The Randolph Hotel, by Graduate Hotels

I used to stay at 5 star hotels regularly when travelling for business, but that was 20 years ago so my judgement is based on what I'd expect given advances in technology and customer feedback. The basics were spot on. No complaints about that. The finer things that make for a memorable stay were missing. When I checked in then I mentioned that I was visiting to attend a funeral. That's not a big deal in itself, but apart from sympathy from the front desk there was nothing. I thought that maybe a 5 star hotel would do something, but I don't know what. Maybe a free biscuit with "Sorry" iced on it.

I wasn't really impressed by the shower in my room, since it could have been mounted higher to accommodate normal people. I'm 6ft tall and would have liked to have stood underneath the shower rather than in front of it, necessitated by the fact that the vertical rod to wall distance didn't allow enough room to point the shower head down and the rod was mounted too low for anyone my height. Maybe you should describe it as a "Horizontal water experience". The lift announcements are great but too loud, given the assumption that blind people aren't also deaf. I stepped out from the lift on my floor for the first time after the barrage of announcements pinpointing my floor location and door status to think that the poor sod who was in the room almost directly opposite the lift was going to suffer for his choice. That room turned out to be mine. The concierge was good but didn't offer useful advice concerning changing old pound notes to the new plastic abominations, but luckily I'd Googled the process and went to the Post Office with my passport and exchanged my old crinkly notes for the new plastic abominations. Lastly, since I understand that the top two floors had burned down a couple of years ago and had to be refurbished then the attention to detail was a tad lacking. Apart from the shower then given there was no room for a bedside table then a bedside shelf would have to suffice. Understandable, but it was just the right size for a mobile phone to be rested on ready for the morning alarm, but no room for anything else of note. I wear glasses so the choice was to balance my glasses on top of my mobile or somehow balance my mobile on top of my glasses knowing that in both cases when my alarm went off then my glasses would fall into the gap of despair between the wall and bed. Lastly (I can hear the sighs of relief from here) don't recommend Thaikun as a good Thai restaurant.