The Shangri-La Bangkok

By Marie Moon

“He liked the serene world that Shangri-La offered him, pacified rather than dominated by its single tremendous idea. He liked the prevalent mood in which feelings were sheathed in thoughts, and thoughts softened into felicity by their transference into language.”

In the first paperback book ever published, Lost Horizon, James Hilton describes a place that is eternally peaceful and quiet, a haven among the mystical mountains of the East. It was a place where people lived to be more than 100 years old in complete harmony with nature and each other. The place was called Shangri-La.

Located on the banks of Bangkok’s historic River of Kings, the Shangri La Bangkok hotel breathes with the essence of Hilton’s utopian community in 5-star splendour. The prime riverfront property may not be shrouded by mist-covered mountains, but holds its own allure extending for more than half a mile along the charming Chao Phraya River. This wonderful location has attracted leisure and business guests alike, although the hotel strongly recognizes that these two groups have distinct hospitality needs.

The property may be roughly divided into two parts; the original Shangri-La Wing opened in March 1986 and the smaller, more exclusive Krung Thep Wing was opened in 1991. While the Krung Thep wing benefits from all the facilities of the main wing, it is an independent tower with its own reception and lobby. The idea was to make the Krung Thep wing an entity designed specifically for business and VIP guests, thus registration procedures, among other things, are made as smooth and as fast as possible. General Manager Mr. Adrian Mueller believes, “If you are a business guest, you want things to work and procedures have to be efficient. We try to make the check-in procedure very simple and fast; these are things that business men and women really appreciate.” The 174 rooms are all of the deluxe category and feature private balconies overlooking the river. A modern, western d?cor is enhanced by the rich beauty of Thai decorative motifs and handcrafted objets d’art collected from all over the Kingdom.

Business guests may also choose to stay on the Horizon Club floors of the Shangri-La Wing for here executives are presented with 49 attractively appointed guestrooms and suites. Both the Horizon Deluxe rooms and the Horizon Executive Suites have been designed to meet the increasingly high demands of today’s business traveller. Horizon guests are registered in the privacy of the Horizon Club Lounge and escorted directly to their rooms, all of which have panoramic views. The rooms feature oversized bathrooms, spacious living areas and a convenient in-room workspace with broadband internet access and two-line speaker phones. In addition, Horizon Club guests have access to the Lounge located on the 25th floor. Small tables for groups of up to four are dispersed throughout a flowing series of rooms, all boasting magnificent views of the river and the cityscape through full-length windows. Larger parties may use the private meeting rooms also located in the Lounge. Pursers are on duty all day to serve as guests’ private concierge, handling airline ticketing, limousine hiring, messages, reservations and general city information. The lounge has a large buffet area spread with a complimentary American breakfast in the morning and complimentary cocktails and snacks in the evening.

The hotel has made every effort to ensure the business guest’s stay is comfortable and hassle-free. The result of such attention to specialized service is that the Shangri-La is regarded as one of the best hotels in Asia for meetings and conventions. Mr. Mueller commented, ‘MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and events) is one of the most important client groups for us. Through MICE we get rooms and function business. It is big volume and interesting business not only financially, but by having these guests in the hotel we get a lot of exposure. If you compare the Shangri-La with the other hotels in town and regionally, we have a very nice product; the hardware is very nice; our rooms are up to speed, but also, you walk into this lobby with the view it offers and you immediately know this is South East Asia. The longtail boats in the river are very Asian. We have a relatively large garden area compared to other riverside hotels and we have the capabilities to host very big events. We can take up to 500 rooms for an event in the summer season and really no-one else in Bangkok can do it on this level.”

This not to say that the Shangri-La does not cater to leisure travellers, rather its scenic location and accessibility to the BTS Skytrain and River Ferry services makes it one of the best places from which to explore the city. A few minutes on the Skytrain takes guests to Silom Rd, Siam Square, the World Trade Centre or Sukhumvit Rd and the ferry is by far the best approach to historic sights like the Grand Palace, Chinatown and Wat Arun. Mr. Mueller said that the hotel market’s itself as a “semi-resort semi-city hotel” thereby attracting leisure guests to the resort style garden and swimming pool area. Swaying palm trees, bright bougainvillea, orchids and frangipanis form an exotic border for the free-form pool and sundecks. Lazing by the pool, staring up at the clouds it is easy to forget you are in the urban sprawl that is Bangkok, it is only as you sit up and watch the river traffic with its charming longtail boats and enormous rice barges that the you fully appreciate what the hotel has done to create this Shangri-La vibe.

The hotel presents a good range of food and beverage outlets including the award-winning Angelini’s Italian, which has been voted the best Italian restaurant in Bangkok for five consecutive years. Salathip serves Royal Thai cuisine in a series of ornate Thai pavillions built in the Ayutthaya architectural style. Each night the restaurant has live Thai music and dancing to enhance the romance of the riverside setting. Other outlets cater to the tastes of Chinese, Japanese, and international palates. The Horizon Dinner cruise offers a sumptuous international smorgasbord while cruising along the river past the Temple of Dawn, the Grand Palace and other historic places.

The hotel was voted onto the Gold List by readers of Conde Nast Traveller magazine for three years running, was ranked 5th in the “Top Hotels for Value” by Travel & Leisure magazine and scored 4th in Euromoney Magazine’s “World Favourite Hotels”. However according to Mr. Mueller achieving this stature is not as difficult as maintaining it. “It is easy to reach a high level of service, to win awards and to be regarded as a prestigious hotel. However, it is very difficult to stay there. To maintain service on that level, to fine-tune it, this is where the art comes into it. That is the true challenge of our jobs. Unless you are committed, unless you constantly ask questions the quality will not endure.”

Demonstrating this on-going commitment to service, the hotel has undergone major renovations to the Shangri-La wing. Of the renovations Mr. Mueller commented, “I joke with my people that we’ve been renovating for the last ten years! But in fact we have an extensive renovation programme that we started two years ago. We did major renovations to the top eight floors of the guestrooms and the lobby is brand new. What is coming this year, is an upgrade of our coffee garden, the Japanese Edogin restaurant and in about 2-3 months, we start work on our spa. By this stage all the other major projects will have been completed but we are already working on new ideas.”

New ideas and new ways of maintaining the Shangri-La’s prestigious reputation will no doubt add even more of the Shangri-La essence to the Shangri-La Bangkok.