Pinnacle Hotel in Bangkok

[werner]

I have stayed at Pinnacle a few times and found it satisfactory, but the last time was several years ago.

Has anyone stayed there recently?

Is Jimmie still working at/for Pinnacle Hotel? He provided reduced rates and offered useful information about gay venues, etc. Although sometimes he was hard to find, and sometimes very talkative. It would take 30 minutes to pay the bill.....

And what are the prices now? Pinnacle used to have good rates (through Jimmie).

[Buck Bee]

Its a dump and it stinks


When we returned to Bangkok we stayed at the Pinnacle Hotel near Lumpini Park. It’s a dump, the whole hotel has a really strange pungent smell, the service is crap and the food even worse. Don’t stay there!

[Yraen]

I stayed there for 3 nights in Nov16.

The pungent smell in the foyer is possibly mould caused by damp from the waterfall.

Jimmy is still there. He has his own desk just outside the dining room & is providing additional tourist services. Best contact him by email - jimmyfirst@hotmail.com.

I do not totally agree with Buck Bee, though the place is showing its age and deserves a good renovation. The breakfast service has variety but gets a bit ho-hum on the 3rd day if you prefer to not eat asian food at that time of day. (Oh. Watch out for the joiner trap - the cost for non-residents for breakfast is fantastically high; Several times higher than the value of the food.) For other meals, there are plenty of better restaurants close bye - The Malaysia Hotel dining room for instance.

Personally, I have two concerns:
1. Access to the hotel is only up a flight of stairs - one external and one from the garage. If your legs are a bit "wonky", like mine, make use of the handsome and helpful 'bell hops' to move your baggage in and out.
2. The staff on the front desk need an 'attitude adjustment'. They are definitely not customer service oriented but concentrate on 'procedures' even to the point of being rude to customers who ask questions.

[Buck Bee]

The staff on the front desk need an 'attitude adjustment'. They are definitely not customer service oriented but concentrate on 'procedures' even to the point of being rude to customers who ask questions.

The buffet is ok but the food from the pool restaurant was crap. I agree with you about the attitude of the front desk staff, their customer service suxs!

[Uranus]

So, not a place to be recommended, in other words.

[paperboy]

ive stayed here before, for 20$ a night, what do you expect. Never had a problem taking boys back, and ive never eat there either, plenty good resturants about. Has a pool so, really if your staying about 3 nights, its perfect at last minute.

[Manforallseasons]

ive stayed here before, for 20$ a night, what do you expect. Never had a problem taking boys back, and ive never eat there either, plenty good resturants about. Has a pool so, really if your staying about 3 nights, its perfect at last minute.

I suggest you check the current price.

[Yraen]

The "rack rate" is heavily discounted if you book through Jimmy.
Paperboy's observations are about right.

[Manforallseasons]

The "rack rate" is heavily discounted if you book through Jimmy.
Paperboy's observations are about right.


Right? At the current exchange rate 20 U.S. would be 700 bht. what are you smoking?

[paperboy]

ive paid 87 euros for 4 nights, which is 3200 BHT
and is about 92 $
so give or take, its about 20 $


Alojamiento
Estancia
Nún. Hab.
Tipo de habitación
Régimen
Localizador


Pinnacle Lumpinee Park Hotel
4 noches
1
Habitación Doble
Sólo Alojamiento









Fecha desde
Fecha hasta
Importe


16/01/2017
31/05/2017
87,43 €











Importe de la reserva:
87,43 €

[Manforallseasons]

Paperboy did you book through Jimmy?

[paperboy]

no i did not
i booked through TUI espana

[Manforallseasons]

For many years the hotel offered "stay 2 nights get one free......your price is excellent.

[paperboy]

yes, i thought also, i know its not a 5 star hotel, but for that price for 2 people for 4 nights, cant complain.

[werner]

Pinnacle does indeed sometimes have a bad smell. During one stay, I wondered whether the hotel was (1) using strong chemicals to clean the rugs or (2) fumigating for mice, bed bugs, and other vermin.

At the breakfast buffet, you can find good coffee and decent food.

The guests include a wide variety of nationalities and types. You can often hear about 10 languages and dialects at breakfast.
I once chatted a bit with a dour but sweet German honeymoon couple. During one visit, I met a drop-dead gorgeous French guy, who unfortunately had a girl friend along.... He was extremely handsome and had a perfect, athletic body..

It is definitely NOT a Five-Star hotel, and the staff members can be surly and burly when they are busy, or if you cross them.

[travelerjim]

There is the service elevator located at the end of the garage on the left side.
Always use this elevator to the first floor...enters the kitchen and through the door into the dining room to the reception lobby.
You are welcomed to use this...and with your luggage the bellman at the front in the parking area will gladly assist.

We stayed there recently...
Rooms are nice and renovated.
Staff always helpful.
Breakfast buffet is OK and egg orders to cook by the chef good.

I use hotels.com to book.
Good rates and get either 8% or 10% discount with using their app.
and code.

Tj

[werner]

What is the latest news about the Pinnacle?

I might stay there again during my next trip.

By the way: The hotel seems not to care at all if you bring a guy or guys back for the night, whether or not you booked for two people. However, you can only get two free breakfasts if you book for two people.

[Smiles]

What is the latest news about the Pinnacle?I might stay there again during my next trip. By the way: The hotel seems not to care at all if you bring a guy or guys back for the night, whether or not you booked for two people. However, you can only get two free breakfasts if you book for two people.We/I stay at the Pinnacle pretty well every time we go to Bangkok ... and that's reasonably often.
The Pinnacle is fine for a middling hotel, and for the price.
It's very close ~ one block ~ to Lumphini subway station, thus close to Silom/Surawong Bad Boys. It's right across Rama 4 and Lumphini Park if you like getting some exercise in the later afternoon ... watching Thai butts as they run around the park is my style of classic voyeurism. So many runner's firm and athletic apple-asses, all looking good.

The rooms are not huge, but not tiny either. Over the years they have taken out most of the lethal bathtubs they used to have and put in large showers which can accomodate two. The top rooms give quite a good scene of the city, and if you want to see 360 degrees of it just go up to the 15th floor ... great views, nice breezes, cold beer. Never eat dinner there though, it's usually very mediocre.

Service is fine. The cleaning ladies are very good at what they do and seem to love their customers.
If you choose to pay for the breakfast buffet, it's just OK. I recall it used to be better many years ago but that might just my nostalgic imagination. However, having said that ... The Pinnacle is no longer the Gay(er) Hotel it once was. It never was "gay only"(a concept that Thais would never think of using) but back in the day (let's say 2002 ~~ 2012) it was, I'd say, 50% gay clientle: at breakfast one could tell immediately. Usually a dozen or so obviously gay men who missed The Catch the night before and now forlorn sipping coffee alone ... then there was the half dozen or so sitting with their successful hunt the night before. Some large numbers of Thai beauties eating corn flakes with farang reprobates showing off their catch. No more fun-at-breakfast at the Pinnacle Im afraid. No more gentle head-swinging on my part (NOT being a reprobate). No more smiles from sweet gay waiters who's hand you can squeeze in a 20 baht bill. Damn it was fun playing "Who's Handsome, who's not?" with Mr Suphot.
The Pinnacle now in 2018? Can I say 'Chinese', and 'Russians', and at my last stay, a lonely looking Frenchman.

And now a swell restaurant if you like Italian food ... and you are staying at the Pinnacle ... and you can walk for 10 minutes down and an incredibly small Soi without being run over ... and you don't mind a bit getting a half inch away from being side-swiped by every second motorbike ~~ (if you do mind you have no sense of humour) ... you'll find 'Lido'. Their pizzas are sublime and the pasta dishes are pretty well perfect. A great take on Lido's version of Tiramisu to boot.
The Lido is definitely a large part of hunkering down at the Pinnacle.

[Smiles]

If you feel like a stroll to The Lido Restaurant (not really to scale, but close):

8097

[frequent]

There's a coffee shop just around the corner on Rama 4 on the way to the MRT called Lisa Lamo (https://lisa-lamo.business.site/) that also serves light meals, mostly pasta, for lunch and early dinner. There's another one right next to the Pinnacle entrance as I recall that serves snacks of some sort. I ate lunch in the Pinnacle dining room once at the urging of a friend (I think he was hoping to get his leg over one of the staff or, more likely, vice versa) - reminiscent of a mausoleum, and you can get much better food at similar prices elsewhere in Ngam Dupli. I'd never go back there

For those in search of generic Viagra, the pharmacy just around the corner on Rama 4 but walking away from Lumpini MRT sells Sidegra for 220 baht. There are a couple of boy massage shops in Soi Ngam Dupli on the same side as Pinnacle but as you walk towards the Malaysia Hotel that offer similar services to the ones in Soi Twilight but at considerably cheaper prices (this is not a recommendation)

Finally I'd take issue with one comment of Smiles'. He's assuming that those who are companionless at breakfast must have "missed out" the night before. You'll never see me at breakfast with a boy (or preferably anyone else) since (1) I'll have sent the boy away so I can get a decent night's sleep if I even had one after dinner - my preferred time is the period for which sodomy was invented to fill, between cocktails and dinner - and (2) I'm a great believer in the silent breakfast - all those years holidaying in monasteries in my youth introduced me to the habit (as it were)

[Smiles]

" ... I'm a great believer in the silent breakfast ... "
Oh, that was you then, yes the sad-sack forlorn gentleman, covering up his loneliness with well-practised stoicism.

[snotface]

I share Smiles' enthusiasm for the Pinnacle as a conveniently located medium range hotel. Last time I was there about a month ago I thought the breakfast buffet had improved somewhat - better organised with things you want close at hand (like a milk jug next to the tea and coffee facilities) and the grilled tomatoes no longer tasted as if cooked in vinegar. Like frequent I enjoy my silent breakfast. I paid 1140B per night through Jimmy, which struck me as good value. Poor old Jimmy is looking really frail these days. I couldn't even find him to pay for my room for several days and in the end we bumped into each other on Rama IV and made the transaction there, papers, pens and bank notes cascading all over the place.

The coffee shop mentioned by frequent right by the entrance to the hotel on Soi Ngam Dupli is well worth a visit. It's small (hence its name Size S) but does the best coffee I've had in Thailand apart from another small establishment called Ponganes in Chiang Mai. It does a range of sweet snacks to go with the coffee. I visit every afternoon when I'm staying at the Pinnacle and keep telling the owner to move to a new shop called Size L, where I'm sure he'd make his fortune.

[frequent]

Oh, that was you then, yes the sad-sack forlorn gentleman, covering up his loneliness with well-practised stoicism.I recognised you from your avatar, but forbore to come over and talk. We could have discussed, I guess, The Wombat - a future talking point will be his total incomprehension about what a crowdfunding site is for, although given that he doesn't understand the difference between shopping (but failing to buy) and window-shopping ...

[mr giggles]

Snotface said: I paid 1140B per night through Jimmy, which struck me as good value. Poor old Jimmy is looking really frail these days. I couldn't even find him to pay for my room for several days and in the end we bumped into each other on Rama IV and made the transaction there, papers, pens and bank notes cascading all over the place.

I find it a bit easier to pay a smidge more and avoid Jimmy these days. Time is money and Jimmy certainly knows how to waste time- 25 mins to write a receipt with all the flourishes and having to listen to his gripes (and he insists on giving you a recept.)
Having said that, Jimmy can organise an early check-in if your plane arrives early and you need a snooze.
The Pinnacle has it's uses - everyone knows where it is, it's also great for people- watching!

[Manforallseasons]

Years ago I always booked with Jimmy a few years ago he had a stroke.....He was always somewhat difficult but he became impossible. A friend likes Malaysia hotel down the street it is about 1000 per night no joiners fee and has a 24hr restaurant, free wifi and has recently been renovated.

http://www.malaysiahotelbkk.com/

[mr giggles]

Years ago I always booked with Jimmy a few years ago he had a stroke.....He was always somewhat difficult but he became impossible. A friend likes Malaysia hotel down the street it is about 1000 per night no joiners fee and has a 24hr restaurant, free wifi and has recently been renovated.

http://www.malaysiahotelbkk.com/

I had a look at the rooms in the Malaysia, as a non-smoker, the smell in the rooms was untenable.
Also the rooms seemed a bit grotty- though I have made use of the 24 hr restaurant. :)

[werner]

Thanks for the interesting comments about Pinnacle. I will book rooms there again. I am so sorry to hear that Jimmy has become so frail; he was always good to me.

I do like Malaysia Hotel. Several years ago, I looked at a few rooms, and they seemed noisy and dirty. The food in the restaurant was mediocre, at best.

Perhaps I am a cantankerous old European, but I like to eat my breakfasts alone. Even when I have a hot guy for the night, I do NOT bring him to breakfast to parade before all the gawking and lusting gay men. And I do NOT like to engage in small talk at breakfast with the chatty Americans and Australians. If they greet me, I speak in very rapid French. They usually get the hint.

[frequent]

And I do NOT like to engage in small talk at breakfast with the chatty Americans and Australians. If they greet me, I speak in very rapid French. They usually get the hint.My usual response is to reply in a rather languid cut-glass accent "I'm frightfully sorry, I don't speak English"

[Mancs]

I had a look at the rooms in the Malaysia, as a non-smoker, the smell in the rooms was untenable.
Also the rooms seemed a bit grotty- though I have made use of the 24 hr restaurant. :)
The rooms on the top floor at the Malaysia are better. I've stayed there a few times. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke but it's never been a problem.

[Manforallseasons]

The rooms on the top floor at the Malaysia are better. I've stayed there a few times. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke but it's never been a problem.

I am an X smoker amd detest the smell however, I've never had and issue with this @ the Malaysia.

[Smiles]

There's a lot of interesting thoughts on The Pinnacle here. I hope Werner will follow up with his own opinions of it when he's left the joint.