About Bangkok John

I’m John. I’m a Canadian in my 40s. I’ve been traveling Thailand with my wife and three daughters since 2014, and I run a remote business that lets me work from a hotel pool when I want to.

We come back to Thailand three or four times a year. Sometimes for a long weekend off Bangkok, sometimes for a couple of months when the kids are off school. I’ve stayed in dozens of hotels across Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Koh Samui, and the smaller corners (Pai, Koh Yao Noi, Hua Hin, Khao Sok).

A note on loyalty

I’m a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite member and an Emirates Skywards Gold member. That shapes where I stay and how I get around, and it shows up in this site’s recommendations. When a Marriott property is close on quality and price to a non-Marriott alternative, I usually book the Marriott — the suite upgrades, lounge access, and consistent service add up over the course of a long trip.

That said, I never recommend a hotel just because it’s a Marriott. If the Mandarin Oriental is the right hotel for your trip, I’ll tell you so even though I don’t earn a single Bonvoy point staying there. The bias is real and so is the honesty.

Emirates Skywards Gold matters less for hotel reviews but it’s part of how my family gets to Thailand on long-haul flights. I’ll occasionally mention airline tips inside the trip guides where they’re useful.

Why this site exists

I started bangkokjohn.com because I was tired of sending the same hotel list to friends over text message every time someone asked. Every recommendation on the site is a hotel I’ve actually stayed in and would book again.

Three rules:

• I pay for my own rooms.
• I only write about hotels I’ve actually slept in.
• If a hotel ever comps me anything, I’ll say so in the post.

I’m not a travel critic and I’m not a journalist. I’m the friend you’d ask if you happened to know someone who lives in Thailand most of the year. That’s the voice I’m going for, and that’s the voice the site is written in.

What you’ll find here

• Hotel guides. Ranked picks for each city. Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Krabi. More coming as I write them.
• Planning guides. Best time to visit, where to stay overall, itineraries that actually work.
• Bangkok deep dives. Neighborhoods, restaurants, what to do with kids, BTS, the airport.

I update each post when I revisit a place or when something changes. The “Last updated” date at the top of every post tells you when I last touched it.

What you won’t find

• Listicles I haven’t earned. If I haven’t been to a hotel I don’t write about it.
• AI-generated padding.
• Affiliate-driven rankings. The order is the order I’d give you over dinner.
• Booking widgets, pop-ups, autoplay video, or any of the other things that make travel sites unreadable.

Get in touch

If you have a Thailand question I haven’t answered, email me at hello@bangkokjohn.com. I read every email. The faster reply usually goes to people who tell me their dates, who’s traveling, and roughly what they want to spend per night.

If you want to follow along between trips, I’m on Instagram and YouTube.