Ibis Nana Bangkok – A Review By Punam Mohandas
The Ibis Nana is a neat and functional hotel located on what is undoubtedly Bangkok’s party street – soi Nana in the Sukhumvit area. A 200-key property, it offers all the modern, urban conveniences without any of the fops and frills of a five-star property, hence the reasonable pricing.
The rooms at Ibis Nana are small, but surprisingly cosy. All rooms come equipped with wardrobes, electronic safes, TV’s, minibars and tea/coffee makers, along with wooden table tops and little settees. Two complimentary bottles of water are provided per day. Be warned that housekeeping service is only available until 5pm.
Bathrooms are admittedly a bit cramped. There is a separate shower cubicle, which saves one from messy wet floors. Keeping in line with the no-frills, you won’t find fancy shampoos or body lotions here, just a couple of wall soap dispensers.
Room tariffs change daily; the lowest has been THB 1531 (nett) going up to THB 2,000 per day. Being a business as well as budget-tourist hotel, there are plenty of twin-bedded rooms here – 135 of the total inventory of 200-keys. It is much appreciated that this hotel has five rooms for the physically challenged, where many star properties in Bangkok would be hard put to find even one.
F&B options at Ibis Nana include Taste, the coffee shop – open until 11pm only – and the Lobby Bar that serves drinks and finger food through the day. Interestingly, breakfast is a rather involved affair; from 4-6am and 10.30am-12pm a continental breakfast is served at the Lobby Bar, and from 6-10.30am there is a full spread laid out at Taste. There is in-room dining, however, in typical Ibis style, the food is prepared and left in the coffee shop and the guest is then given a call, following which the guest is expected to come and collect the food himself. There is no bellboy service either. F&B is reasonably enough priced; an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet is just THB199 (nett) between 12-3pm, although the breakfast strangely is priced at THB249.
There is free wifi through the hotel and a couple of work stations in the lobby offer internet free for the first thirty minutes usage.
There are practically no recreational facilities, as the hotel does not run to a gym or swimming pool. All Ibis hotels in Bangkok provide a privately run travel desk service to handle tourist queries. Apart from this, two small meeting rooms for urgent conferences can accommodate up to 80-pax.
The Ibis Nana makes no apologies for what it is – a no-fuss hotel. Having said that, it must also be mentioned that the front office staff are exceedingly polite and helpful and go that extra mile in ensuring your stay is a comfortable one.
It is a good ten-minute walk to the hotel from the Nana BTS. Although the hotel does offer a shuttle service to the BTS between 8am-5pm (only a drop, no pick-up) it’s infinitely quicker to walk it than brave the Bangkok traffic.
Most major airlines fly into Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. From there, you can take a taxi to soi Nana on Sukhumvit (THB300 plus THB50 airport surcharge) or else take the air conditioned bus into town that stops at a lot of places. The Skytrain BTS connection (THB45) from the airport is only until Phaya Thai station; not an advisable option if you have a lot of luggage.
IBIS NANA, BANGKOK
TEL: +66 26592888
FAX: +66 26592889
Email: [email protected]