed with small double beds provided ample space, making the rest of our stay comfortable. Due to this resolution, we can now recommend The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam. For families of four, especially with older kids needing separate beds, book the Family Deluxe room. The standard room may only work with a...

We LOVED The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam: it's a luxurious 5 star hotel with wonderful personnel who are always happy to assist.

We stayed in room 12313 in the Main Tower, which has a king-sized bed, while the rest of my family stayed in room 12301 - which is a corner room with 2 queen beds and huge window with a sweeping view of the Bangkok skyline. Both rooms are lovely and well appointed, with all the necessary amenities: quality shampoo, hair conditioner, body wash, soap bar and body lotion from the lovely scented "SOAK" brand tooth brush kits, cotton buds, shower caps, facial tissues, wash cloths etc. provided unlimited bottled water provided free of charge super comfortable bedding bathrooms with a separate shower and bath tub toilets have a water spray hose ("bum gun") ample storage space for your luggage big wardrobe with an unusually limited amount of hangers The rooms are well insulated, so you won't get disturbed by the other guests. Room 12313 is right in front of the elevators, but we never heard a peep!

What we didn't like was the size of the TV on room 12313: it's the smallest TV we've ever seen! A hotel of this caliber really should never have such awfully small TV's: that's really a shame! However the TV in room 12301 was of an adequate size. Also, the TV's are not even Smart TV's! At this day and age there's really no excuse for that... Hopefully they will upgrade all TV sets ASAP, as it's a real disgrace.

The main restaurant offers a great breakfast buffet, with plenty of delicious options that change every day. We were very happy with it. The only thing we were disappointed with were the JUICES, as they were not fresh fruit juices but the usual rotation of canned orange, guava, apple or pineapple juice many other 3 star hotels serve. The Berkeley could really step up it's fresh juice game!

The swimming pool is small but very nice, with a handful of sun-lounges available. Unfortunately the pool in the North Tower has been closed down for quite some time (see picture), so there's only the one pool in the Main Tower available for everyone - which is really insufficient, so it might get crowded. The good thing is that there's full showers at the pool, with all the amenities available (shower gel, shampoo and hair conditioner). So you can have a great shower before you head to the airport, if you have a late flight after you've checked out!

The location is also great: with malls, eateries and shopping all nearby. The BTS is a 10 minute walk from the hotel. The hotel does provide a free shuttle to the BTS sky-train at Chidlom and Siam, however there's only 3 shuttles a day and you can't even bring your luggage on them. That's a real pity, as other hotels offer a greater shuttle service - so this can be improved. However it's not a hard walk with luggage over to the BTS: you'll just have to cross one big street, and then there's ramps up the bridge and an escalator to the BTS through the Big C Supercenter - or take the R Walk from across the road (step-free access from Platinum Fashion Mall or the Novotel Bangkok Platinum Pratunam) ;-)

We really loved the Berkeley Hotel and can't wait to be back! We were warmly welcomed by Khun Pooh at the reception and Khun Kate the Front Desk Manager was super kind and helpful in securing us the 2 beautiful bedrooms. We will be returning from Pattaya on April 16th and we are really looking forward to 4 more nights at the beautiful Berkeley Hotel to finish our Thailand...

This is my second time to stay in Berkeley. What I love the most is the size of the rooms! So much space and can even accommodate 4 of us (my sisters during my first visit) in one room which is awesome as we live in diff countries. The rooms are not as new and you can see some wear and tear but that’s fine for me.

The second is its location. Very good for shopping 👍🏼 Very central and close to Platinum, Central World and a Big C nearby (just 6-10mins walk). Down just on the streets beside the hotel is a night market that starts 5pm and stays until 1230am. Don Mueang airport is about 35-45mins away with traffic. They also have airport transfer out which is affordable & most of all hassle free! 5 seater starts at B500 (includes tolls etc). Offers shuttle service to nearby malls like Siam paragon.

Third would be the bfast. Very vast array of choices, quality food and they also refill fast to accommodate so many people during the mornings. We noticed that it got busier at around 9am so make it a bit early if you wanna be seated immediately. Calling the staff has never been a problem during my stay. The food choices have also improved a lot since i was here 6yrs ago!

One (minor) thing though was during checkin when staff Ms Ivy did upselling. We are supposed to be in the North wing and she said that she can give us a (bigger) room in the main wing so my mom need not walk a long walk, just for B3600. She even showed us photos of it which were very convincing. After a while, we said yes bec we really wanted to be in the main tower initially. Unfortunately, she came back to us only to say the room is not available and we’ll be staying in our original room. We were really disappointed and hoped that she had checked availability first before doing all that upselling which is the first (important) step before you upsell to a guest. She did help us expedite for our room to be ready soon as we came to hotel at 10am. When we came back at 3pm, room is ready and we got the key from front desk but had to ask for details like bfast and how to go to our room. Was expecting that front desk will explain as SOP to anyone checking in, be it a new or returning guest. Oh well, good thing that can even be googled now 🤗

The rooms are also not sound proof as we had neighbors next door who were loud 😂

Kudos to the Concierge people who are all up on their toes and willing to assist be it calling a cab or grab or with our inquiries or with our luggage. They are all pleasant and efficient 👍🏼 do keep it up!

Housekeeping did a spot on job! Can’t find fault in their daily cleaning which we really appreciated.

Overall, I would recommend this hotel anytime. So much space in the room and we really had a pleasant stay. You get value for money. The staff are nice and polite. Location is good and lots to do around. Do try this hotel next time you’re...