Citadines Sukhumvit 11, Bangkok

By Kay and Dave McMahon, 4 April 2012

Citadines Sukhumvit 11 Bangkok
22/22 Soi 11 Sukhumvit Road
Klongtoey Nuea
Wattana
BANGKOK 10110
(BTS: Nana)

On our latest visit to Bangkok we took the opportunity to check out a serviced apartment in Soi 11 – Citadines, just across the road from the venerable Federal Hotel. It’s quite a long trek into the soi – probably a good 500 metres from Sukhumvit Road, and 150 metres further in than the last serviced apartment we tried at the Grand President. They do offer a complimentary tuk-tuk to Nana BTS station between 0700 and 2000, though we never used it.

We booked a studio apartment, their smallest and cheapest offering (and cheaper still thanks to Agoda). Although it was their smallest, we reckoned it would be spacious enough – 30 square metres sounded reasonably generous.

Checking in was straightforward. We were in quite a hurry so nipped in to our apartment just long enough to dump our hand-luggage – we didn’t hang around to wait for the other bags to be delivered. Nevertheless, they arrived safely while we were out.

Our first impression was that, yes, the apartment was spacious enough for the price. Unfortunately, it was also immediately evident that the space wasn’t used as well as it might have been – something that became more and more difficult to ignore as our stay wore on.

The bed was described on Agoda as queen-sized. However, by modern standards it was far too small for two adults to sleep comfortably in (think of the tiny bed Eric and Ernie used to appear in on The Morecambe and Wise Show), although there was enough space in the sleeping area to accommodate a larger bed if they’d wanted to.

Ample space was given over to bathroom facilities. And yet there was a tiny, silly bath-with-shower, probably the smallest bathtub we’ve ever seen that didn’t have to be filled with hot water from a kettle. It had a good, powerful shower with a large head – almost large enough to be described as a rainshower – inside the bath. But it’s such a nuisance having to clamber in and out of a bath just to get a shower. The space would have been better used with a shower cubicle and a washbasin instead.

As it was, a large amount of space was devoted to a fancy washbasin outside of the WC/bath/shower room. On the other hand, there was no workspace to speak of in the kitchenette. A redesign could have provided a much more sensible use of the compact space.

The facilities were all clean and modern – as they should be, the Citadines properties are all new. There was a nice big wall-mounted flat screen TV and DVD player which could be run along tracks so you could watch from the sitting area or the bed.

There was supposed to be free WiFi throughout. Bizarrely, though, our room appeared to be in a black spot – we could make a connection in the lobby or the corridor on our floor, but lost it when we were in our room, so often had to fall back on the LAN cable. Even after the technician set up a WiFi repeater in our room, it would only work for a couple of hours or so before failing again – we had to keep deleting the connection and setting it up afresh.

Our rating: 3 out of 5

All in all, it wasn’t bad for the price but the problems with the WiFi, the shower inside the bath, and the silly little bed put us off so it’s unlikely we would return. This would be an OK place for a businessperson, but not recommended for a couple on holiday.

Book Bangkok hotels NOW with Agoda!