Grand Hyatt Erawan is located in the heart of downtown Bangkok. It is located right behind the famous Erawan Shrine, which sees thousands of devotees coming to offer their prayers to the Four-Faced Buddha. The hotel is within minutes’ walk from the nearest BTS station – Chit Lom Station. It is also within minutes’ walk from shopping malls such as Central World, Gaysorn to name a few.

The room I checked in is the Grand King room. Upon checking in, I was upgraded to the Grand King View room. The difference between the two rooms is the view. While the Grand King room faces the back of the hotel, the Grand King View room faces the front of the hotel. Upon entering the rustic room, the entrance to the bathroom is immediate to the right side. The squarish designed bathroom feels compact and luxurious at the same time, extending the rustic feel from the entrance of the room.  There are a couple of cubicles on the left of the entrance to the bathroom. The first cubicle is the walk-in shower with both rain shower and regular massage showerhead, and the cubicle next to it, next to the sink is the toilet. There is no additional door to the toilet cubicle. The sink feels rather small, but sufficient for one to place one’s additional toiletries. Opposite the cubicles, by a foldable door that opens to the room, in the bathtub. There are speakers piped into the bathroom so that one can watch the TV from the tub with the sound from the TV.

After the entrance to the bathroom is the wardrobe area. There are two sections to the wardrobe – the open part and the enclosed part. The open portion has five-tier shelving with the safe occupying the centre tier, whiles there are baskets for guests to put their stuff into for the rest of the shelves. The enclosed part of the wardrobe is purely for guest to hang their clothing. There is sufficient room for one to hang up to two weeks of clothing.

Walking past the wardrobe, the room opens up to the spacious bedroom. Right around the corner, one can find a king bed. The bed is very comfortable and allowed a very well needed rest for the night after all the walking in Bangkok. There is also a pillow menu for guests to choose from different types of pillows to suit one’s needs. There is a shelf to the left of the bed with a pot acting as a decoration in the room. The bottom part of the shelf houses a radio and control for the switches in the room. There is sufficient room for one to place one’s mobile phone while charging on the bottom shelf. To the right of the bed is a bedside table with a phone and another switch control. To the right of the bedside table, further into the room and nicely tucked into a corner of the room facing the window is a couch and a glass top table. The couch is oddly placed in the room and perhaps intended to function more like chairs for the table than for one to relax in and watch the TV. The large-sized glass table functions as both a work desk, with most of the international adaptor powerpoints at the side of the table, and a dining table. There is a lamp on the table. There is another armchair placed at the glass table.

Swimming Pool

The hotel has a fairly large swimming pool located on the 5th floor. The free-form pool allows one to dip in and cool off in the hot Bangkok sun. There are a large number of deck chairs to go around and most of them are not situated under trees or any form of shades, providing guests with good spots for tanning. There is a poolside restaurant providing snacks and refreshments for guests.

Spa Facilities

The hotel has spa facilities separately for both male and female guests located on the 5th floor. There is a sauna, steam room, hot and cold jacuzzi inside the spa facilities. There are showers and lockers available inside the spa facilities. Guests can obtain the key from the staff manning the counter outside the spa facilities. There are ample amenities such as shavers, cotton buds, and towels available inside the spa room.

The gym is also located on the 5th floor of the hotel. The gym is quite well equipped with treadmills, press machines. There is a small counter serving drinks and complimentary bottled water next to the gym. Towels are available on the shelves outside the gym.

Breakfast is served in the Dining Room located on the 1st floor of the hotel. There is quite a good spread of cuisine available for breakfast, ranging from Western to Asian to Thai to Indian, catering to the differing pallets of the guests staying in the hotel. The spread of food is good enough to last guests through dinner.

The service in the hotel is truly 5-star. One will be treated like a VIP the moment one alights the cab. Staffs at the concierge are ready to assist us with our luggage and escorted us across the expansive lobby to the check-in counter where their check-in counterparts will assist us further. The concierge staff greeted us and opened the door for us whenever we walk past them. The staffs at the check-in counters truly embrace the warmth of the Thais, greeting us with a smile and went all way out to arrange for a room that we requested through booking. The proficient staff processed our check-in very speedy and ensured that we did not have to wait for too long before handing over the keycard to our room.

The great service is not only found in the lobby and the main entrance to the hotel. Even the housekeeping staff made us feel pleasant and welcomed in the hotel. We bumped into a couple of them during our short stay at the hotel. They never failed to smile and greet us whenever we bumped into them. I requested for additional bath amenities and extra pillow, the housekeeping staff got them delivered to us rather fast and as always with a genuine smile on his face. The staff outside the spa facilities and the pool are always smiling and readily made us feel welcome to use the facilities in the hotel. There are always smiles hanging on the face of the staff at the spa facilities counters whenever we walked past them. The staffs are always ready to answer any questions that I raised.

The service at the Dinning table is a mix. On the first day of our stay,  the staff made us feel welcome and ensured we were brought to our table almost immediately. Plates were cleared whenever we left our table to grab more food. However, it was not so on our second day of stay at Grand Hyatt Erawan. Perhaps due to the crowd, the counter at the front of the restaurant was not manned by anyone. We were made to wait for 10 mins after admitting us into the restaurant as the staff was frantically looking for a table to us. The chefs at the egg station cooked our eggs with care. There was once I wanted to grab some pancakes. A thoughtful chef, instead of giving me the one on their table, made a new one for me.

Overall

I had a pleasant stay at Grand Hyatt Erawan. The sleep quality is excellent and the room is well designed with comfort in mind. The facilities in the hotel were top-notch and the availability of the spa facilities to the guests without additional charge. The services that I had received during my stay with the hotel are fantastic. The staff made me feel welcomed and were seen smiling and greeting guests. With a convenient location and the excellent hardware and service, this hotel is well worth a stay for visitors visiting Bangkok for leisure or business alike. I look forward to staying in a different type of room in Grand Hyatt Erawan the next time I visit Bangkok.