For Bangkok we booked two nights in Lebua at State Tower and our experience was decidedly mixed.

Our room was quite large with a separate sitting area, small kitchenette, and a small balcony off the bedroom providing a great view of the river (unlocked once we signed the waiver).

The room had a nice modern style with a comfortable bed and reasonably strong free wireless.

The bathroom was large with a tub and shower, though we were a bit disappointed in the Crabtree and Evelyn amenities (not the Bvlgari stated on the website) as they were not our style and didn’t seem to fit the room or hotel.

As part of our package we had access to the club lounge. Now, the lounge in most hotels offers free snacks and tends to be a place to decompress outside your room. At Lebua the lounge is quite formal with a fairly strict dress code during the day (in line with their restaurants), and offering a complimentary and surprisingly involved tea and drink service. Oddly, after 6p, the lounge converts into a paid bar.

those drinks were delicious!

a great view of the city from the 50th floor

Unbeknownst to us when we booked, Lebua featured prominently in the movie Hangover 2… the visibility seems to be making their restaurants on top of the hotel quite busy. Our room was on the 58th floor and shared elevators with those restaurants, making the trip to our room rather slow and often crowded with people that were not staying at the hotel. Also, every floor with a restaurant had a swarm of ‘greeters’ that would a.) look you up and down to make sure you fit the dress code, b.) ask you where you wanted to go, and c.) escort you to the bar or restaurant. The elevators made for a somewhat harried experience within the hotel.

Another small oddity- the hotel doesn’t have a direct entrance from the street. Instead, it is surrounded by smaller buildings that are streetside with a small service alley surrounding the tower. This makes finding the hotel from the street more difficult.

Finally, the restaurants at Lebua were ridiculously overpriced. View or not, 10x markups on wine is crazy, and the food was merely good and not in line with the prices. Also, we faced difficulty reserving a table with a view even though we were staying in the club level at the hotel. When we arrived at our reserved time we were grudgingly allowed a table on the edge in the smoking section… we were not impressed.

In the end we felt quite mixed about Lebua– the room was generally nice, but the service and attention to detail was lacking. Given their location we would look to a more centrally located hotel on our next trip through Bangkok.