Nana Hotel

[Grunter]

I have not stayed at Nana for some years.

I believe it has been refurbished in recent times. Room rate is about the same as Majestic Suites so how good is it.

Does it still have the security boxes at reception or are they now in room?

Does it still have the corner coffee shop and disco.

How does it work and is it worth a revisit. It was pretty threadbare and dilapidated when I was last there.

[Tom Tit]

I'm always interested in up-to-the-minute appraisals of the Nana hotel. I stayed nowhere else in BKK for many years, then it went just too far downhill for even broken shameless little mongering me...

 

In the mists of time, I wrote: 'Last couple of times I've stayed there have been a drag: brown water belching from the shower attachment, smelly room with TV and Wi-Fi on the blink, and one particular bloke on reception (probably about 60 years old, stocky, neat side-parting, dyed black barnet) that's always drunk after midday (nothing wrong with that, like: so am I) refused to give me my room key one time as I didn't have the wee bit of card on me that they give you when you check in: christ I've been staying there for over 20 years and most of the staff know me by name, soft lad... Okay, I should've had it on me. Was awkward and embarrassing though (I was polite and calm: he wasn't). I showed him ID and got my key eventually, but he was aggressive and needlessly rude, never mind obviously inebriated. And none of the other two or three staff on duty (all sober, all know me well) waded in to vouch for me, while several other residents gawped on disapprovingly, unfairly marking my card as a troublemaker, I imagine. One fat twat queueing behind me to check in was tut-tutting under his breath. Fuck that. 

 

Plus the daylight walk of shame out of the Nana hotel past the Soi Nana bars onto Sukhumvit (Morning Night & Stumble Inn) is nowadays too much of a white-knuckle ride for me if even marginally sober: all that shrieking and hollering from horror-film gals I've presumably shagged at some drunken point in the past. Not the best way to start the day. (Not a bad way to end it sometimes, if sufficient drink has been taken, like...

 

...I've stayed there at least once a year since 1995, but of late Nana hotel's gone too far down the pan, even for an unchoosy old salt like myself.

 

Last stayed there last year. Room was filthy, stained carpet, stank of mould, shit-colored water coming out of shower and basin taps. Staff were unfriendly (no wonder, given the way a lot of the residents were behaving), and, as the feller says above, some of the guests behaved like pigs.

 

Unless you're going to spend your visit pissed out of your brains 24/7, shagging any car-park freelancer with a pulse, staggering around the hotel lobby at 10am in flip-flops and a football shirt red-faced and loudly swearing your head off, and never venturing any farther from the hotel than Morning-Night or NEP (taxi to Soi Cowboy at a stretch) i.e. unless you want a hotel that'll let you openly behave like a drunken sex tourist (nothing wrong with that, of course, if that's your thing), then the Nana hotel is not for you.*

The pool is filthy, by the way. And the 'jacuzzi'? I'd rather sit in a sewage tank.

 

* Disclaimer: that paragraph fairly accurately describes some of my own visits to Bangkok in the distant past, but I'm older now and can't be bothered with that shit 24/7...'

 

I also heard it'd been 'renovated' to some extent of late. Hmm. How's it looking nowadays, I wonder?

 

Tom Tit  :blink:

Edited August 3, 2018 by Tom Tit

[Grunter]

Great reply. I will cross it off my list.

May I ask what hotel you have settled on in the area and you might recommend?

I would be interested in any one else's input on this also. I have only ever stayed at Nana, Landmark and Majestic Suites.

I am taking an old mate along with me this trip. He is 5 years single and never been to Thailand. Don't want to drop him in at the deep end in case he bolts but looking for something perhaps a couple of hundred meters back from Sukhumvit with low pressure bars nearby. In the market for 2000 baht or less and guest friendly of course. Something with reasonably discreet entrance. Security checking I'd,s an advantage. Never found reception staff judgmental in my experience but it could be a consideration for a newbie.

I am leading a horse to water but hope he laps it up.

[Rocky Rockstar]

I usually stay at the Tai Pan hotel and never had any issues. It’s 3.5* & girl friendly and def in your price range as I usually pay around £40 (1700B) a night. It’s just a bit down Soi 23 so 5 min walk from Soi Cowboy & the Sukhumvit & Asok stations, bit more of a walk to Nana ofc. I’ve never been asked by security for girls to hand their ID into reception but a couple have without asking. Doesn’t bother me either way. There’s also a couple of ‘quiet’ bars on the Soi before Soi Cowboy for a chill drink too.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Rocky Rockstar

[Wagonner]

I stayed at Nana hotel over last Christmas. Things must have moved on from Tom Tit's last stay. When I was there the water had gone clear, although the bath room could have done with a refurbish. They appear to have employed better cleaners as the room I had was clean  and didn't smell. Air conditioning worked and there was a security box in the room to keep valuables.  I did have a stunning view of a wall just three feet from my window, but that didn't bother me and this was my first trip to Bangkok. Never bothered with the pool or jacuzzi so they may not have changed. The laundry service worked OK. The help yourself breakfast was also good. The in room fridge was topped with Nana water bottles every day which was nice. Nana is at the bottom end of the hotel market and you get what you pay for. It's best selling points are it's cheapness, including a free breakfast and location. For me it's good enough that I'll use it again this Christmas.

[Tom Tit]

Grunter,

 

Waggoner reassures me somewhat. As I wrote (though not very clearly), I haven't stayed at the Nana hotel since 2015, so some if not all the things I was down on might well have been fixed. It seems that some of the rooms have been renovated/renewed (at least, given a makeover) since then, and the plumbing (at least in those rooms) is now sorted out. If that's so, and if you're a seasoned monger looking for basic guest-friendly accommodation, a step up from a hostel, right in the middle of the action, then, if you get a renovated room, I think you'll be happy there.

 

Some rooms (even pre-renovation) were okay; some were shit. The bathroom/shower/plumbing was the giveaway. Mouldy smell and trickling cold shower. The times I was shown to s shit room upon check in, I had a shifty then refused to take it, asked for a better room. That worked for a year or so. But then (as I wrote above) there seemed to be a sea change in staff attitude: like they dropped the pretense of 'respecting' you and just rolled their eyes, insulted you in Thai, then gave you an alternative room that was a shit as the first one. Or maybe they just ran to fo rooms that weren't shit over time: it's an old building, noticeably falling apart.

 

The breakfast is 'hearty' and filling, right enough. I always enjoyed that. And the pool area itself gets the sun. To be honest (and selfish) the main reason I decided to give Nana hotel a long-time body swerve is its proximity to the Soi 4 beer bars - the fact it's impossible to go out without being seen from the bars at the end of Soi 4. I had some trouble with a regular from that area, and I didn't want her or her many mates reporting my whereabouts and activities on a daily basis, so I took my trade elsewhere... That was the straw that broke this camel's back. The rudeness of staff was also increasingly irksome, and the rooms I was given just got too worn out and grimy at some juncture - a line was crossed - so I pulled the plug. I realized I didn't enjoy staying there any more. I pay a little bit more now, and enjoy myself immeasurably more elsewhere. It was better the devil you know for a long time, and then I realized the devil really was a devil.

 

I stayed at Aloft Hotel on Soi 11 last month. Would recommend it. In fact, I did.

 

http://www.bangkok-addicts.com/forum/topic/8165-aloft-hotel-soi-11-recent-reports/?p=109806

 

Have fun.

 

Tom Tit  :blink:

[Euge]

I recently stayed at hotel icon so soi 2 nice hotel and short cut from soi 2 to soi 4 not long walk

[Grunter]

Thanks.

Will have a look at that also. Spoilt for choice's in the Sukhumvit region.

[ftu]

Stayed at the Ibis on soi 4 (they are currently building a new Ibis styles just a block away).

Absolutely fits my needs, clean, not smelly and walking distance to everything of interest. almost forgot: I'm paying 1000 baht a night

[RumpRanger]

I stayed in Nana hotel once many years ago.  After I checked in at the hotel reception I took the lift to my floor with some Thai people carrying cameras.  The lift stopped on one of the floors and the guys with cameras got out.  I saw several policemen outside and the Thais with the cameras were actually reporters. 

 

Not sure what happened on that floor but somebody might have died there.  I am happy to say that I have not stayed in Nana hotel in all these years.  And I really hated the idea that the safe deposit box is at the reception.

[Grunter]

I also don't like the reception safe deposit box idea.

Have seen pictures on line however of the refurbished rooms and they appear to have safe deposit box so in the room.

I am pursuing other better options in the area. A few of the suggestions mentioned above look better.

[breadandrice]

I stayed there a few nights back in March of this year. The room was fine, but felt very bare bones. The bathroom was pretty bad and felt like it hasn't changed in 30 years.

 

I also spent several nights at Majestic Suites and, aside from the noise from Nana Plaza, I enjoyed it much more.

 

For my trip next year I'll be staying at the Ibis on Soi 4 to try and avoid the noise and have a room that feels newer than at Nana hotel.