Boone Place

The staff were really friendly and helpful, and they did more than I expected during my nine-day, eight-night stay. The website says towel changes come with a fee, which seems reasonable to me, but staff cleaned our room, straightened the blanket, and left a fresh towel on the bed each day. They even decorated the room with roses made from pandan leaves, which smelled nice. The room was neat and clean, and I really enjoyed the stay with my friend. The downside is the location: it’s down an alley and a 25-30 minute walk from the shopping malls. The route can also be dark and feel unsafe for women traveling solo.

I booked three nights to recover after major surgery, and they were the worst three days of my life. They made sure we had checked in and paid before replying to the questions we’d emailed. The listing mentioned smoking rooms, but then I was threatened with a 5,000 baht fine for smoking on the balcony. The beds were so hard that I had to sleep on the small lounge on top of pillows. They wouldn’t move me when I asked. A cleaner kept banging on the door until I could slowly get up to answer. Another cleaner wore headphones and nearly pushed the cleaning cart over me in the elevator, without looking or apologizing. I had a bladder bag and couldn’t move out of the way quickly.

The staff were very helpful, even explaining why our Uber driver wouldn’t take us places. The whole hotel was clean, and the rooms were bright, modern, and very nice. There’s laundry in the building if you need to do it yourself. For tourists, the main sights are a short taxi ride away, around 70 baht. We liked it enough to book an extra night and see more of Bangkok.

For the price, you get a modern, clean, large room. The mattress felt as hard as a hay block under its faux leather cover, though the sheets were comfortable, and I could still sleep soundly. The lobby, dining area, and corridors were poorly ventilated. Our room access card gave us trouble all week; when we came back tired, we were told it was a “system” problem. The fridge’s electrical current also interfered with the cable TV box. The channels were all in Thai, which cut into the already mediocre entertainment before bed. The hotel sits in a car workshop area with almost no street vendors nearby, apart from one vendor one lane over. In taxis, we had to hand our phone to reception so they could explain where the hotel was. Otherwise, drivers might miss the obscure turning lane and rip us off. A middle-aged receptionist wrote down an Uber fare of 273 baht to the Grand Palace, but our own app showed 143 baht. They also quoted day tours outside Bangkok from 2,000 baht, well above outside rates, so I didn’t trust some staff on prices, though the others were friendly. The cleaner poured water into the toiletries dish and threw away things we’d placed there to keep, or disturbed our tidy arrangement. They also failed to report a broken toilet seat while cleaning. No stars for that.