La Presse locale se dechaine, trop fort ce Chico
Derniere parution sur le Fenix,
Pour les anglophones uniquement:
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a swimming pool? Yes, located indoors on the seventh floor of Le Fenix Sukhumvit, the new boutique hotel which offers guests a splash in style, complete with a panoramic view of the Bangkok skyline.
By Nicholas Snow
Home to some of the hottest nightspots in Bangkok, including Q Bar and Bed Supperclub, Sukhumvit Soi 11 needs no introduction, frequented by a hip, slick and trendy, ultrachic and fashionable party crowd that has created an international standard for a night out. Over the past year, visitors to the party zone have seen Le Fenix Sukhumvit—the area’s newest and least expensive (in terms of room rates) boutique hotel—literally rise from the ground to completion in just over 14 months.
Since the hotel’s opening on May 1st, 2007, clubbers on the soi may question whether or not they’ve had too much to drink as they look into the sky and spy a sophisticated gent with a cocktail, frolicking in a glass-walled swimming pool with his favorite party entourage, all of them gawking at the crowd below as if to say, “We’re in the pool. You are not. Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Phillippe Anric, the General Manager of Le Fenix Sukhumvit (managed by Accor Hotels) explained, “Nobody has a pool like this in Bangkok,” and he surmised what one of his guests might say, after their stay, to a friend. “Did you see me two days ago? I was in the pool at Le Fenix drinking Cognac and I saw you coming out of Q Bar.”
“It’s part of the culture to be seen,” declared Anric, indicating that locals are renting hotel rooms purely for the ability to host an elite group of friends for a private party in the pool, adjacent to a well-equipped yet intimate exercise room to work off your Cognac. At any time, the hotel stands out as a work of ARTitecture, but at night you can’t miss the property with its ground and rooftop signage and spectacular LCD spotlights shining “Le Fenix” against the all-white structure, beckoning in a way similar to a Batman alert in the clouds over Gotham City.
Responding to the call, party goers escape from the clubs to Le Rendezvous In on the second floor of the hotel, but still overlooking all the action on the soi through the all-glass façade. The scene is appropriately described as “exotically ambient,” and to satisfy late-night or mid-day cravings, Le Rendezvous In offers wine, spirits and light meals, as well as warm and cold tapas.
Le Rendezvous Out is a planned open-sky rooftop bar but the hotspot has been delayed because of zoning complications. Owners and management are confident that obstacles will be surmounted, and you’ll know they’ve been successful from the glow of the rooftop grand opening party and the cluster of paparazzi on the street. By the way, a competitor has borrowed the pool idea for a property yet to open, but according to Anric, the view from (and to) the Le Fenix Hotel pool will remain unrivaled.
While one has a choice to ascend into the hotel via an elevator, most choose to take the grand staircase leading up and into the building to the second-floor lobby and onward to L’Escale Restaurant. In the lobby itself, adjacent to Le Rendezvous In, one can find guests surfing the net, having drinks with friends or colleagues and reading the newspaper, while others are checking in or out. It was the designer’s intention for people to feel at home in a multipurpose, yet trendy and elegant space.
L’Escale Restaurant offers hip international fusion cuisine. Anric explained that virtually everything about the hotel is evolving based upon customer and guest feedback, as is typical for a brand new property including the food and beverage offerings. The lunch buffet looked spectacular and is very competitively priced at only 390 baht. Let’s face it, if you go to Starbucks and order a pastry and a premium coffee beverage, you’ve spent almost what it will cost you to have a sumptuous lunch buffet with some of the tastiest desserts around. The hotel guarantees premium coffee, pastries and nothing but fresh juices as part of its breakfast fare, and of course, offerings expand as the day progresses.
The hotel industry previously defined its customers in two categories —leisure and business travelers—but as far as Anric is concerned and as evidence has shown, there is a third classification – the internet crowd.
“Our customers – corporate or leisure, individual or group, travel agent or tour operator – are spending more and more time behind the computer selecting the hotel,” Anric says. He went on to explain that historically customers would rely on travel agents but that now, before they even call a hotel for a reservation, they know almost everything about it, having done their homework online.
Combining business with pleasure, Le Fenix Hotel is perfect for meeting those weekday business obligations followed by a weekend of leisure before returning home. 147 guest rooms are available including high tech LCD televisions with most of the channels you’re used to, and other amenities including high-quality linens with both king and twin bed options. Internet access is available in room via LAN line, as well as via WiFi in both the rooms and in the lobby, but at the usual high prices of hotel internet access.
By the way, even though the cost of internet in most hotels is usually outrageous, the overall cost of staying at Le Fenix Hotel is unbeatable. From this writer’s perspective, the hotel rates are very much on the low side for all they have to offer. On site, you’ll notice that the “L” shape is everywhere in the design scheme—in windows, fabric, the ceiling, on glasses and even in the furniture – so drop by the Le Fenix Sukhumvit, just for the “L” of it