Unico Leela Hotel - Bangkok, Thailand     

This is one of those hotels that looks very nice in the ads, and sadly turns out to be garbage. The check-in went fairly ok, the staff isn't exactly the friendliest in Bangkok. We were given the choice of 2 different rooms, one which was bigger than the other. The big room looked ok, but was quite worn and the window was facing a wall about a metre from it. However, it wreaked of diesel exhaust, so we opted for the smaller room. This was about half the size, and showed heavy signs of wear and tear. Standard hard and worn Bangkok bed, unpleasant furnishing and dirty walls and windows. The old aircon was noisy and smelled a bit musty and the thai-style (although with a sit-down toilet) bathroom was cramped, but fairly clean. The dark, small and cave-like maze of hallways surely puts you in the right mood when entering the room from downstairs. The only thing that's good about this hotel is the reception area which looks quite new and has good furnishing. Sadly, the staff service and efficiency doesn't impress. I had a beer in the outside "beer garden" while waiting for some friends, and had to actually go inside to get the waitress to get some service. There's a lot of hotels in Bangkok in this area that offers twice the value for money, pick one of those instead.

I booked a standard room in this hotel online for 2 nights and planned to stay 4. I spend one night there and left the following morning despite having to forfeit the money I paid because I was so disappointed. Ok to start, the entrance and foyer presents very well but its downhill from then on. The person behind reception was unfriendly and literally barked at my girlfriend for some ID even though I had already given mine. Was shown up to the room which was located in a maze of corridors painted a horrible green colour and very depressing. It reminded me of the colours in which school corridors are painted to absorb any dirt and looked more like (even worse) than some backpackers I stayed in when i was younger). The room which we were shown stunk of smoke, with walls and ceiling really in need of being repainted as showing quite a few stains. Window gave out onto a dirty wall only 50cm away (really). Shower only dribbled water and the sink only had a cold water tap !! Surely a star hotel has hot water available at the sink ? This is not a backpackers.....towels were clean but appeared very worn from age. Bedsheets were clean but also old. Anyway I went down to reception and asked for a non-smoking room (as booked). This time reception became surly and replied there were no more rooms available ! When I pointed out this was a smoking room he replied that all rooms were smoking in the hotel !! I then said I would be happy to upgrade to the deluxe room and PAY the difference but he replied the hotel was full. After pushing some more he said maybe tomorrow there would be another room available but that I would have to come back the next day. After this I hopped onto the internet (available in the foyer at a price) and made an online enquiry directly to the hotel as it mentionned rooms were available ! I guess reception must of picked up on this and came to get me and showed me a deluxe room which was available. They said I could have it but stated a much higher price than what was advertised. I politely declined since it was already midnight and intended to leave the next morning by this stage. I note that this room was the same style as the previous one but had been renovated with new furnishings so alot more agreeable. I am not an expensive traveller so tend to stay in the lower range hotels, my motto being as long as its clean I can stay there. In this case though I really felt ripped off. There are nicer hotels and cheaper available in Bangkok. This is definately not a 2 or 3 star hotel and of course I will not stay there again. Cheers