This hotel is quite simply trying to cash in on its past glory. A three star hotel, at best, trying to pretend to be a five star one. The facilities, location and overall ambience do not merit the five star status awarded to it. Tucked away in the back streets of a distinctly unimpressive part of town, our initial reaction of wishing we had booked a room at the Conrad instead was spot on. We stayed here for four nights in total. The hotel neglected to mention in any of their emails that the pool would be closed and that an entire wing (the one we were staying in !!) was being renovated during our stay. One of the reviewers on this site mentioned it and when I asked the hotel about it, they confirmed it but hoped that this would not deter us from staying there. On arrival, we were upgraded to the Krungthep wing with complimentary breakfast, afternoon tea and early evening cocktails. The room was a decent size with possibly one of the most comfortable beds we have ever slept in. We tried two of the three restaurants on site and they were very good too. On the second leg of our stay, we were shown to a smoking room, despite having booked a non-smoking one. When we raised this, the lady showing us to our room seemed somewhat offended that we did not want to sleep in a room with the stale aroma of nicotine. We were eventually taken to a corner non-smoking room with a large balcony. The penny dropped 10 minutes later when the drilling and the hammering began. We were told that if we wished to take afternoon tea in the lobby lounge, the racket would be gone upon our return. It wasn't . And it was still audible at 8 am the next morning when we were rudely woken up by sounds akin to a building site. Three phone calls to the front desk were met with assurances that the duty manager was looking into it. Quite what she was looking into remains a mystery. We eventually gave up and went down to breakfast. The duty manager appeared after much insistence on my part to deal with her alone. She offered her sincere apologies and assured us that if we returned to our room after breakfast the noise would most certainly be gone. Suffice to say, the din continued for the rest of the day. Given that we had a 14 hour flight to look forward to, what we needed was rest, not excuses and lies. We had hoped that the hotel would offer to compensate us in some way or other for the inconvenience of not being able to use the room, but any kind of offer was not forthcoming. Upon checking out, we asked to see the guest relations manager and explained to her how disappointed we were with the hotel. After much haggling, she offered us a complimentary transfer to the airport and deducted the room service charge for the previous evening's dinner. The Shangri-La claims to be a five star hotel but the behaviour of its staff tells a different story altogether. The facitlies offered are hardly above a three star hotel. The shower door in the bathroom is not sealed which means the bathroom floor resembles a swimming pool after a shower. The bathroom sink (in both rooms we stayed in) could do with a serious hit of a strong cleaner and ditto the desk in the bedroom which had glass marks and smudges all over it. The hand towel in the bathroom had long blonde hairs on it when I wiped my hand and I am a brunette. I am guessing the hairs belonged to the previous occupant of the room. It would seem that appearances matter much more than substance at the Shangri-La, Bangkok. Suffice to say, we will not be staying here again. If you would like to enjoy Bangkok and Thai hospitality along with getting value for your money, stay at one of the big three - Conrad, Peninsula or the Oriental. The SL, Bangkok was just a series of disappointments.