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Travelling the world for years, I’ve seen my fair share of hotel rooms and regardless of how comfortable they are, how big they are, how expensive they are often they just lack something. You’re just another number on the P&L spreadsheet. Check-in, bill their card, check-out. Have a good day. I’ve seen it all before, it’s like GroundHog Day for me. But then I stayed at the Eugenia and my opinion was quickly changed……

The Eugenia is starting to make waves in the Bangkok hotel scene, I had heard Denise Von Tess raving about it in an article on the airplane, I had read a review on a famous travel blog waxing lyrically too but I tend not to read into that stuff too much, I like to see for myself.

So I organized to stay in the Eugenia just after I arrived back from Bali, and what a great decision that turned out to be. This is not another faceless hotel, quite the opposite. As soon as you pull up to the building, the vintage Roll Royces testify to that, as does the hotel’s General Manager, John. At 23 years old he must be the youngest hotel GM in all of Bangkok, if not Thailand but with his youth he brings something extra to the hotel, something that’s hard to define but you feel it immediately when you arrive.

The idea of the hotel is that it’s designed in an Old English Colonial style, the former owner was actual a keen collector of antiques but once he had amassed so many, he didn’t know what to do with them, hence the birth of the Eugenia. So nearly all the furniture throughout the 13 rooms, lobby, restaurant etc is genuinely antique, there’s personality oozing from every nook and cranny here. It’s truly remarkable.

The rooms have an extra panache, it may be the 4 poster bed, or the complimentary minibar (that always helps!), or it could be the $3000 handmade copper bathtub. Whatever it is, it make you wanna stay for longer and longer.

The atmosphere in the hotel feels more like a home actually, breakfast can be served to your room at no extra charge. Late morning? No problem, they’ll still bring it to you, even if it’s 2pm! If you have a flight at 10pm, you don’t get chased my housekeeping for any 10am checkout, as long as the room’s not in use, you’re welcome to stay until you need to. Unreal. I’ve never experienced this personal hospitality in a hotel before, it really is unique.

Incidentally, the complimentary breakfast is out of this world. I had literally the best eggs benedict (on wonderful old crockery, naturally) that I’ve ever tasted. And just when I was forgetting where I was, despite the colonial style, my fruit juice was served in a coconut, aggh Thailand I really do love you.

If you’re looking for somewhere to stay with some real personality, a home away from (a 19^th century) home, then this is the place for you.

Everything in the Eugenia has an old world charm, one that leaves you wanting more and more. I honestly expect a host of copycat hotels to crop up after the success of this awesome place, but there’ll only ever be one Eugenia, that’s for sure.