Sunday, August 16, 2015

Review of Lemontea Hotel @ Bangkok (Pratunam Shopping Area)

For reasons unbeknownst to me, friends could not register the name when i said i stayed at Lemontea Hotel in my latest visit to Bangkok; i had to reiterate it wasn't Lemongrass and it definitely wasn't Greentea! 

Popular with Singaporeans, as it seemed from the Agoda page, Lemontea was touted as a causal, instagrammable hotel situated in close proximity to the wholesale fashion district of Bangkok yet distance enough to avoid the noisy bustle. 

Getting to the two year old hotel via the airport rail link can be a pain in the ass but i would share more at the later part of this post. Most importantly was that we managed to get everyone (twenty two of us) in one piece to the hotel reception where we were welcomed with a small glass of ice-cold, thirst quenching lemon tea!

The webpage wasn't kidding when it indicated that the design style of the hotel was great for tons of photo taking! One hotel that i could draw comparison to was the French Hotel at Ipoh

Those bags and tins of supposedly tea leaves were purely for decorative purpose! I naively thought that the owner(s) owned large of plots of tea plantations and operating a hotel was just the sideline. 

I remember reading that there was a garden in the hotel and was excited to check out the scale of it as you don't normally find gardens in budget hotels as they generally add on to maintenance cost!

This was about as big as you can see and to term it as a garden is indeed pushing the limit; classifying it as a green space sounds a lot better. Nevertheless, it was quite a comfortable spot except that it was heavily favoured by the smokers as a smoking corner.

Handling the check in for all twenty of us can be a major headache; however, everything was sorted out and we managed to check in a little ahead of the official timing (2 pm) within an hour.

Slips of WiFi usernames and passwords were given together with the room's keycard; wireless connectivity was pretty good although you have to login repeatedly sometimes to the online portal. 

Singaporeans are rather sticky when it come to security and it might please you to note that in order to enter the lift lobby, you have to scan your keycard before the electromagnetic lock releases the door. 

Not assured of the pretty common security feature as mentioned above? Here's another one; you have to scan your keycard in the elevator again and the smart technology would only bring you to your designated floor! 

Room 205 - thinking we have to scan the keycard again, Alex tap it several times before it came to our hilarious realisation that the key attached to the card does have its usefulness; to physically open the door! 

Entering our superior room. 

Said to be of the minimalist style, we were surprised to see a huge king sized bed; you can definitely sleep three adults although you may wish to note that the hotel imposes an additional charge of 600 baht for an extra person.

Even though it was bright, the source of it came from the windows; once the night falls, i found the lighting to be too dim for my liking. By the way, i absolutely love the strong and cool air flow from the air-conditioner!

Simple study table with two IKEA mugs, television with cable and a fridge; the usual staff you can find in most decent hotels. For the use of kettle, you may approach the receptionist to loan out one. 

See-through fridge was so cool; at one glance, you would know if you have left anything uneaten at the end of your stay! I often bought snacks and drinks for the fridge and forgot about them when i left! By the way, no durian allowed; flouting of which would incur a fine of 2,000 baht! 

Two bottles of complimentary water were provided on a daily basis! 

In-room safe for your valuable belongings, disposable slippers and ugly, pink clothes hangers in the closet. Now, let's proceed to the bathroom.

It was huge! Pity my camera len wasn't the wide-lens type that could put things in better perspective. There was another glass door within the bathroom that led to the shower area. 

No rainfall shower but it did its job well. The only complaint was that the water was on the hot side and turning the knob didn't help much unless i turned off the heater totally. I can only be thankful that the hotel is in hot and humid Bangkok where showering in cold water was desirable.

Bathroom amenities. 

Coin-operated washer and dryer can be found on the ground floor, before you enter the lift. I should have utilised it for my cat-piss bag on the second day of the trip. 

Before i touch on breakfast at Lemontea hotel, do be glad for this old school weighing scale beside the reception counter! Knowing that foreigners are crazy when it comes to shopping in Bangkok, the scale (with a limit of 35 kilograms) would help to determine if you have breached the luggage limit for the air travel back home! 

Hope you have noticed the staircase in one of the pictures i have appended in the beginning of this post; this staircase, usually closed for the rest of the day, would be your main access to the restaurant on level two. 

Get ready your breakfast coupons; if you ask me, don't bother requesting for breakfast with your accommodation as there are plenty to eat outside the restaurant! For me, the hotel is just a place to sleep and any non-sleeping, non-bathing, non-shitting time would be better off spent outside of it! 

On top of the staircase.

Coffee / tea / juice, fruits and bread section. It's mainly self service and you would have to help yourselves with the fork, spoon and knife. And the beverages of course. 

Main course wasn't buffet style and you may make your selection from four sets as above. I went with the boring set one with sunny side up. 

Additional seating area in the adjourned room. Seats are limited and i could not imagine how hard it would be to find an available spot if all 73 rooms in the hotel are occupied with included breakfast.

Counter seating, cafe style, for those who wish to people-watch the street for day-to-day activities by the locals. It's also for those who could not find a table, like us.

Non-air-conditioned outdoor section - which crazy people would want to sit there in the hot and humid weather?!?!! Not me, definitely....

My breakfast - they gave me poached eggs. =_=.
Nothing good / bad about the set though.

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To be honest, i was pleased with my stay in Lemontea hotel and the staff members were extremely helpful, with the exception of one. I was asking about airport transfer for fifteen persons in the morning of 08 August 2015 and rechecked again in the evening. 

It's a different lady then and had an attitude that would serve better if she isn't in the service line. I had merely asked her to double confirm with her morning colleague who provided us with precise information and her condescending retort was that since i was checking with her, i would have to listen to her! Is it that hard to check?!~?!

Location
55 Soi Petchaburi 15, Petchaburi Road, 
Ratchathewi, Bangkok, Thailand
(very near pratunam)

Map 
As above, showing the hotel with a red border, Airport Rail Link stations with a blue border and major shopping area with a yellow border. 

How to Get to the Hotel?
This is tricky as i have three different routes! From the map, i have drawn three routes; in red, in blue and in yellow. From the airport, ratchaprarop station would be nearer than phaya thai but for BTS, phaya thai would be the nearest.

Yellow route - slowest but it's along the main roads with less likelihood of getting lost. That's the original one we took and it was a walk of at least 20 minutes.

Red route - fastest but you would have to cut across a building which might have the gate closed. Basically, it depends on your luck and the road would be dark at night.

Blue route - the recommended route as you would encounter the local life but two key disadvantages; nonexistent lighting at night and the walkway was a dirt path. 

You may walk along the railway track which runs parallel to the dirt path but do be mindful of oncoming trains! 

Website

Additional Information
Lemontea Hotel has a 7-11 convenience store right next door! It was extremely convenient when you need to grab some snacks right after an exhausting night shopping in the wee hours of the day! 

Other relevant information as appended above for your reading pleasure.


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