UPDATE as of 13 May 2014
I was ganged up and robbed of my 500 USD from nearby Pratunam market thus I availed the free safety deposit box of the hotel located at the reception. I was asked to sign a form before they allowed me to use the safety box. There are two keys for the box, one will be lend to you while the other key will be left with the reception desk. Inside this safety deposit box is a removal metal box which can be secured by a small padlock. If you don't have a padlock you can buy it from the reception desk for 75 THB.
Moreover, in our previous stay in this hotel, they have removed the pork sausages and bacons from the breakfast menu. The daily rate is now around 35 USD per night inclusive of taxes.
On our recent trip to Pratunam a few days back we stayed at White Palace Hotel.
I have read some bad reviews about this hotel but due to its affordable price my wife and I decided to give it a try since its location was ideal for shopping within Pratunam area. I booked through Agoda and paid 95.70 USD for a double room for 3 nights with complimentary breakfast and free WIFI.
According to its website, the hotel has a small pool at the roof deck but we were not interested due to lack of time while at the huge lobby area was a massage room frequented mainly by Caucasians.
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| tattered bed sheet (note the hole) and the bare walls |
Our room was at 7th floor. Be aware though that while waiting for the lift, you would be surprise to note that your floor would show 8 on the indicator. We were initially confused but got used to it.
The whole 7th floor was under renovation, you can even smell paint thinner along the hallway during day time. Moreover, the concrete walls inside our room remained bare while the ceiling has recently been painted. The view from our room was nothing spectacular, just an LRT station and sea of buildings and houses.
It is worth to mention that the T&B obviously underwent a major refurbishment. Interesting to note however is that though the granite walls are of good taste, the water faucets are of inferior quality causing water to leak, not to mention the difficulty in controlling the water temperature.
Basic toiletries were provided but the main drawback was the dated and worn-out towels though they were being replaced daily.
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| buffet breakfast |
Breakfast was mainly the same everyday except the noodles. Aside from the noodles, you can have chicken and pork sausages, fried and scrambled eggs, fried rice and pork bacon. Likewise, you would find the perennial favorite cereals, bread, jams and coffee/tea/juice as well.
The hotel is strictly not allowing late check-out unless you are willing to pay additional 625 THB. Our flight was at 6:45 pm so we requested to extend for two hours but after learning that we need to pay extra we had no choice but to check-out at 12 noon. However, in fairness, they allowed us to leave our luggage while we tried to spend our remaining Baht. We returned back at 2 pm and took some rest at the lobby.
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| dripping water from ceiling |
The centralized a/c could be great due to less noise compared with old-school a/c but on our second night, there was a gush of water coming from the ceiling. I thought the pool at the roof deck leaked water to our room, LOL. The water continued to gush for few minutes. I assumed it was drain water from the centralized a/c. I placed a towel to contain the water and fortunately the water found its way to the bathroom.
The wife was disappointed with the wifi; she was even sometimes hysterical. She was intermittently being disconnected while playing City Ville. I smiled secretly, LOL. Nevertheless, when connected, wifi was fast thus I watched my favorite Naruto Shippuden series and while on my second Naruto episode I was disconnected from the net as well. I went ballistic, I called the reception and complained impatiently about the wifi, they reset the power and the connection returned. If not offered free, I would raise a howl regarding the intermittent disconnection.
By the way, 2 bottle of water were being replenished daily however there was no coffee or tea making facility thus I was surprised to note a mini-bar inside our room.
Needless to say, if you plan to shop at Pratunam area then I would recommend this budget hotel because of its proximity to great shopping areas and its affordable price considering the free breakfast and wifi. I have no comment about the service since we had limited interaction with the staff though the guy at the reception was quite cordial in dealing with us.
Getting home, we hailed a tuk-tuk outside the hotel and asked the driver to bring us to Ratchaprarop airport link station. We paid 80 THB for the tuk-tuk ride and 40 THB each for the train fare going to the airport.
The expo aims to exceed last year crowds of 17,000 visitors. This is our first time to attend this yearly event. The discount offered on some gadgets was truly amazing. The main drawback was that some exhibitors were not accepting cards as payment. I was bent on replacing my two-year old MSI dual-core laptop with Lenovo i5 laptop with 1 GB video card, LED display and 750 GB HDD plus 2 GB RAM and other common features such as DVD writer and HDMI output for 23,999 pesos only. It was almost a sale on their part if not for their cash only payment.
