Jun 7, 2009

In May 2009, my Thai friend and I stayed the 5th or 6th time in Saladang Place. For us, the location is perfect, close to Silom Central department store, Silom road, Surawong road, Lumpini park. The staff is friendly. It is a conservative longstay residence where you can stay for single nights too. The rooms are large studios, clean, old-fashioned and have great views. All rooms have kitchenettes and large fridges. Internet access is good but should be free. It is best to buy a coupon for unlimited access. I am responsible for a small upscale hotel in Switzerland, and consider Saladang Place to be well managed (better than I could do it). Breakfast is a bit dated. They prepared vegetarian fried rice for me every morning. If you need a safe place to relax Saladang Place is good for you; if you worry about 100 THB plus/minus, you would probably need a little smiling haggling to get the price right. We will stay again in Saladang Place because the moment our taxi turns into the entrance courtyard, we know, "We are back and all is well."

Jun 29, 2008

Recently booked a corner room and had a very comfortable stay at this hotel. The room exceeded my expectation and although a little tired was comfortable, with a good bathroom and everything worked correctly. The rooms also offer excellent views of the city. The location is excellent and is very close to the sky train and Patpong market.

I have stayed at three hotels in this area and this will be my first choice in the future. My only criticism is that the breakfast if poor and could be improved. The hotel has a good size pool. The gym is no longer operational but there is a large retail gym a few minutes away. This is a hotel that offers excellent value in a very popular area.

Dec 6, 2007

After I booked this place on the internet, I discovered a review speaking about hell on earth or so. Though I knew from a friend SalaDaeng Place was fine a few years ago, I was expecting anything but this: A friendly, helpful receptionist made it possible, to move to a room with a better view on request, after check-in. Nice, clean rooms with perfect service every day (they even wash your dishes) . The furniture is not brandnew - sure - but clean and not damaged at all. (A lamp was not working, so we told the receptionist when leaving for lunch. When we came back it was fixed.)

The breakfast: Certainly above asian average. Fresh fruits, fresh corissants, eggs baked a la minute, a wide selection of asian dishes like curry and rice-soup, juices, coffe, tea, Milk, yoghurt, musli, bakeries etc. The breakfast room is absolutely friendly with a view to the garden tarrace, comfortable coffe tables, cosy sofas for reading the provided newspapers an magazines and a quickly and friendly staff.

The pool area can be called superior. Many plants provide some shadow while the water is warmed by the sun, which makes swimming comfortable even in the cold season. For relaxing a sauna is provided. A minus point is given for the gym, which is not worth beeing called like this. But California Fitness has a branch on Silom 3 minutes walk away with state-of-the-art equipment.

Maybe the management not encourages guests to bring in many different sex-partners (at least not simultaneously). But the policy is, that friends of a guest, who come in after 10 pm. must show their ID at the front desk. A good way to grant security - even for greenhorn travellers who bring "friends" they just met a few drinks before.

Overall I would say this is one of the best places (in the middle price range) to stay in Bangkok, taking to account, that it is in the middle of Silom-Citylife, just a few minutes away from Skytrain and Subway, providing excellent service and giving you a feeling of home in a busy, never sleeping city.

Feb 21, 2007

I have stayed at Saladang Place many times, and always find it quite adequate. I would agree with other reviewers that the furnishings have seen better days and all the doors need a fresh coat of paint, but over all, the rooms are clean and spacious. And everything works.

The obvious plusses are the location (just minutes from the MRT (underground) station or from the BTS (Skytrain) station) and the nice views, if your room is above the 7th or 8th floor -- better on some sides of the building than others. It is also nice to have a little kitchenette, with a large fridge.

Another writer complained about the breakfast, but I do not really agree. True, it is nothing special, but there is a bit of variety and everything is prepared well enough. At the same time, it is a breakfast which gets very old very fast and could benefit from a bit more daily variety -- so a longer stayer is not forced to eat the same things for a week or two.

I don't know much about the "joiner" problem that one writer complains about. Certainly the hotel makes it patently clear that they will charge (and charge a lot) for a joiner. This might be an attractive feature to many guests -- who do not appreciate the parade of young women and young men that guests drag home to many other properties in the area. In my own case, I invited a friend from back home to come up and have dessert and a cup of coffee after dinner. He was in my room for close to an hour, but no one said a word to me when I took him back downstairs to Reception and picked up a hotel card to write my room number on. Maybe there is some racism or sexism or ageism going on in other people's experiences -- two caucasian men in middle age may simply not look like a prostitute and his John to anyone. I have found the reception staff to be very friendly and helpful, in general. They become less so if you have any sort of special request or unusual situation. I once asked for a place to shower after I'd checked out and they had nothing to offer (many hotels let you use the poolside shower, at least, when you have a midnight flight and have to check out at midday). Another time I simply needed a place to change clothes after my check-out and they sent me to the trunk room! A bit of cooperation and creativity here would have been nice.

In sum, I would recommend Saladang Place. You can get more for more money, but at these rates, this apartment-hotel seems to be spot on.