Hotel Review: KROMO Bangkok (King Premium Room High Floor) - Located Opposite EmSphere

Bangkok has always been my default reset button, and this particular trip came together on very little notice. Singapore Airlines had just dropped its latest round of Spontaneous Escapes, and Bangkok made the cut, which meant a return Economy Saver award from Singapore for just 18,200 KrisFlyer miles before taxes thanks to the 30% discount. That is the sort of pricing that turns a vague idea into a booked itinerary within the hour. Once on the ground at Suvarnabhumi, I did what I always do and pre-booked a private transfer through Trip.com, which remains the easiest and most reasonably priced way to get into town without haggling at the arrivals hall or wrestling a suitcase onto the Airport Rail Link. My destination was KROMO Bangkok, Curio Collection by Hilton, the brand's first Curio Collection property in Thailand, sitting on Sukhumvit Soi 29 within walking distance of the Em District. I had booked the base room on a standard rate, but as a Hilton Honors Diamond member I was upgraded at check-in to a King Premium Room on a high floor, which set the stay off on the right foot before I had even seen the lift lobby.

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Bedroom
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

Check-in at KROMO Bangkok was seamless. I was at the counter for barely a few minutes, and while the paperwork was processed I was handed a chilled towel and offered a rather delicious non-alcoholic welcome drink, which is exactly the sort of small-touch hospitality Bangkok does so well. The only sour note came when I asked about late checkout on my day of departure. Despite my Diamond status, the front desk was unable to extend me anything beyond 1pm. This remains my long-standing gripe with Hilton Honors: late checkout is entirely at the hotel's discretion and capped at 2pm at best, with a guaranteed 4pm checkout reserved for the new Diamond Reserve tier. That tier demands 40 stays or 80 nights plus US$18,000 in eligible spend in a calendar year, which is far too much effort for far too little in return unless you are already living out of Hiltons. World of Hyatt guarantees 4pm checkout for Globalists at a fraction of that commitment, and Marriott Bonvoy commits to 4pm for Titanium members at most brands. Hilton continues to leave this one on the table.

Bedroom
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

The King Premium Room is a calm, largely rectangular space, and it comes as something of a surprise after the jewel-toned theatrics of the public areas downstairs. The palette is soft sand and warm oatmeal, anchored by a full-width timber headboard wall in pale oak, ribbed at one end and washed by a concealed cove light that runs the length of the ceiling. It is the sort of lighting design that makes a room feel expensive without needing a single statement piece. The king bed is generously proportioned and dressed in crisp white linen, flanked on one side by a round timber bedside table and a globe pendant suspended from the headboard wall, and on the other by an articulated swing-arm reading lamp.

Bedside Controls
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

The bedside setup deserves its own mention, because this is the sort of detail that separates a well-considered new build from a merely handsome one. Mounted on the headboard panel is a bank of switches, all of them clearly labelled in plain English rather than the cryptic icons that leave you jabbing at panels in the dark. One plate handles master, night and bedside, the second covers wardrobe, ceiling and relax, and everything responds immediately with no lag or guesswork. Next to those is a combined charging plate with a 7.5W USB-A port and, more usefully, a 45W USB-C port, which is enough to charge a laptop at a sensible speed rather than just trickle a phone overnight. Beside that sits a pair of universal sockets that took my Singapore three-pin plug without an adapter, which is always welcome given how many Bangkok properties still insist on the flat two-pin arrangement.

Work Desk
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

Sitting immediately beside the bed is an oval pale timber table paired with a built-in upholstered banquette and a sculptural wooden armchair, and it takes the place of a conventional work desk entirely. I want to be clear that this is not a desk, and anyone expecting a proper writing surface with a task chair and a dedicated lamp will be disappointed. What it is, however, is perfectly serviceable. The oval top is large enough for a laptop alongside a notebook and a coffee, the height is right for typing without hunching, and the armchair is far more comfortable than the average hotel desk chair for an hour or two of email. There is also a power outlet tucked discreetly into the base of the banquette, so you are not running a cable across the floor.

Welcome Amenities
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

The welcome amenity was waiting on the table when I walked in, and it was more thoughtfully put together than the usual apologetic plate of grapes. A shallow white ceramic bowl held a couple of whole fruits, dressed with a few fresh leaves, alongside a timber tray with a linen napkin and a small fruit knife. The more interesting half was a carrier holding a pair of small baked tarts, one studded with dried fruit and the other a nuttier, denser bake. Both were good enough that they did not survive the evening, which is more than I can say for most in-room amenities. Presentation is where KROMO Bangkok's design language earns its keep, because the carrier and the ceramic are clearly custom pieces rather than something pulled from a hotel supply catalogue.

Coffee Machine
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

The coffee setup is where the hotel's Thai-first ethos shows up most usefully. A Nespresso machine sits on the counter alongside a black presentation tray of capsules from RISE Coffee, a Bangkok specialty roaster, rather than the standard Nespresso range you would find in any Hilton anywhere. Two blends are offered, a medium-roast Good Day with caramel and chocolate notes, and a darker Bold Move leaning towards coffee nut, dark chocolate and hazelnut praline, each with its intensity and blend composition printed on the card behind. The Bold Move is the better of the two if you take your coffee without milk. A handful of glass bottles of still water sit behind the machine, and a folded card of QR codes covers the in-room dining menu and hotel information.

That brings me to the one operational inconsistency I noticed. Evening turndown at KROMO Bangkok is available on request rather than automatically, and requesting it is easy enough through the WhatsApp messaging service, which was answered promptly every time. The execution, however, was not always thorough. On one night the slippers were not laid out, on another the teabags were not replenished, and on a third the water was simply not placed by the bed at all. None of this is a dealbreaker on a short stay, and the hotel is still young enough that these things should settle. It does suggest that the housekeeping checklist has not quite been drilled into muscle memory yet.

Bathroom
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

The bathroom is where the King Premium Room finally remembers it belongs to a Curio Collection property. The layout is a compact three-part arrangement, with a single vanity on one side, a separate walk-in shower and bathtub behind glass, and a bathroom tucked away across from it. What lifts it is a full-height panel of blush pink wallpaper running between the vanity and the shower, printed with a surreal Thai-themed collage of temples, roosters, orchids, a costumed horse, a zebra on a tuk-tuk and various other oddities from the hotel's cabinet of wonders narrative. It is genuinely charming, and it is the single most interesting design decision in the entire room.

Bathroom
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

The rest is competent rather than remarkable. The vanity is a solid-surface counter with an integrated basin and a wall-mounted chrome mixer, topped by a full-width mirror and a fabric-wrapped tissue box, though counter space is tight if two people are travelling together with a full complement of toiletries.

Bathtub
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

The shower is lined in a handsome terracotta-toned vertical tile, fitted with a handheld on a slide rail. Water pressure and temperature stability were both excellent throughout the stay, which matters more than either of those complaints.

Bath Amenities
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

Toiletries are far from generic own-label filler - KROMO Bangkok has partnered with HARNN, the Thai luxury apothecary brand better known for its spa products, and the bottles are labelled as created in Thailand exclusively for the hotel. The scent is Allure, a jasmine and pear blend, and it is lovely. It opens floral and slightly green rather than the cloying sweetness that so many hotel jasmine products fall into, and it lingers on the skin long enough to be noticed without following you around all day. Hand and body wash, shampoo and conditioner come in amber pump bottles mounted on a matte black bracket against the terracotta tile, which is a genuinely handsome piece of styling. This is exactly what I want from a Curio Collection property. Rather than defaulting to a globally recognised fragrance house that would feel identical in Lisbon or Los Angeles, KROMO Bangkok has gone local and produced something that could only have come from Bangkok.

Bedroom
Premium Room High Floor - KROMO Bangkok

Stepping back and taking the room as a whole, it is a comfortable and well-resolved space. The entry corridor is lined in the same terracotta tile that appears in the shower, with a fluted glass partition separating the bathroom from the sleeping area, and it lets a warm glow through without compromising privacy. The open wardrobe sits opposite, backed by another panel of that blush pink Thai collage wallpaper, and comes fitted with a lit hanging rail, a generous run of wooden hangers, a padded bench, two drawers and a rattan-fronted cabinet below. Robes and slippers are provided, and there is enough hanging space for a week even though most people will be here for two or three nights. The air-conditioning is where I have a small but persistent complaint. It cools the room adequately, though I would have liked the option to push it a few degrees colder than the system seemed willing to go. More annoyingly, the unit resets to ambient temperature if you are out of the room for an extended period, presumably an occupancy-sensor energy-saving measure. Coming back from a warm Bangkok afternoon to a room sitting at whatever the corridor temperature happens to be is not the welcome you want, and it takes a good ten to fifteen minutes to bring things back down to something civilised.

This was the part of the stay I was not expecting. There is no executive lounge at KROMO Bangkok, which in most Hiltons would be the end of the conversation for a Diamond member. Instead, Hilton Honors Diamond guests are invited down to Colette on the ground floor for an evening drinks hour. I had read online that the hotel previously handed out complimentary drink vouchers, and I suspect the current arrangement is the better of the two. A voucher gets you a drink at a bar; a designated hour gets you a seat in one of the most striking rooms in the building, under the sculptural woven ceiling installations and the kaleidoscopic lighting that give Colette its character. The service was attentive throughout without hovering. The offering is fairly narrow. There is a single cocktail on the menu rather than a choice of several, alongside a selection of red, white and sparkling wine and a few non-alcoholic options. The accompanying light bites are modest in quantity but genuinely well executed - I prefer this over sad bowls of nuts and spring rolls that pass for canapés at most executive lounges.

Breakfast
Colette - KROMO Bangkok

Breakfast is complimentary for both Hilton Honors Gold and Diamond members, which is standard enough across the portfolio. What is not standard, and what I consider the single best thing about staying here, is that it is served until 2.30pm every day. You will not find a buffet spread, so anyone who measures a hotel breakfast by the length of the hot counter should adjust expectations. The complimentary allowance runs to one small plate, one main course, a coffee or tea, plus juice and fruit, all ordered à la carte and cooked to order.

Breakfast
Colette - KROMO Bangkok

I will take this arrangement over a buffet every single time. The usual Bangkok hotel breakfast winds down by 10.30am or 11am even on a weekend, which means either setting an alarm on holiday or writing off the benefit entirely. A 2.30pm cut-off means you can have a late night, sleep properly, and still collect a proper breakfast at midday without anyone giving you a look. It also means the food arrives hot rather than having sat under a heat lamp since seven in the morning, and the kitchen at Colette is clearly capable. For a leisure traveller on a short Bangkok trip, that flexibility is worth more than twenty chafing dishes.

Breakfast
Colette - KROMO Bangkok

The cooked-to-order food more than justifies the format. My pick across the stay was the scrambled eggs with Gruyère on sourdough, and I would order it again without hesitation. The eggs are properly soft-set rather than rubbery, the Gruyère is generous enough to actually taste, and the sourdough underneath holds up instead of collapsing into a soggy mess. Sautéed mushrooms and a dressed side salad round the plate out. The only weak link was the pair of chicken sausages, which looked the part but were noticeably underseasoned and added little beyond bulk. I skipped them on subsequent mornings and was no worse off.

Diamond Member
Colette - KROMO Bangkok

Portions are substantial, which is worth flagging given how easily an à la carte allowance can turn into a token gesture. Between a small plate, a main, fruit, juice and coffee, I left the table properly full each time. I also ordered the rice porridge as my small plate on one occasion, served with pickled vegetables, a soft-boiled egg and greens, and it was a good deal better than the perfunctory congee counter most Bangkok buffets offer. Taken together with the 2.30pm service window, this is the part of the stay that felt most like a holiday. Being able to sleep in and then eat a proper hot breakfast whenever you happen to surface is a genuine luxury on vacation, and it is one that almost no other hotel in this price bracket is willing to extend.

One further touch worth mentioning is that Diamond members receive a small plate of macarons alongside breakfast, presented on a bamboo stand with a card marking the tier. Mine came in two flavours, a pale cream and a violet, both with the thin crisp shell and soft interior that indicate someone in the pastry section knows what they are doing. Gold members receive an amenity too, though in a different flavour, which is a neat way of differentiating the tiers without making the lower one feel short-changed. It costs the hotel very little and it is entirely unnecessary, which is precisely why it lands well. Recognition at breakfast is rare at Hilton properties outside of a lounge setting, and KROMO Bangkok has found a genuinely charming way to do it.

Swimming Pool
KROMO Bangkok

The pool is one of the strongest arguments for booking KROMO Bangkok. It sits on the roof, partially sheltered beneath a striking lattice ceiling finished in deep terracotta red, with the open end framed by floor-to-ceiling glazing that looks out across the Sukhumvit skyline. The covered arrangement is a smart response to Bangkok's climate. You get shade and rain protection without the airless feeling of a basement pool, and it means the space remains usable through an afternoon downpour or at two in the afternoon in April. The water runs a proper length rather than the token plunge pool that so many new Sukhumvit builds pass off as a swimming facility, and it was clean and well maintained every time I visited. The design carries the same considered hand seen elsewhere in the hotel. A large rust-red mural runs the length of one wall, a row of brass pendant lamps hangs above a small service counter backed in brick, and a canopy of greenery spills over the top of it. Loungers are the proper padded sort rather than plastic, there are enough of them that I never had trouble finding one, and a separate seating area with armchairs and low tables sits by the window for anyone who would rather read than swim. Towels, chilled water and fresh fruit are laid out at the counter.

I came away from KROMO Bangkok genuinely impressed, and I would book it again without much deliberation. The location is a large part of that, because Phrom Phong is my favourite part of Bangkok to base myself in. You have the Em District on your doorstep for shopping and air-conditioned refuge, Benchasiri Park for a morning walk, some of the city's best restaurants within a short walk or a five-minute Grab ride (provided there is no congestion), and the BTS to take you everywhere else. It is calmer than Asok and considerably more civilised than Nana, while giving up nothing in convenience. The room itself plays it safe, and the 1pm checkout still irritates me, as does an air-conditioning system that resets the moment you step out for a few hours. Those are real criticisms.

What outweighs them is how much thought has gone into everything else. The HARNN toiletries, the RISE Coffee capsules, the blush pink Thai collage wallpaper, the rooftop pool under its terracotta lattice and the macarons at breakfast all point to a hotel that has bothered to be specific about where it is, which is exactly what a Curio Collection property should do. Add complimentary breakfast running until 2.30pm, evening drinks at Colette for Diamond members, and a genuinely quiet night's sleep on a high floor, and the value proposition holds up well against anything else Hilton has in Bangkok. For a weekend escape from Singapore, particularly one funded by 18,200 KrisFlyer miles during a Spontaneous Escapes window, this is about as good a use of a short trip as you will find.

KROMO Bangkok, Curio Collection by Hilton
525 Sukhumvit Road, Sukhumvit 29 Alley, Khlong Toei Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
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