SEA 2023 (4/17) – Bangkok: Grand Hyatt Erawan

Park Hyatt Bangkok had been one of our favorite hotels in the world. It wasn’t an option for this trip because its standard room could accommodate at most one child. Looking into the next best option down the street, we realized that perhaps Grand Hyatt Erawan was even better.

Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok was located at the heart of Siam Square, right behind the popular Erawan Shrine. The lobby was of the grand colonial style, which wasn’t our preference but very impressive.

After Conrad Bora-Bora Nui, we thought we’d never see the level of soft-touch check-in experience again, at least not without staying at another top-end boutique property. This hotel blew us away and almost put Conrad to shame. The receptionist brought us to the Grand Club Lounge on the 17th floor, where her colleague seated us at a table and took our drink order, so that we could sip hand-crafted beverages and munch on cookies while they processed our paperwork on the side.

We’d maintain access to this lounge for the duration of our stay. We could stop in for drinks at any time, and get some bites to eat during breakfast and happy hour. It was an excessive level of luxury, because we also had access to the grand breakfast buffet in the lobby restaurant.

After paperwork, the receptionist handed us a pair of wooden key cards (which I may have forgotten to return) and led us to our ~~room~~ suite on the 19th floor. Beyond those unmistakable double doors, the extra bed for the kids had already been put in place despite us checking in three hours early. She gave us a quick tour of our 1,300-square-foot home for the next four days.

Now, let’s pause for a moment to discuss my favorite topic: numbers. A standard room at this hotel (which slept 4, vs. 3) went for ~$200 USD per night, which was not cheap by Bangkok standards, but only about half of what Park Hyatt would charge. If paying by points, though, it cost 8,000 compared to Park Hyatt’s 25,000+. For reference, 8,000 Hyatt points in the US could hardly get you an airport hotel far away from any meaningful tourist attraction.

It would have been wonderful if we stopped there, to afford our entire Bangkok stay with merely 32k Hyatt points. But I scrolled down and discovered their Premier Suite, which came with breakfast and lounge access. Cash rate was ~$600 per night, but the other option was merely 16,000 points. It was so cheap that I thought it was an incorrect listing, and I booked it hoping nobody would notice. For hardly two nights’ worth of points in a standard room at Park Hyatt, I got the family four nights in a suite almost as big as our Millbrae condo…

We got more space than we knew what to do with

The living space:

Master suite:

Half bath near the entrance:

A kitchenette with a full-size fridge and more glass bottled water than we needed:

The hotel also gave us a canister of dried fruits and nuts, a bottle of wine (not pictured or consumed), and a gorgeous bowl of fresh fruits. I loved the fruit bowl because it looked great, smelled awesome, and tasted delicious. I also felt bad about the hotel refreshing it every day because we could hardly make a dent in it after all those other meals.

The view from the ~~room~~ suite was as good as it got. Note the four train tracks intersecting below. The hotel being situated at the junction of both BTS lines made it possibly more convenient than anywhere else in Bangkok. Staying here may have contributed to us enjoying public transit more than the last visit, even though the two hotels were only half a mile apart.

The hotel pool, which the kids loved while Hong and I dozed off on the side:

This hotel was so nice that the girls decided that I (specifically I, not their mom) needed a daily concierge-style greeting with an aesthetic reminiscent of the Shining:

The only thing Grand Hyatt Erawan was bad at was helping us maintain any pretense of a healthy diet. This was something we learned on the very first morning when stepping into the grand breakfast buffet…

The hotel website undersold what it had to offer by referring to this as a “continental breakfast”. It’d have been a more accurate description to say “breakfast from all continents”. A super tasty sample of local Southeast Asian staples? Check. Congee and dim sum spread for the Chinese? Check. Bread, waffle, and pastries for the Caucasians? Check. And let’s not forget about an entire halal table, a large variety of fresh-cut fruits, a made-to-order noodle station, and a salad bar that put Sizzler’s to shame…

We had kick-ass breakfast in Bora-Bora, but that indulgence was somewhat acceptable because we hardly planned to eat any lunch or dinner. This breakfast buffet was superior and, because we were in Bangkok, it was merely meant to be the first breakfast of each morning. There was such a mixed feeling of happiness and guilt… as I got up to fetch my third plate…