Review: The St. Regis Bangkok quarantine experience
After getting into the country, we were subject to the strict Thailand Test & Go quarantine procedure. As described in this article, in order to be eligible you needed to book a 1-night hotel stay where you could stay while awaiting your post-arrival PCR test.
The transfer and PCR test
Getting from the airport was extremely simple, we arrived after exiting the baggage reclaim to the hotel representatives (which includes hundreds of properties) before being escorted to our private transfer vehicle - a requirement of the Test & Go procedure. I had only booked a Toyota Camry because it was just a short twenty minute hop across town but was pleasantly surprised to be walked to a beautiful Mercedes-Benz S Class awaiting us. Would I pay extra for it? No. Was it a lovely car to recline into after getting off a low-cost airline? Most certainly, yes. Our driver took us directly from the airport to a drive-through testing facility at the Bumrungrad Hospital where the swabs were taken for our PCR test. Although I’m not sure if this is common for Thailand, two separate swabs for nose and throat were taken - and boy do they swab deeply, way further than any test in the UK. During this, you won’t have to leave the comfort of the S Class - it was all super smooth from pickup to this point.
Arriving at the hotel, I was expecting it to not feel quite this normal. As we were effectively quarantining at the St. Regis, I would have thought Test & Go arrivals would need to enter through a separate door to ensure less cross-infection between us and regular guests. However, we were ushered quite freely from the building entrance up to the Lobby on the 17th floor to sign some documents and to be handed over our room key (even though we couldn’t legally leave our room until we received our negative PCR results).
The room
Having only booked a standard room as part of the package, I was so surprised when we arrived to be greeted by a beautiful suite. Whether this was because I had told them about our engagement recently, my Marriott Bonvoy Gold status or a combination of both - I don’t really care because this room was epic and oozing class. Entering the room, there is a rather long hallway featuring artwork and an oddly placed rug which leads onto a small, dimly-lit toilet and washbasin. Here’s where the wow of the room comes in as this goes directly onto the lounge and dining space of the room. The lounge centrepiece focussed around the large windows letting in plenty of natural light during daytime shining onto the sofas and chairs. These were comfortable and a great place for somebody to relax whilst watching the large (50inch+) television in the room - although without Chromecast like other Marriott brands.
This area also hosts a dining table, which had tasty French-style macaroons and cheesecake upon arrival, and was plenty large enough for two people comfortably to eat at with dishes on the table.
For me, the showpiece of the room was the massive desk. As my employer agreed to me working remotely whilst on this visit, this was a big plus point of the room for me. If you’ve read any of my other blogs you’ll know that I do have a thing for a proper desk and chair to sit at. Too many hotels skimp on this thinking a small area and a silly sized chair will do - but not the St. Regis. I happily did a few hours work here after arriving and managed to take a number of calls on the high speed wireless internet. Even better, a great variety of stationary including pens, highlighters, a ruler and stapler are to hand when working - although all I needed was the internet and my laptop on this occasion!
Moving onto the sleeping quarters and it is exactly what you expect from a hotel of this standard. A king sized bed with memory foam mattress and soft duvet made for a great night’s sleep (for me at least, whilst Lloyd was kept awake due to him worrying about the post-arrival covid test).
The bedroom also has another television, of the same size and quality as the living room, wedged between two big wardrobes. I say wedged because the television is wall mounted and too big to fit between both the wardrobes - this is due to the doors hitting the television when you open them. A small oversight, but I would have expected a premium hotel to have put more thought into this - just to protect the equipment more than anything else. The wardrobes itself were clad in the same dark, high quality wood as the office desk and you could tell that the hotel is going for a more classic kind of style than other luxury Marriott brands.
If you thought that was it for this room, then two sliding doors open into the primary bathroom with a freestanding bath as you walk into the room. This bath was extremely comfortable to use, thanks to the ‘pillow’ to rest your head against and was big enough for me at 188cm tall - which is quite a rarity when staying at properties.
Couples sinks can be found against the wall which is completely unnecessary but a nice touch alongside the dedicated amenities to cater for both sinks. A sectioned off shower area, featuring a high pressure waterfall head, and separate toilet complete this part of the hotel room. The setup works pretty well because it does mean that multiple people can use the bathroom at once thanks to the splits of the sections of it resulting in a functional but stylish design. The hygiene products in the room featured British brand Elemis, like a whole load of other hotels I’ve stayed at, which smell good and don’t irritate my skin as products in cheaper hotels do.
The butler and their services
Having not done too much reading up of the hotel before staying here as well as it being the first St. Regis property I’ve stayed in, the butler service really surprised me. Our butler was extremely attentive at answering the phone and quickly responding to our requests for help in the room alongside greeting us upon arrival to check if there was any things that needed resolving or we needed help with. Included in this is the offer of hanging your clothes up, which is not necessary for a one night stay but could be nice for an extended period, as well as free clothes pressing to be returned the next morning. You should also remember that tea and barista-made coffee that is delivered to the room is complimentary - whether that is iced or hot, it is always free. I didn’t realise this until reading the guidebook in the room but made the most of it, having tried the Capuccino, Iced Latte, Iced Thai Coffee, Thai Milk Tea and Jasmine Tea - all were great. One thing that did make me chuckle in the aforementioned guidebook was the reference to a DVD on-demand service where the butler could deliver a DVD of your choice to the room - which felt like a blast from the past. I didn’t enquire about this but I’m pretty sure it’s not available anymore - the same guidebook also referred to Starwood, the name of St. Regis’ owner prior to the Marriott merger.
Although I loved this feature of the hotel and it’s uniqueness, after all I haven’t stayed at many other hotels which offer a ‘butler service’, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. Something makes me a little uncomfortable about the connotation of calling somebody a butler in the same way that as much as the service on Qatar Airways is great, it sometimes is a bit too much. This is in no way a negative comment about the hotel but just something that maybe I need to get used to when staying in more premium properties - which I certainly don’t mind trying out 😉.
In-room food
In a nod to the pandemic era, menus were only available after scanning a QR Code. Thanks to our delayed inbound flight, we only had a small evening meal after arrival consisting of Thai fish cakes and a Thai fried chicken dish. Both tasted great, even cold as they arrived whilst I was on a Google Meet call, and were enough to fill us both up alongside the excellent cheesecake and macaroons mentioned earlier. Prices were okay being expensive for the rest of Thailand but I was hungry so the cost was worth it.
Unfortunately we were unable to sample the buffet breakfast at the hotel, but still managed to eat our way through the in-room menu. For reference, the breakfast in-room was included in our quarantine package and we certainly made the most out of it opting to try the Thai and Chinese options as well as the bread basket. Prices, if not included in your room rate, are all in Thai Baht which again make these quite expensive - but around normal for this standard of hotel.
Naturally this being in Thailand, the Thai breakfast had the most flavour and I really enjoyed it. It was just a shame that the person on the phone misinterpreted my order for just one Thai breakfast and not two. Although many tourist would probably consider some of the flavours too intense for breakfast time, having it at mid-morning was a perfect way to start the day and the quality of the ingredients were fantastic too. The Chinese breakfast, in comparison, was a little blander with the soy milk and fried bread a strange combination - but this was offset by the flavourful Chicken Congee with Ginger. I would probably suggest that if you want the best breakfast experience at this hotel and if you are not staying in quarantine to visit the actual hotel restaurant.
Release from quarantine
At 3pm local time we received a call from the reception asking when we were going to leave the hotel room, which was a little strange because we had not been advised if our test result was negative. I had attempted to request for the result around midday but to no avail but funnily enough after the 3pm call we got the results back within thirty minutes or so - likely because the room was being used soon after. As noted in my previous article, 18 hours for a private test result in Thailand is quite slow compared to others but fast in comparison to UK test results. In all, this meant we spent a lot of our time in Bangkok in the hotel room - but it did mean we made the most out of the beautiful suite we had been upgraded to. The slightly irritating thing was the test result clearly stated that the test certificate had been signed off at 11:30 meaning we had to wait four hours to get the result back - four hours we could have spent at other parts of the property or around the city. Alas, I didn't know that at the time.
Hotel facilities
As you’ll probably have noticed by now, we didn’t spend much time at the rest of the property thanks to our test result wait. We did have a quick walk around once out of the room with a sizeable swimming pool near to the top of the hotel alongside a spa and fitness centre. I could easily see people spending a number of days at this property for a nice combination of city sightseeing, thanks to a central location and great facilities around. The hotel also houses a selection of restaurants including:
IGNIV - a Michelin starred fine dining restaurant part of the famous Swiss restaurant
Viu - panoramic view restaurant
Decanter - private event space
The Lounge and The Drawing Room for cafe vibes
Zuma - Japanese restaurant
Verdict
The St. Regis Bangkok is a classy, understated hotel that excels in both service and style. The hotel isn’t the usual Scandi, ultra-modern vibe that I usually enjoy - but this was an almost perfect stay. Prices for this standard of hotel are more affordable in Bangkok, versus other international cities, but the quality far exceeds what you pay. If and when Thailand begins their Test & Go scheme again, alongside the 1-night quarantine requirement, I recommend the St. Regis Bangkok as a great place to stay, relax and ponder your time in quarantine. It would be good to see the hotel make some aspects of the experience more modern - such as updating the handbook which is very clearly out of date and embracing use of the app to communicate to the butler or make orders - but these are small criticisms. The experience was fantastic with a smooth transfer from airport to hotel room - I can only commend the hotel as well as the authorities for an effective disease control measure that keeps tourism alive. I only hope that Test & Go begins again soon so other travellers from abroad can experience this hotel too.
