I agree this has turned into an interesting thread, keep posting
I was very interested to read the comments from Maximus, who is able to comment from an industry point of view. I also liked his comment about the time spent by visitors and the number of different visitors guests have.
From comments I have had made to me though it would appear that a number of hotels request that staff do not visit guests in their rooms when they are off duty.
This is the case in cities other than Bangkok also. A friend of mine used to work at the Oriental Hotel in Singapore and could not visit my room when I stayed there.

In regard to Bangkok hotels I think in many cases its a case of whether the staff recognise you, and how you treat them. Many also like to check visitors ID for security purposes, and in general I cannot disagree with this. I do notice in some hotels that staff make a habit of talking in Thai to your Thai friends, if I feel this may cause a problem I pre advise my Thai friends to tell hotel staff to direct any questions to me in English.

I have visited the Peninsula Hotel on many occasions and find it a great place to be, with excellent rooms, though I have yet to stay there. However the Oriental is not on my list as my Thai boyfriend does not like going near the place. When he was in the tourist business he had to go to the Oriental a number of times, and was always treated like a second class citizen. Sometimes he would phone the hotel to speak to a guest; when he spoke in Thai, he was not put through to the guest, if he spoke in English he was.

I wonder how guests get through the lobby when they want to go out in shorts.

[ November 23, 2001: Message edited by: rick253 ]