We booked a room at the Sky Place Srinakarin because we needed a hotel that was convenient for the airport: we were flying into Suvarnabhumi airport late in the evening, and flying out again the next morning. The Sky Place advertised itself as an airport hotel, and had lovely pictures on its website, so we assumed that it would have everything you need from an airport hotel: 24-hour room service, a 24-hour English-speaking concierge, access to food and drinking water, and so on. It was also advertised as a “serviced apartment”: pictures showed a useful kitchen. At US$55 for a room, we thought it would be fine: hotels in that price range in Bangkok are generally pretty good.

The hotel was about 20 minutes’ drive from the airport – no worse than other airport hotels for the new airport. The building stood on its own in the middle of a swamp. We arrived to a car park containing a few cars and some stray dogs. We eventually managed to rouse the concierge, who didn’t... more