Bwana_LB

It took me years to get over that Rolex I purchased at the corner of Soi 4 and Soi 6.

It took me years to get over that Rolex I purchased at the corner of Soi 4 and Soi 6.

It took me years to get over that Rolex I purchased at the corner of Soi 4 and Soi 6.

It took me years to get over that Rolex I purchased at the corner of Soi 4 and Soi 6.

He bought an IPhone 15 Pro for a 1000 Baht and feels aggrieved it wasn’t a real one 

Thanks for the heads up mate … just cancelled my next trip , going to Benidorm instead  

Just spent 8 nights at the Mercure on Soi 11 and thought I'd offer up my take.
I had a King room with shower and bathtub, one of several options. It's not their largest or their smallest room, but was plenty large for my needs (photos below).
I arrived at midnight, and check-in was quick and simple. I purchased a room without the breakfast add-on, as I like to explore various breakfast options around town. I booked well in advance, while prices were still depressed by Covid, so got a rate of about $86/night. When I checked in, the rate being offered at that time was about $112.
My room was on the 16th floor and away from Soi 11, so as quiet as a room will get in that part of town. I had no issues with noise
A funny moment: I was only interested in sleeping after a 27 hour trip with a 15 hour time change, but could not figure out how to turn off the room lights. I searched everywhere (I thought) for the switches, finally calling the front desk to send someone up. The control for the room lights (nearly all of them) was in the middle of the bed headboard, hiding behind a stack of pillows.
Description of room:
The room was plenty spacious, and had pretty much everything I would want. The king bed was comfortable and the bed linens were high quality. Four large pillows. There was a desk with two chairs, and an additional two guest chairs with a small table. Opposite the bed there was a small storage unit with two drawers for clothes, and a flat screen TV above it. TV worked fine and was decent sized, but I never watched any TV. To the left of this, towards the door to the room and the door to the bathroom, was a platform to set luggage on, a small fridge (not a minibar), and then a closet with a decent sized safe (big enough for a laptop). Across from the closet was the door to the bathroom. As mentioned, the bathroom had both a glass-enclosed shower, with adjustable/handheld shower head and a rainfall shower head. Across from the shower was a full tub with an adjustable/handheld shower head (for some reason, many Thai girls seem to prefer to shower in the tub...I don't get it). Tub had a wall mounted soap dispenser, shower had wall mounted soap, shampoo, and conditioner dispensers. Next to the shower was a toilet with the essential bum gun, and next to it a shower and sink with ample room for storage of toiletries.
Pros: 
Comfortable bed Good AC that was easy to control air speed and room temp Great hot water. It was easy to control, and never ran low. Two large bath sheets and two smaller bath towels Plenty of seating for guests. Chairs came in handy for sex as well. Housekeeping was responsive to requests for extra towels, hangers, etc. I tipped daily. Good reading lights by the bed. Cons:
Lighting was hard to control. No dimming, and ceiling lights were either all on or all off. No power outlets next to the bed! Charging phones had to be done at the desk or on top of the fridge. This was a nuisance. Aside from liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion, there were no other amenities in the bathroom. No plastic hair cover for the girls, etc. Fridge was on the small side. Room for a few drinks and not much else. The Hotel:
The lobby is nothing fancy. From the driveway you walk through sliding glass doors, across a seating area with a concierge stand, past the elevators (one left, one right), and to the actual reception desks. One of the two hotel restaurants (Lily Fu's) is on the ground floor to the right of the hotel entrance, and can be entered from inside or outside the hotel. Another restaurant (Gaucho Argentinean Steakhouse) is loosely affiliated with the hotel and is just to the left of the hotel.
The hotel has a parking garage (4 levels), a pool, bar, and gym that sit above the parking garage, and 16 floors of rooms (1-16, minus 13th, plus a Penthouse level). I spent a fair amount of time at the pool. One of the better pools I've used. There are actually two pools: a smaller and very shallow splash pool for kids and a larger pool, still fairly shallow (1.2 meters) for swimming. The pool is surround by ample seating of various sorts with shade for the sun-averse. The bar sits at one end of the pool, and has a decent drink and food menu. Neither cheap nor overpriced. The gym, glass enclosed and looking out over the pool, was also very good, with plenty of cardio and weight machines.
Pros:
Lobby easy to negotiate. It's a decent walk (of shame?) to the elevators, but you have the option of skipping the desk and taking your guests straight to your room. Elevators require a room key to get to a particular floor, so no surprise guests will appear at your door (as has happened to me at other hotels). Breakfast buffet at Lily Fu's is excellent, at 299 baht. Egg station, all the usual options for American/English breakfast, tons of Asian options, good selection of fruit, juices, breads and pastries, coffees and teas, etc. One can sit open air in the front of the restaurant facing Soi 11 or sit back further inside or at the bar. In the evening, Lily Fu's is a bar/restaurant and is pretty active. Good drink options, reasonably priced, and usually quite crowded. The food is primarily pan-Asian and good, but there are better options, so I only had a quick meal there one time when convenience was key. Gym was great and never crowded. Pool would get busy, but there was always ample seating. Cons:
The hotel is definitely a family hotel. Not exclusively so, but if you're a shy monger just know that you'll be dealing with lots of couples on vacation, families with kids, and so forth. The clients were incredibly diverse, a little United Nations. Didn't bother me at all, but I know some here prefer hotels that cater primarily to mongers. I'm afraid there are fewer and fewer of those, and they are generally not the best hotels. Pool area could get noisy when a few families with kids would show up. The pool is my reading area, and shouting kids are distracting. Come on the early side for breakfast. At least while I was in town the restaurant got quite crowded by 9:30. Fortunately, I'm an early riser. Conclusion:
Depending on the rate I can get, I'd definitely stay again. Did I mention that Cindy's Secrets is about 100 yards from the hotel, and that it's a short walk to Check In Bar? And that Soi 11 really has lots of options for food at any time of day, and plenty of nightlife. By 9 pm freelancers show up along Soi 11 closer to Sukhumvit. I definitely preferred staying here over Soi 4. Soi 11 is now also the hub for the mobile marijuana dispensaries. There were at least ten vans selling marijuana along Soi 11 (and tons of dispensaries along Sukhumvit), including two vans parked in front of the Mercure in the evenings. Didn't imbibe. I liked getting in walks to the skytrain from the hotel (maybe 5 minutes), and Terminal 21 is just a 10 minute walk.
The morning I left, at 5 am, there were four girls from Cindy's sitting in front of my hotel, so I went out and chatted with them. The street was still pretty active, but mostly filled with bargirls and freelancers ending their nights by getting something to eat or drink. I don't think Soi 11 ever sleeps.
 

Spasso?  The Italian restaurant by day and freelance spot by night, is that the place?
If so sorry to say it’s no longer there.  They have redone the lower section of the hotel, just restaurants and a bottle shop now.  You do have Mixx across the road and the after hours club “Lucky” bar is around the area as well.

It's been a long time since I stayed there. I liked the hotel itself. Good rooms and facilities. When I stayed there they had a dance club that attracted freelancers (all gg as far as I could tell), and they all asked premium prices.

I have invited afternoon treats to the pool. About 25% have taken me up on the offer.
But...
CanadaVisitor's first two points are on target. The girls have mainly stayed in the shade, under a pool umbrella. And most will get in the pool but not get their hair wet. Some just sit with their feet dangling in the water.  At least half tell me they don't know how to swim. But a few have jumped in and taken full advantage of the pool. Mostly we just sit, talk, and have something to drink.

The shorts are bad enough but the semen stains on them really do seal their fate

I have invited afternoon treats to the pool. About 25% have taken me up on the offer.
But...
CanadaVisitor's first two points are on target. The girls have mainly stayed in the shade, under a pool umbrella. And most will get in the pool but not get their hair wet. Some just sit with their feet dangling in the water.  At least half tell me they don't know how to swim. But a few have jumped in and taken full advantage of the pool. Mostly we just sit, talk, and have something to drink.

Agreed 100%
I wrote about LBs and their fear of water a few years back. It's shocking how many of them don't know how to swim, even the ones from rural areas. The thread below was about taking LBs on trips, and their reluctance to go swimming was one of the things that was guaranteed to occur on most of my trips with them. 
 

I have invited afternoon treats to the pool. About 25% have taken me up on the offer.
But...
CanadaVisitor's first two points are on target. The girls have mainly stayed in the shade, under a pool umbrella. And most will get in the pool but not get their hair wet. Some just sit with their feet dangling in the water.  At least half tell me they don't know how to swim. But a few have jumped in and taken full advantage of the pool. Mostly we just sit, talk, and have something to drink.

I have invited afternoon treats to the pool. About 25% have taken me up on the offer.
But...
CanadaVisitor's first two points are on target. The girls have mainly stayed in the shade, under a pool umbrella. And most will get in the pool but not get their hair wet. Some just sit with their feet dangling in the water.  At least half tell me they don't know how to swim. But a few have jumped in and taken full advantage of the pool. Mostly we just sit, talk, and have something to drink.

Yes, let them heal. The ulcers are a pathway for infections of many sorts (not just HIV) to enter your system. Also, the ulcers themselves MAY reflect an active case of HPV. Most HPV cases will clear on their own and are not dangerous, but some types of HPV are precancerous. 

Just spent 8 nights at the Mercure on Soi 11 and thought I'd offer up my take.
I had a King room with shower and bathtub, one of several options. It's not their largest or their smallest room, but was plenty large for my needs (photos below).
I arrived at midnight, and check-in was quick and simple. I purchased a room without the breakfast add-on, as I like to explore various breakfast options around town. I booked well in advance, while prices were still depressed by Covid, so got a rate of about $86/night. When I checked in, the rate being offered at that time was about $112.
My room was on the 16th floor and away from Soi 11, so as quiet as a room will get in that part of town. I had no issues with noise
A funny moment: I was only interested in sleeping after a 27 hour trip with a 15 hour time change, but could not figure out how to turn off the room lights. I searched everywhere (I thought) for the switches, finally calling the front desk to send someone up. The control for the room lights (nearly all of them) was in the middle of the bed headboard, hiding behind a stack of pillows.
Description of room:
The room was plenty spacious, and had pretty much everything I would want. The king bed was comfortable and the bed linens were high quality. Four large pillows. There was a desk with two chairs, and an additional two guest chairs with a small table. Opposite the bed there was a small storage unit with two drawers for clothes, and a flat screen TV above it. TV worked fine and was decent sized, but I never watched any TV. To the left of this, towards the door to the room and the door to the bathroom, was a platform to set luggage on, a small fridge (not a minibar), and then a closet with a decent sized safe (big enough for a laptop). Across from the closet was the door to the bathroom. As mentioned, the bathroom had both a glass-enclosed shower, with adjustable/handheld shower head and a rainfall shower head. Across from the shower was a full tub with an adjustable/handheld shower head (for some reason, many Thai girls seem to prefer to shower in the tub...I don't get it). Tub had a wall mounted soap dispenser, shower had wall mounted soap, shampoo, and conditioner dispensers. Next to the shower was a toilet with the essential bum gun, and next to it a shower and sink with ample room for storage of toiletries.
Pros: 
Comfortable bed Good AC that was easy to control air speed and room temp Great hot water. It was easy to control, and never ran low. Two large bath sheets and two smaller bath towels Plenty of seating for guests. Chairs came in handy for sex as well. Housekeeping was responsive to requests for extra towels, hangers, etc. I tipped daily. Good reading lights by the bed. Cons:
Lighting was hard to control. No dimming, and ceiling lights were either all on or all off. No power outlets next to the bed! Charging phones had to be done at the desk or on top of the fridge. This was a nuisance. Aside from liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion, there were no other amenities in the bathroom. No plastic hair cover for the girls, etc. Fridge was on the small side. Room for a few drinks and not much else. The Hotel:
The lobby is nothing fancy. From the driveway you walk through sliding glass doors, across a seating area with a concierge stand, past the elevators (one left, one right), and to the actual reception desks. One of the two hotel restaurants (Lily Fu's) is on the ground floor to the right of the hotel entrance, and can be entered from inside or outside the hotel. Another restaurant (Gaucho Argentinean Steakhouse) is loosely affiliated with the hotel and is just to the left of the hotel.
The hotel has a parking garage (4 levels), a pool, bar, and gym that sit above the parking garage, and 16 floors of rooms (1-16, minus 13th, plus a Penthouse level). I spent a fair amount of time at the pool. One of the better pools I've used. There are actually two pools: a smaller and very shallow splash pool for kids and a larger pool, still fairly shallow (1.2 meters) for swimming. The pool is surround by ample seating of various sorts with shade for the sun-averse. The bar sits at one end of the pool, and has a decent drink and food menu. Neither cheap nor overpriced. The gym, glass enclosed and looking out over the pool, was also very good, with plenty of cardio and weight machines.
Pros:
Lobby easy to negotiate. It's a decent walk (of shame?) to the elevators, but you have the option of skipping the desk and taking your guests straight to your room. Elevators require a room key to get to a particular floor, so no surprise guests will appear at your door (as has happened to me at other hotels). Breakfast buffet at Lily Fu's is excellent, at 299 baht. Egg station, all the usual options for American/English breakfast, tons of Asian options, good selection of fruit, juices, breads and pastries, coffees and teas, etc. One can sit open air in the front of the restaurant facing Soi 11 or sit back further inside or at the bar. In the evening, Lily Fu's is a bar/restaurant and is pretty active. Good drink options, reasonably priced, and usually quite crowded. The food is primarily pan-Asian and good, but there are better options, so I only had a quick meal there one time when convenience was key. Gym was great and never crowded. Pool would get busy, but there was always ample seating. Cons:
The hotel is definitely a family hotel. Not exclusively so, but if you're a shy monger just know that you'll be dealing with lots of couples on vacation, families with kids, and so forth. The clients were incredibly diverse, a little United Nations. Didn't bother me at all, but I know some here prefer hotels that cater primarily to mongers. I'm afraid there are fewer and fewer of those, and they are generally not the best hotels. Pool area could get noisy when a few families with kids would show up. The pool is my reading area, and shouting kids are distracting. Come on the early side for breakfast. At least while I was in town the restaurant got quite crowded by 9:30. Fortunately, I'm an early riser. Conclusion:
Depending on the rate I can get, I'd definitely stay again. Did I mention that Cindy's Secrets is about 100 yards from the hotel, and that it's a short walk to Check In Bar? And that Soi 11 really has lots of options for food at any time of day, and plenty of nightlife. By 9 pm freelancers show up along Soi 11 closer to Sukhumvit. I definitely preferred staying here over Soi 4. Soi 11 is now also the hub for the mobile marijuana dispensaries. There were at least ten vans selling marijuana along Soi 11 (and tons of dispensaries along Sukhumvit), including two vans parked in front of the Mercure in the evenings. Didn't imbibe. I liked getting in walks to the skytrain from the hotel (maybe 5 minutes), and Terminal 21 is just a 10 minute walk.
The morning I left, at 5 am, there were four girls from Cindy's sitting in front of my hotel, so I went out and chatted with them. The street was still pretty active, but mostly filled with bargirls and freelancers ending their nights by getting something to eat or drink. I don't think Soi 11 ever sleeps.
 

I look forward to your arrival @Bwana_LB...just note that there have been a few changes here since I stayed back in April.
They are attempting to be a lot more family friendly...they do not allow the weed trucks to park in front of the hotel anymore.  They have also put up a railing in front of the hotel so that freelancers can't sit there anymore.  That was a shame for me because I actually became friendly with one of the girls who posted herself there by the name of May.  Haven't seen her so far this trip 
Also, breakfast is pretty bad now.  They still have an egg station, but fried and scrambled eggs are waiting for you under a heat lamp.  They still do omelettes to order and you can also shame them into making you fresh fried eggs.  There is no coconut water like they used to have.  And the buffet is now mostly halal.  (I think I got that right...Indian food). They have 2 choices for western dishes and that's it.  One day the choices were broccoli in cream sauce and fried tomatoes. Haha...not a potato in sight!
And this is room dependent...even though the outlets should accept N.American plugs I found that I needed to use an adapter to make a proper connection. I look forward to your thoughts when you return.
Cheers

Thanks
They know me at the hotel I normally book and have given me a price of 1600b for 2 incl breakfast, so not bad. Grand Business Inn. I do like the staff there. Always get treated well.
Not the "grandest" hotel around, but very convenient to everything and doesn't wear the girls out during the walk from Soi 10. Doesn't have a pool which is a drawback.
That price for the Mercure is good. 

Patience. Rates very frequently drop about two months out. I was looking to book a room at the Mercure Soi 11 for late January arrival. In early Nov. the advertised rate was about $125. In mid-Nov. the rate dropped to $78, and I booked.
Not sure what you're looking to pay, but I see that the rates at the Mercure Soi 11 are as low as $73 in March. Citrus Suites is asking $88 for their executive suite, which is a huge room.

Good for you Bwana to wait it out. I just noticed they dropped as well and booked myself.
Had I waited I could have saved over 3000 baht for my 3 night stay over new years. I’m going to call Accor and see if they can do anything for me for those nights. (They have a price match guarantee but I don’t meet the conditions for it). They still might do something out of goodwill though.

I'm constantly amused by those who fret over how others choose to spend their money.

Huh? Don’t know how the hell I missed that!
The only explanation I can think of is that when I turn that corner I only have one thing on my mind…Check In Bar!! And coming back from CIB my head is in the clouds.

It is literally steps away from Soi 11 on Sukhumvit. BIG sign!
I'm not sure what the attraction is. Beer is cheap but food is lousy.
 
 

If you can't find Lek's @CanadaVisitor, I wonder how on earth you can find a cute girl