rival hall at Bangkok International
Airport, you immediately sense that
something is different. The sharply dressed Thai carrying the Metropolitan’s chocolate brown sign certainly stands out in the crowd of less dignified airport greeters. In minutes, he discreetly whisks you and your luggage away to a champagne hued Mercedes, thoughtfully stocked with bespoke bottles of water.
The hotel is a brisk half hour ride from the airport, on South Sathorn Road, in the heart of the city’s Central Business District. Walking into the hotel’s lobby is a pleasure for the senses. An exotic perfume wafts in the air, uptempo lounge music plays lightly in the background and the lobby is a study in understated elegance.
As you check in, you notice that the entire staff is clad in sharp Yohji Yamamoto suits and shod in Adidas sneakers. After a few moments of check-in procedures, you’re escorted to your suite. What you find is a generously sized assemblage of dark Makha wood, lush silk and creamy sandstone. No, this is not your usual hotel.
Welcome to the Metropolitan Bangkok.
Design stars such as Philippe Starck and Andree Putnam were commissioned to transform hotels from a mere place to sleep into a grand theater of spectacle. Cinematic lobbies, high style restaurants and velvet-roped bars became the new order. People were so eager to get into the new hotels’ VIP bars that they would book a room just to get in. But of course, what else would you expect from the man who brought us the glamour of Studio 54?
In the early days, the only people who stayed at boutique hotels were celebrities, media types, and the designer set. Today, there’s one in every major European and American city and the clientele includes upscale vacationers and hip business people. One major hotel chain, Starwood Hotels (which owns the Westin and Sheraton brands) even joined the fray by creating their own boutique hotel brand, called the W.
Thankfully, the Metropolitan steers clear of the now hackneyed Modern Asian style. There still is an Asian flavor to the hotel, but it is subtler and skims below the surface. Dark woods and Asian iconography are used throughout the property, but it’s done in a fresh, contemporary approach. For example, the lotus, Thailand’s national flower is a recurring theme, but it is beautifully abstracted in paintings, sculpture and graphics.
The one non-Asian on the team is Sydney native chef Amanda Gale. She directs the two restaurants: Cy’an and Glow. Cy’an serves modern Mediterranean fare with a Moorish accent in a spare, elegant space that overlooks the hotel’s stunning pool. Glow serves fresh, light cuisine as an alternative for those who choose a more rigorously healthful diet. Along these lines is the hotel’s health center, COMO Shambhala, which offers health treatments, yoga tuition and a fitness gym. It is a sophisticated urban retreat for guests who need to relax and ease the stresses of modern living. For those looking for more tox than detox, there’s the Met Bar. It’s a members and hotel guests-only lounge, where you’re sure to find the city’s BYTs sipping on martinis such as the bar’s signature Tom Yum Tini.
In addition to these "soft" details, the Metropolitan is hardwired with state-of-the-art electronic devices. At your disposal is a finely edited CD collection, which can be played in your room’s Bose Wave CD player. The entire hotel is equipped with wireless Internet access, allowing you to work on your laptop anywhere you want to. For people who’ve left their laptop behind, there’s even an iMac in the lobby for web browsing.
All of these extras add up to what’s close to a perfect hotel. With all the trappings on offer to Bangkok’s visitors and with its real estate at such bargain prices, it’s always been tempting to own a place there. But with a hotel like the Met, that’s one fantasy less to dream about. It’s clear that Christina Ong isn’t stopping here though. She’s currently opening Uma Paro, an ultra luxury resort in western Bhutan. Uma is COMO’s remote countryside resort brand is a direct assault on Aman resorts, who is concurrently opening another resort in Bhutan called Amankora. If Uma Paro will be anything close to the perfection she’s achieved at the Met Bangkok, Amanresorts better be ready for some serious competition.