King Park Avenue – Thumbs Down

I am an expatriate who has been living in Bangkok for the past 5 years and I have been reading your column for the past 5 years now. Despite that, this is my first submission to your site, hope you don’t mind. However, sad to say, my first submission
is something unpleasant but unfortunately, I feel I have to voice it out for the benefit of other people who will not face the predicament that I have had to face.

Some background of myself. I am a Malaysian who has stayed in Bangkok for 5 years working as a marketing engineering manager. My work requires me to travel a lot within Thailand and I have traveled to many places of interest in Thailand. The reason I
am submitting this article here is explained below.

It was Chinese New Year and since I did not go back to KL to celebrate due to workload and Jason (my son) schooling, my Dad, Mom, brother and family flew from Singapore to celebrate with us in Bangkok instead. Four days later, my sister and hubby came over too for a short holiday. We checked them in at a hotel in Srinakarin Road called King’s Park Avenue, opposite Seacon Square, a big shopping mall in Bangkok. It
was not a very good experience which I will explain in detail.

I actually booked my sister through my company as we have a corporate account there. As I was busy with work when they arrived, I asked my sister to take a cab and check in at the hotel first and just mention our company’s name. They
obliged and later in the evening, I went to the reception to ask if they had checked in, in which they replied “Yes”. When I asked them how much it is, they replied that it was 1500 baht. I was surprised and politely told them that
we have a corporate rate account and the rate should be 1000 baht. The lady looks at me blankly and referred me to her superior.

I was greeted by this gentleman (but not so gentle when explaining) who didn’t even smile when talking to me. He said that as my sister and hubby are foreigners, the rate is different for foreigners. I politely told him that this is
not a matter of double standard pricing as we have deal with them a couple of times by checking in our customers at his hotel. Before this, I actually asked my secretary to enquire about this and she also confirmed that she had spoken with this
guy and he did not seem so friendly either. I presume she was talking about the same person here. So again I told the manager in charge that we checked in regular customers to his hotel all the time so it just does not make any sense to charge
that extra 500 baht for foreigners.

Now, please don’t misunderstand that we are causing a stir over 500 baht as it is not a matter of money, but a matter of policy and integrity. We have been paying the same rate and we have not had a problem with that, so why is it
that they charged my sister more? In fact, they actually stayed a night at Silom the night before and they even paid 2300 baht for a lousy small room and a lousy breakfast, so paying 1500 baht for this hotel was not an issue at all. The reason
I wanted my sister to stay near my place is for the convenience of me picking her up later at the airport. (I stay in the Bang Na area, which is about 10 km away from the new airport).

I told the manager that in that case I will check out tomorrow (I was scheduled to check them in for 2 nights) and he gave me a scowl that says "Up to you". Talk about hotel service! I tried to enquire about the person in charge
and the staff told me that I was talking to him! What! No wonder his staff had solemn faces and there was no smiling at all. Seriously! I would have expected his staff to at least be kind and sympathetic enough to acknowledge my predicament, but,
heck, no! They just gave me a stare similar to their boss. Well, this shows staff follow the manager's style, doesn’t it? Well, sorry to say but you have lost one customer, King Park Avenue. My rating for your hotel service? 1! If
anybody from the hotel is reading this, you’d better do something as not only will you lose one customer, you will lose out potential future customers in the future due to the power of the internet.

As for your website, Mr Stickman, keep up the good work! I must admit that I have not been visiting your site for the past few months due to heavy workload (I have to travel to Rayong twice a week for the next 6 months due to a project there)
but I do take a peek once or twice to see what’s happening. Haven’t been reading reader’s submission much, though but I have this urge to write to you so that it will benefit the rest of the reader’s who might be thinking
of checking in to Kings Park Avenue.

Thanks, Mr Stickman.

Stickman's thoughts:

Disappointing to hear of this service failure. I have never actually heard of that hotel before and given its out of the way location it is not likely a spot that would be that popular with a typical Stickman reader.