Hotel Muse is part of Accor’s MGallery collection of unique hotels. It was opened about six months ago and is very popular party spot among Thais. Last week, I was staying at the Grand Hyatt Erewan, and was staring at the Muse Hotel from my 16th floor window. I am always very eager to try out different brands and hotels. I had not experienced Accor’s MGallery collection hotel before, but I had heard that the Hotel Muse was very boutique and some might even call it a trendy hotel.
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When I arrived to the hotel, I was welcomed with a very familiar smell. Apparently the hotel pumps the same fragrance to public spaces as the Hotel Victor, which used to be part of Hyatt, in South Beach.
Location
The hotel is located on the Langsuan road about 400 meters from the Chit Lom BTS station. The road is one way so it might make few turns to get there depending on the direction you are coming from. I like the location as it is close to the Central World & Siam Paragon shopping complexes. There are quite a few other hotels in the immediate neighborhood, and I have been to quite a few of them; St Regis, Grand Hyatt, InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Renaissance, Courtyard, Mayfair Executive apartments etc.
Cabs are not familiar with the hotel at all, but they do know the road well. It is probably worth saving the address in your smart phone or print it out on the paper both in English and in Thai.
Check In
The lobby is very intimate and has only two desks. The overall decor is very dark, but I liked it. It gives a different vibe to the property.
Unfortunately things started to fall apart at check in. I had made my reservation couple of hours prior to my arrival, and apparently their system and Accor’s web reservation aren’t linked electronically as I could see my reservation printed out as an email sitting on the table.
They could see that I had a Le Club Accorhotels account, but they couldn’t see what my status is. I offered to log into my account online using my laptop and tethering through my cell phone. When I showed my Platinum status online, they were satisfied.
Then, I was inquiring what Platinum benefits I would get. Would I get a complimentary breakfast or wireless internet access? According to one of the front desk employees my rate was already so good that they couldn’t offer them. I really wasn’t interested in about the wireless internet access because I could tether on the 3G network using my cell phone, but would have preferred to check out their breakfast offerings.
One weird thing during the check in was that the hotel wanted to charge the room rate immediately and then hold an authorization for the incidentals. Normally hotels just block certain amount during the check in, and you settle both the room bill and incidentals when checking out.
Somehow the only non-Thai employee, who was from Mexico, was able to find me a 9th floor corner room and gave me a Platinum gift that turned out to be a nice Hotel Muse branded shirt. The room wasn’t immediately ready, and I had to wait 10 to 15 minutes in the lobby.
The check in process took maybe 20 minutes without the wait for the room to be ready. This is way too long.
Corner Room 902
As with the other part of the hotel, the decor of the corner room I had was dark. Some might say that the hotel over uses the Muse everywhere from the water bottles to the TV, but it didn’t bother me too much. I think that it rather proves that the hotel takes branding very seriously.
The room was quite spacious for a regular sized corner room. The bathroom had a window to the bedroom as most of the newer hotel so, but you can easily close the curtain when soaking in the bathtub or taking a shower. I have no idea why, but there was no air conditioning in the bathroom. You had to have the door open from the bedroom to keep the temperature at the normal level inside.
The minibar setup was one of the better ones that I have seen. The cabinet was well designed to house both the complimentary (Muse branded) coffee & tea as well as the beverages and snacks.
Overall, the room was very functional and well thought. I really liked the decor as it was definitely trendier and thought than “normal” run of the mill hotel rooms. But, at the same time, I can understand that the concept that the Muse has probably isn’t for anyone.
Fitness Center & Pool
Both the fitness center and the pool are on the 19th floor. The fitness center was on the small side, but then this is only for the hotel guests. I was little surprised that they hadn’t bought the most up to date LifeFitness line of machines. I really like the ones that have imbedded TV on the console so that I can watch CNN/BBC while running.
The pool was on the same floor as the fitness center. It was not huge, but enough to get you wet if that’s what you wish. There were some sun chairs around and inside the pool as well on the both ends.
Food & Beverage outlets
The hotel runs a very popular Speakeasy restaurant/bar on the top two floors of the hotel. The Thai restaurant that also serves the breakfast is on the 19th floor. They have another bar on the lower ground floor. Unfortunately, I was not able to check out these outlets as I had bit of a problem with my stomach from the food that I had the previous day at the Grand Hyatt.
Conclusion
This is a very nice designer/boutique hotel that caters to the trendier crowd. The price that I paid was in line with other hotels in the immediate area. I really liked the dark décor of the hotel, but it probably won’t work for everyone. They do, however, need to speed up the check in process and integrate the Accor’s reservation system with the in-house one. There is no place for getting reservation made at Accor’s website by email and then inputting them manually to the system that the hotel uses. Too many things that can go wrong with this manual approach.
Also, they need to make sure that they treat the Le Club Accorhotel Platinum guests better. Most of the other hotels in Bangkok give a complimentary breakfast & internet to their elite guests even when the benefit is not system wide i.e. Courtyard by Marriott. This is due to the competitive market in Bangkok. I think that the hotel should look into this. Claiming that they cannot provide certain Platinum benefits due to the low promotional rate I paid, is borderline ridiculous.
