Which Hilton in Bangkok?

[Jon]

Go197 wrote:

But the Shangri-La was so bad!

Oh, what went wrong? Interested to know, as a friend stayed recently and said it was lovely, so I was toying with making a visit…

[Aston100]

Jon wrote:

Go197 wrote:

But the Shangri-La was so bad!

Oh, what went wrong? Interested to know, as a friend stayed recently and said it was lovely, so I was toying with making a visit…

Sorry missed this thread due to lack of notifications.

Can confirm the Chiang Mai Shangri-La is bad in many ways.
IMO the only redeeming factor was the pool, and that didn’t come anywhere near making up for the issues elsewhere.

[Aston100]

BJ wrote:

@Aston, IME (and that is a lot of years and taxi rides) it is rare for drivers to refuse to use the meter. The reason you get so many of these stories from tourists is because they are mostly staying in the busiest areas and mostly want to take short rides at times when the roads are often jammed. You have to come and go with them on that, I don’t get why the same tourists that would happily pay £10 for a short journey at home suddenly throw a fit when a taxi driver in Bangkok or some other places ask for £2 for an even longer journey instead of using the meter. I’ve had more issues with drivers wanting to use the expressway at times when I know the regular roads would be no worse or even better. Only two rides in the last twenty years spring to mind where the driver has intentionally tried to take me the scenic route, by comparison I’ve had that in Edinburgh twice this year already. In Bangkok it is not unusual for a taxi driver to be way outside their usual area and sometimes they genuinely do not know the way but this is not usually much of a problem for the places tourists want to go. I use the bikes only in traffic jams, not much chance of getting hit then.

Sorry BJ, gonna have to disagree with you.
The number of times we had issues with Bangkok taxis refusing the meter (almost every taxi) was not a coincidence.
This is backed up by many similar observations on TA forums recently.

A £2 journey in Bangkok? what’s that – about 80 baht? no Bangkok taxi is going to charge 80 baht for a ‘fixed price’ tourist scam. You’d be lucky to see a quote of under 200 baht for a short journey, so not sure what you mean by people throwing a fit about a £2 taxi fare.

And I’m sorry, comparing Edinburgh pricing with Bangkok just isn’t right. I didn’t go to Edinburgh, I went to Bangkok. I would expect Bangkok prices not Edinburgh prices. I can live with a small uplift, no problem. This is about principal and allowing a bad practice to thrive and probably grow, rather than whether I was overcharged by (the equivalent of) two or three quid.

Anyway, hope that didn’t come across rudely 🙂

[Aston100]

Back on topic, the Conrad Bangkok was excellent when I stayed a few weeks ago, and I’m now diamond after completing a status match here.