Sheraton Royal Orchid Hotel Review

The Sheraton Royal Orchid is located on the Chao Praya River and is an expansive property with plenty of amenities.

The lobby is grand and decorated with traditional Thai designs.  The bellmen are very attentive and greeted me by name after two days at the hotel. The lobby has several gift shops, a reception area, a bar and restaurant. On the second floor of the hotel, there are many more shops (tailors, jewelry stores, a salon, etc..) an Italian restaurant, a traditional Thai Restaurant and Link@ Sheraton.   The third floor houses the Mandara Spa. There are conference rooms and plenty of areas for meetings and events.

The hotel tower is 28 floors and has many suites.  There is a concierge lounge on the 27^th floor.   At check-in we were greeted by an Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) representative.  He showed us to our rooms, explained our benefits and showed us the concierge lounge.  He was extremely helpful and friendly during our entire stay.  Every time we saw him, he greeted us by name and inquired about our stay.

Rooms:

As a Platinum member of SPG, I was upgraded to an Executive Suite.  The room was extremely large and on the corner of the tower building which provided great views of the riverfront.  There was a bedroom, bathroom with large shower and bathtub, a living room with desk, couch and chair and very large screen TV.   My colleague, also an SPG Platinum, was upgraded to a Junior Suite which was also in the Tower and just a smaller version of the Executive Suite.   The room was very comfortable.  There was turn-down service but it was not regular. Some nights it would happen, other nights it wouldn’t.
Concierge Lounge and Platinum Services:

The concierge lounge was very large with amazing views of the river.  The lounge was open all day and closed around 10pm.  In the morning, a light breakfast was served and the staff was very helpful and welcoming.  As a Platinum SPG member, I was given the choice of eating in the lounge or restaurant and did not have to use my Platinum amenity for this benefit.   The concierge lounge had snacks and drinks available all day.  At 5:30, the lounge served appetizers and drinks.  The rules for entering the lounge after 5pm were very different than during the day.  After 5pm, you have to dress appropriately and can’t wear flip-flops, unless they have a gold decoration or flower on them.  I had on the exact same flip-flops as my colleague, mine were plain black and hers had a gold buckle on the top.  She was allowed to wear hers and I had to go change.  The rules seemed to be enforced oddly.  The appetizers and cocktails were very generous and delicious.

The hotel concierge was amazing.  He was able to make very complex transportation arrangements for us and attended to all of our requests.  All of the hotel staff were great.

The restaurants:
The restaurants were all good.  Very fairly priced for hotel restaurants and the service was good and consistent.  Breakfast was served in the main restaurant and there was an enormous buffet in addition to an ala carte menu.  The Thai restaurant was very good.  There is traditional Thai dancing from 7-10pm about once every hour and it’s a great show. The Italian restaurant is okay.  There are many other great Italian restaurants in the city and I wouldn’t run to eat at this one if you had a choice.

The SPA:

The Mandara Spa is beautiful and relaxing.  The massage services are excellent. I would highly recommend the Traditional Thai Foot Massage or the Swedish Massage.  The manicure and pedicure services are average and I wouldn’t recommend them based on the prices.  There were very few nail polish color choices, the foot massage and hand massage that you typically get with a mani/pedi were pretty non-existent.  They didn’t have disposable shoes to wear after the pedicure, so you had to walk barefoot if you didn’t bring your own flip flops.

Location:
The hotel is located on the river and has its own river boat shuttle.  Directly next to the hotel is the River Center Shops.  There are daily dinner cruises that depart from the center and they can be extremely loud between the hours of 7pm – 10pm. On the 22^nd floor, I was able to hear the music every night from the dinner boats as they docked.  The shopping center is not anything special.  The stores are tourist traps and the restaurants are not so great.  I would avoid the center except for the grocery store – a great place to pick up snacks, drinks, etc…

Overall

Overall, the hotel is a great value for the cost.  The rooms are lovely and comfortable, the staff is very accommodating and the location is great.  I would absolutely stay again.