We went back again in April 2011 to give this place a second try. After all, it’s in a superb location in Sukhumvit, Soi 11, where all our favourite pubs and restaurants are.

The room was better this time and did appear to have been renovated. However, the bathroom wasn’t very nice. There was some mould on tiles and the WC didn’t seem to be particularly clean. Also the bath had a totally stupid design which made it almost impossible for me to get in and out of it. After my first attempt, I decided, “Never again!” and subsequently used the showers at the hotel’s gym.

The showers at the gym were badly designed too. There was no shelf inside the shower cubicle where you could place your own toiletries if you chose not to use the wall-mounted shampoo and body wash which were provided.

Going back to the room. The kitchenette was fairly usable but they only provided one saucepan and one frying pan, so I had to be fairly innovative about what I cooked. I didn’t do much cooking anyway, but sometimes you just don’t feel like going out. The cutlery was adequate but there were old food particles welded to the tines of the forks.

The telephones in the living room and bedroom didn’t work (and the one in the bedroom emitted a painfully loud feedback squeal whenever you put it to your ear) although the one in the bathroom did.

On the plus side, both of us were able to go online at the same time without having to pay any more.

We were given a room on the 15th floor with superb views over the city.

All in all, if only they would pay a little bit more attention to detail this could be a really great place. As I mentioned before, the location is terrific. But they really do need to give the place a good scrub, fix the things which don’t work, and provide a little bit more kitchen equipment.