How I Pick Hotels

The shortlist on every “best of” page on this site is short on purpose. I’d rather give you four or five hotels I would actually book than a list of twenty I’d rank by guessing.

Here is what gets a hotel onto a list.

I’ve slept there

This is the only non-negotiable rule. If a hotel has never had me as a paying guest, it doesn’t get reviewed. There is no Bangkok hotel I would write about based on a tour, a press kit, or someone else’s review.

I’d book it again with my own money

This is the second filter. There are dozens of hotels I’ve stayed in that I wouldn’t go back to. Those don’t make the list either. The bar is not “I had a good time once.” The bar is “I would send my parents here.”

I look hard at:

• The bed and the bathroom. Nothing else recovers from a mediocre bed.
• Breakfast. I eat hotel breakfast every day on Thailand trips. A great breakfast adds an hour of value to every morning.
• Service consistency. The third interaction matters more than the first. Anyone can fake the welcome.
• The pool. If you’re paying resort prices, the pool is half of why you’re there.
• The room itself. Light, layout, soundproofing. The view, if there is one.
• Service for kids without coding the room as a kids’ room. Best test: do they bring the kids’ menu unprompted, and is it edible?

I mostly ignore:

• Spa-of-the-year lists. They’re industry awards, not reviews.
• Robe and slipper quality. Not the point.
• Press releases about renovations. I’ll judge when I see it.
• “Newest” and “trending.” Some of my favorites are 30 years old.
• Loyalty points multipliers. Don’t book a hotel for the points.

Why the lists are short

Most “best Bangkok hotels” articles online list 15 to 30 hotels. That number is not a recommendation. It’s an SEO target.

A real recommendation is two to six hotels. Those are the ones I’d actually pick from depending on whether the trip is a honeymoon, a family week, a layover, or a milestone. Everything below the top six is a hotel I’d consider as a backup, not as a first pick.

The exceptions

There are a few hotels I write about that I haven’t stayed at, and I always say so at the top of the section. Usually these are hotels I’ve eaten at, walked through with friends staying there, or otherwise spent meaningful time in without sleeping over. I’ll flag those with a line that says “I haven’t stayed here yet” so you can weigh the review accordingly.

If a hotel ever offers me a free or discounted stay in exchange for coverage, I either turn it down or disclose it at the top of the post in plain language. More on that on the affiliate disclosure page.