How we checked into the wrong Bangkok hotel

I like to write about destinations and trips and all the good things about travel. It’s been playing on my mind all of the funny/unexpected / slightly scary situations that I’ve found myself in over the years. I always have a bit of a chuckle when I look back so I thought I’d give you a giggle too. I think it’s important to have a bit of balance. Lots of travel blogs have this “perfect” life and everything going on is “amazing”.

They never give you the whole story and when things do inevitably go a bit wrong people think “Why me?!” … Let me tell you, it’s not just you, even the most organised of us have things that go wrong. I am maybe not the most organised so I seem to have quite a few of these stories to tell! Here is the story about the time that we checked into the wrong Bangkok hotel!

Where it started to go wrong

Way back in 2006, in my previous child-free life, I headed to Thailand for 2 weeks of travelling around with 3 of my best girlfriends. We had a ball beginning and ending the trip in Bangkok including time on various islands.

Riding an elephant (mature me knows better than to do this but I can’t take it back), snorkelling in coral reefs and even being S*** on by a fruit bat… I’m not talking a little bit of poo either, I’m talking SO much poo that I was drenched and had to throw my top away! There was no salvaging it and somehow everyone else sat at the same table as I came away totally unscathed! But that isn’t my tale today

My story today starts in Krabi airport, heading back to Bangkok for our final 3 nights of shopping and partying. We had to get a boat from Koh Lanta to the airport and did so with plenty of time to spare. We took the opportunity to relax in the air conditioning and check in early. Our flight was delayed by 3 hours. 5 hours in Krabi airport filled with time popping to the shops, going back in and out of the airport so my friend could have a smoke, taking photographs with Thai policemen (as you do) and of course eating and drinking.

Flying from Krabi to Bangkok

Finally, our flight arrived and we boarded the AirAsia flight for the one-hour trip back to Bangkok. This all went smoothly and we finally arrived in Bangkok at almost midnight. Being the seasoned travellers that we were we hadn’t pre-booked a transfer so hailed a taxi and headed into the city. All is good so far. We showed the taxi driver our confirmation with the Bangkok hotel name on and he took us right there.

We arrived in Bangkok

Arriving in Bangkok I thought that the hotel didn’t look exactly how it did in the photos when we booked. It was almost 1.30 am at this point, things would be better in the morning! With 2 rooms booked, 2 of the girls headed straight up to their room for a good night’s sleep, unpacking everything as this was the last stop. Me and Amy (who I was sharing a room with) decided to stay in the lobby and sit and have a drink or 2 first. We then fell into bed a bit boozy at about 2.30 am…

4 am came and the hotel room phone started ringing, dazed and confused Amy answered. I was sure she was sleep-talking and took no notice. But it was the reception at the hotel, we were only checked into the wrong hotel! Turns out there are 2 hotels in Bangkok with almost identical names, and we were in the wrong one! How we managed to check in is still beyond me! It turned out this wasn’t the first time it had happened! The Bangkok hotel we intended to stay in had called the one we were in. They were concerned that we hadn’t turned up!

Driving around Bangkok at 4 am

We could have stayed for the rest of the night but they said they were going to charge us around £100 per room so that was incentive enough for me to get up and get out! By 4.30 am we were calling taxis to take us to the right Bangkok hotel… Amy and I found it hilarious laughing the whole way!

It was one of those if you don’t laugh you’ll cry moments! The other girls were not so amused having to repack their suitcases at 4 am! We arrived at the correct hotel about 12 hours later than we originally planned. With an unscheduled nap in another bed on the way but we made it! We had a funny story to tell about it in the end too!

I would love to hear everyone else’s funny travel stories. Like I say I’ve got a whole series of them stored and ready to go… sorry it’s not my usual content hopefully we will have brand new travel content to report soon! But for now, have a funny story or 2!

You can read about more of my more successful travels around the world, including our other Asian travels by clicking the tabs at the top of clicking here.

Becky x