Buddy Lodge - Bangkok, Thailand 

Just what I was looking for
Posted: Fri, Jul 18 2008
For our stay in Bangkok, I wanted a budget hotel that was clean, comfortable, had some local character and was near the action. The Buddy Lodge was everything I hoped. It was not five-star luxurious, but was also much less like a backpacker hostel than the name of the property might imply. The rooms were sunny, clean, and decorated with white wood & wicker furnishings. On the roof was a pleasant, clean pool (with spouting carved elephants) and a bar. The breakfast buffet was in a beautiful, airy restaurant and offered a wide range of both Thai and Western food - all of it delicious. The hotel is located on Khao San road, a bustling street popular with tourists, but also full of amazingly cheap restaurants, shopping, tour services and more. On the ground floor is a nightclub/bar which can be very noisy until late at night - one might want to avoid a room directly above it.

Ate at the restaurant...looked promising till the food showed up
Posted: Fri, Jul 11 2008
Tried their New Zealand steak. It was not NZ steak and hate to see them advertising it as such. New Zealand steak is incredibly tender with no sinew or fat. Their meat was cooked slowly on a low heat which is great if you want to eat rubber! It was passed off as sirloin on the menu. In fact it was stewing steak...you know the crap meat you need to boil for 3 hours before you can chew it.

Great Location but very noisy
Posted: Wed, Jul 02 2008
We stayed for 2 nights at the Buddy Lodge from the 2nd to the 4th of June. Booked the rooms through AsiaRooms and got quite a cheap rate for a standard room. The hotel itself is in a prime location right on Khoa San Road so your right in the middle of the action. Staff were very friendly and even organised a taxi for us to the airport at 4:00am when we checked out. We stayed on the 3rd floor and had the room right next to the spa/massage room. Our room was unfortunately located as we could hear the nightclub music from downstairs everytime we went to bed. When the music finally stopped at 1am we were continually disturbed by the nightclub staff who were moving the beer kegs out of the club and into the back holding area which our room overlooked. The noise from one of those metal kegs falling on the concrete would be loud enough to wake the dead. Apart from that though the hotel is exactly what you'd expect and what others have mentioned on here. Room is quite big, bed was nice but the linen was worn and had holes. TV didn't work in our room but we didn't bother making a fuss. Bathroom was ok but in need of some work. Breakfast again was also ok but uninspiring. My suggestion would be that if you are going to stay here ask from a room on a higher floor and also towards the left hand side of the building when you walk out of the elevators. If the noise is a concern you might want to consider the Viengtai hotel located on the next street. Same price, no noise but also a little bit more dated. Overall an ok stay but I would def be wary of the noise the next time.

Quite Average
Posted: Wed, Jun 18 2008
Stayed at Buddy for a couple of nights and was a bit dissapointed. For the price I'm pretty sure you could do better and would probably be better off spending another 10 - 20 bucks per night and going to a bigger hotel. The whole establishment is a bit stale and rundown/dodgy. The highlight would have to have been the several european women sunbathing by the pool topless with some very impressive chests! Needless to say my chinese girlfreind and and gay malaysina male friend felt a bit left out LOL. I think if you've enjoyed this area of Bangkok you might like the place, but I found the whole area soul-less and extremely over touristy.