The hotel does not look as grand as the other hotels occupied by our fellow travellers in the same tour group. We were slightly disappointed when we first saw the hotel as we had paid more to 'upgrade' to this hotel as the first hotel of our choice was not available.

The first obstacle we met was the flight of steps up to the hotel lobby. It usually does not concern me but I was travelling with my aunt who uses walking cane. While there are only about six-seven steps but the steps are slightly higher than normal. Plus there is no grip for my aunt to hold on while climbing the steps. But we managed in the end, slowly... The hotel does have luggage ramp but it is really steep. We saw a lady on wheelchair being pushed up the ramp on the day we checked out. Wonder how exciting the way down will be...

The good thing about the hotel is its location. Turn right from the hotel is a stretch of shops including "Le Best Massage" (400 baht for 2 hours of thai massage or 600 baht for 2 hours of foot flexology. Simply wonderful), 7-11, a drug store and at the far end, panthip plaza which has an aircon food court on its fourth floor (we bought 500 baht food vouchers and had a very well spread and full lunch for eight pax). Turn left and you'll get Haagen-Dazs, Starbucks and further down after Le Meridien hotel, "boots". At evening time, the streets come to live as it become the night market. There is a zebra crossing right in front of the hotel and the hotel bell boy will provide assistance when crossing the road. Not that we needed the help as the traffic is relatively slow but it did make me feel safer when crossing the road at night with the elderlies.

Buffet breakfast is provided on the first floor. There is a decent spread of food comprising fried rice, pad thai, congee, cereal, bread, salad, fruits and an egg counter. But late comers may need to wait quite a while for tables, especially when the hotel is fully occupied.

The rooms are well lit. There is a welcome fruit basket. They provide bathrobes, extra pillow, hair dryer, weighing scale, hot water flask, coffee, tea, bottled water, safe in the room but you need to call housekeeping for toothbrush and non-slip bath mat. There is also a full length mirror near the window which is useful when we tried out our tailor-made clothes.

There is also free WIFI but you need to get the ID and password from the front desk which issued them in slips of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour or three hours.

The hotel may need another maintenance soon. On our second night, the main water pipe broke, water cascaded down the emergency stairwell and we had no clean water for close to two hours. The hotel staff handled the matter quite well though providing up to date information whenever we called.

Overall, dun mind staying there again. But I will make sure I book the next door's massage in advance so that I can have a good night sleep immediately after the massage.