Dream Hotel, Sukhumvit, Bangkok

Dream Hotel is an affordable hotel in the busy locality of Sukhumvit Soi 15, Bangkok. In lots of aspects, this hotel is similar to the Le Fenix Sukhumvit, where I’d stayed in 2012.  (Le Fenix is walkable distance away from this hotel). We spent 2 nights in Dream 1 last month and this post shares some of my observations.

Dream hotel is a chain of hotels, with few hotels worldwide, including Kochi in India. In Bangkok, Dream Hotel has two towers, separated by a street- Dream 1, where main reception, restaurant and other key facilities exist, while Dream 2 is another tower on the other side of the road, which contains more rooms and a rooftop swimming pool. 

Dream Hotel has a signature colour of Blue, so all rooms are blue themed. There’re blue lights under the bed and in other areas of the room, which is said to give a dream signature experience and set a very romantic ambiance. Room rents start from 2300 baht and go all the way up to 10000 baht a night for the suite rooms.

We stayed in one of the cheaper rooms. Photos of more luxurious suites are given below, captured during our guided tour of the dream hotel, which is termed as “Inspection”.

 

Breakfast options were fine by Bangkok standards. No specific complaints.

 

There were some deals and offers for those intend to party- but I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Big buses will have tough time negotiating the busy streets of Sukhumvit to reach this hotel, so at times it could be more convenient to just walk from the main road.

There’re smoking and nonsmoking rooms. If you’re smoker, you can ask for smoking rooms. No smoking is allowed in nonsmoking room.

Good things I find about Dream Hotel Sukhumvit

1.       In the heart of Sukhumvit area- located between BTS Asoka & BTS Nana stations. Very easy to go for shopping or roam around, without having to depend on taxis.

2.       Dream hotel has a complementary Tuk Tuk service that can drop you off at nearby destinations like malls or metro stations

3.       Wifi Router inside the room is good idea, as it gives stronger signals. Other hotels will have a common router in the lobby, one or two per floor.

4.       Standard spa rates are a bit expensive, but all rooms had a coupon that granted some discount, so net rate is fairly reasonable.

5.       Rooms are just fine-given that space is at premium in Sukhumvit area, they have done whatever is possible the limited area available.

6.       Though no newspapers are delivered to the room, front desk has lots of magazines, which sort of engages you while waiting.

7.       We reached airport from this hotel in less than 1 hour time on a Saturday evening, in a bus, which I think is decent time & distance- not too far.

8.       Lot of art work/interior design in the lobby and first floor.

 

Not so good things/Possible improvements:

1.       Makemytrip lists Dream as a 5 star hotel. But given its location, space constraint and overall facilities, I feel this hotel can be best rated at 3 stars, not more.

2.       Fellow blogger, Anuradha Goyal had a horrific experience with her baggage. Even though she had not checked out, hotel staff removed her baggage which were in open state and cleared the room. When complained, hotel staff took no responsibility and it took lots of time to trace her baggage and resolve the matter. I hope this is some accidental/misunderstanding by some of the staff and an one off incident that no one else will have to suffer. You can expect more details in her blog, as and when she chooses to narrate the same. [I see that she’s written in tripadvisor about it]

3.       They could have built a bridge or connecting tube between tower 1 and tower 2. If I stay in tower 1 and wish to go to the pool, I need to come down to ground floor, pass by the reception, come to main road, get into the other building and then go to top floor. Subsequently the reverse to get back to your room. This is little inconvenient. In other hotels, I can put on my shorts, wrap a tower or something around, walk around the corridor avoiding main reception/highway etc and reach the pool- which feels fairly private. (Le Fenix has an indoor pool)

4.       Since Bangkok hotels are reportedly having only 40-50% occupancy, I was hoping Dream hotel will be little generous with our late checkout. But no complementary late checkout was offered, not even till 3PM (as against standard check out time of 12 noon). Probably they had full bookings, not sure. Up to 6PM they charge half day rent, and beyond that, full day rental will be charged.

5.       At times you may feel overdose of blue, if you don’t like that colour much.

Their official brand overview goes as below. I am not sure what "Extra curricular" activities they are referring.

Dream is a full service lifestyle brand targeted at gateway cities and resort destinations. The brand point of view is irreverent, light-hearted and fun embracing the concept of “the waking dream” through its uses of vivid visuals

and trend-setting design. The service offerings emulate those of luxury market 

hotels, but with a more relaxed point of view. Innovative and locally popular 

food and beverage offerings are one of the core tenets of the Dream brand and 

contribute to its appeal as the “extra curricular” hotel of choice for the

psychographic seeking to add a little adventure to the demands of time away 

from home. Fresh thinking and progressive service offerings will set this brand 

apart from the current “competition” in this market tier by engaging the guest at 

every point of interaction.

Dream hotel is part of WYNDHAM group, same group that runs Ramada and few other hotel brands.