With so many other hotels in Bangkok, I would have never chosen to stay here if it wasn't part of a tour package.

First of all, the location is so bad I had a hard time getting a taxi driver to take me there on many occasions. I had been staying at a different hotel in Bangkok (Sukhumvit Rd. area) and when I left that hotel to come to the Royal River, 3 taxis that had pulled over passed up on my fare because it was too far, one I actually sat in before telling him where I wanted to go, thinking once I was in his cab he would take me for sure, but even he told me to get out!!!! None of them seem to want to venture out that far. Then coming back from the Chatuchak Weekend market, I got a cab, but he was very annoyed when I showed him where I wanted to go. It is right on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, but it is too far up to be close to anything. The hotel says they have a boat that will take you to the River City Shopping Complex, but twice during my stay the boat wasn't running for the day.

The rooms were not clean at all. When I checked in, I had hair not only all over my bathroom floor, but also in my bed under the covers. The mini bar was not fully re-stocked when I checked in....I called them upon arrival to tell them of this, so as they did not charge me on the way out, but they still tried to add it to my bill, it took much fighting with them to get it taken care of. Very basic amenities in the room.

The breakfast is great.....many options, both Eastern & Western choices. There is a man to make your omelettes with choices of condiments. I never ate dinner there, but the restaurant I would have tried "de - river - re" was always closed for a private party. There is not much nearby, but of course there is a 7-11. There are a few restaurants within 10 minutes walk, but you have to know where they are because the front desk is very unhelpful.

That is the other negative about this hotel....the staff is very rude. The front desk people act as if you are always bothering them when you need something. The wait staff in the bars seem to be annoyed when you come in. The maid service seemed friendly enough, but they don't do a good job cleaning. The reception at the spa were even rude....the masseuse though, was very nice.

The pool area is pretty blah, but after a hot day exploring Bangkok, it was nice just to cool off. The massage at the spa was wonderful, if a bit overpriced (Bangkok standards, not NY). They were very professional there.

The river cruise they try to sell you was not worth it. It leaves from their sister hotel Royal City hotel, about a 10 - 15 minute walk from the hotel. The dinner was buffet and quite bad. The food was cold and unimaginative. The entertainment was so loud, it was unbearable. The cruise itself wasn't bad, if you just want to look at scenery. They did not have a bar that you could order from and finding a waitress was near impossible. If you are stuck on taking a nighttime river cruise, I suggest you look elsewhere. There seem to be many cruises that offer the "same same but different".

Pretty bad hotel, I would not recommend this to anyone. There are so many other hotels in almost every price range.....try one of them.

We, 2 adults and 2 little children, stayed there for 5 nights in the Deluxe River Front room. We had a very good impression since checking in. Good services and friendly and professional staff. We demanded a lot as we have a todler and little baby with us and they seems to help out with no irritation. The room was spectecular - high standard, clean, spacious and has everything we needed (cattle, coffee+tea set, TV, big wardrobe, baby cot, super kingsize bed, balcony, fridge, extra pillows, towel etc..) The view from the balcony is breath taking. Breakfast was very good with mixture of European, Thai, Chinese.
The couple of weak points are the TV signal - it was poor reception and there was not many options for English channels. Also the swimming pool was very small and not suitable for children.

We just turned back from Bangkok and stayed 3 nights in Royal River Hotel.Prior arrival i read so many bad reviews about here but when i checked-in, i didn't have any dissappoinment.The hotel was indeed nice with good room and very nice view. The bathroom was ok,no brown water nor bad smelling. Yeah, the hotel is little bit far from the city center but the taxi-metered taxis get you to the center around 80 Bahts (nothing in Dollar), also there is public boat which is just 11 Bahts and takes you till Saphan Taksin where u can get skytrain for everywhere.Also tuk-tuk (little taxis without taxi-metered,work with bargain) takes you from the center to the hotel and they accept if you offer them just 150 Bahts...Also the breakfast of the hotel is ok for Westerns although u can find some Thai also.

OF course, there are so nice hotels in the center of Bangkok but if u stay here also it's not so bad..besides if u look for some silence,this hotel can be the best with it's river view.

You know, this hotel has declined in it's service as their prices have risen. I stayed several times in 2005, and decided to again stay in 2006. Wow, what a difference! I stayed for more than 2 weeks in 2006, and honestly, I felt cheated. At the urging of my wife I almost considered moving to a new hotel at one point.

Now, reading these reviews one could get the wrong impression of the hotel. It's not the worst, and if you're looking for 'elegant' acommodations, then you're not going to be happy no matter what level of service you pay for. It's middle of the road as far as the "hotel" trade goes. I've stayed in worse, and I've stayed in better. For the price though, its not bad at all.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist though to see the hotel is very tight financially these days and has been cutting costs where it can. The very good, and efficient staff of 2005 has been replaced with staffing that is surprisingly a bit on the rude side (which is almost a sin for Thai people).

So here's a review of the service : (a ? out of 5 star rating)

Front desk (4 of 5): Very efficient in what they do. However, if you don't get something that is promised in their offer, check with them. Also, make sure you get the persons name who gives you the explanation. What they tell you may not be 100% accurate. Ask another manager or higher up at a later time if needed.

House keeping (1 of 5) : Wow! Lacking to say the least. Even forgot to give us the basic amenities several times during our stay. Turned off the power several times during our stay thinking our room was empty so that it reset all the A/C units on the floor. Gets 1 star for doing just the basics.:-(

Room Service (0 of 5) : In 2005 the food was excellent. 2006, the food was horrendous and the staff VERY rude. (sorry but when you send up a steak requested "well done" (and said in Thai to make sure they understood), and it comes up nearly raw, you just take the steak back and cook it or replace it, you shouldn't complain about the order being written down wrong and take the food back with no replacement. Even the seafood my wife had seemed old.

Fangnam Coffee House (4 of 5) : This is their buffet style eatery in the hotel. Was 5 of 5 in 2005 but slipped a little as a lot of the fresh foods (breads especially) seemed... not fresh. :-( Still a very good meal with very courteous staff. .... they could use them in Room Service.

Bellhops (2 of 5) : Out of the 5 or 6 different ones we had, one was decent. In 2005, these guys rated an easy 5 stars. I seriously want to know what happened. Even the taxi stand had they "when I get around to it" attitude. Often we just walked down the drive way to get a taxi ourselves as they just didn't seem interested in helping us.

Extras (4 of 5) : The pool was nice. Offers massage. Patio lounge dining at night. Riverboat cruise and offerings of a shuttle to the floating market. Wi-FI for the net users is available for a fee. Being right on the river is a plus, but can be off-putting during the rainy season as the river becomes quite congested with debris from farms and forests upstream. Being away from the city is actually a plus for them as it's a bit quieter (for Bangkok anyhow).

I can speak of the warning regarding the hotel staff stealing luggage. There are signs posted everywhere about locking your valuables in the hotel safe. I personally made the mistake of leaving a memory card for my camera behind in my room. (I can be forgetful) and when I returned, I found the card gone, but they were nice enough to leave the protective case behind to let me know it was gone. :-( Again, the housekeeping is an issue I hope they have rectified.

I mentioned in great detail of my problems with our stay and while they did apologize and said they would speak with the staff, no other offer was made. No "discount next time". No partial refund. Not even a lousy coupon for 10% off a meal or something. Very off-putting.

Now, I do plan to return to Thailand this year, and, being the sport that I am, I plan to stay at the Royal River once more. Perhaps they just were having an off time, there was some construction and remodeling going on in various areas, so maybe that had everyone off their best game. So, we'll see.

Overall, right now I'd give the Royal River 3 stars at best. Really it's 2.6 stars but they don't offer that on this website. So I just rounded to the nearest one. :)

In 2005 I would have easily said a nearly 4 star hotel (out of 5). Sad to see what it was in 2006, here's hoping for much better in 2007.