I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the world with such a vast supply of five star hotels that are affordable to stay in. First time round we stayed in the Le Meridien for two nights for about £80pn. I don’t think there’s any other branch of that chain that we could have stayed in for anywhere near that price.
On return to Bangkok we booked a night at Vie Hotel – an upmarket Accor hotel. It had some great Trip Advisor reviews. I paid £70, reserving a room a night before from Koh Kood. They upgraded us to a suite so we had 16th floor views from a sitting room equipped with two large sofas and a mini-office with floor to (high) ceiling windows and silk cushions galore. The huge flat screen TV had a twin through the double doors in the bedroom, which came with its own daybed and vast bathroom. They gave us 50% off the spa – though Kim’s package came to more than the room – and reductions off a lavish afternoon tea (<£4pp). You really could have spent the rest of the day and evening in there as tea morphed into wine tasting and tapas, before martini evening started in the pool and entertainment annex, then retiring to the buffet dinner (about £18, but it had a buy one , get one free offer).