Dusit Thani

I was pretty amazed at the transformation of the Dusit Thani.  I haven't been to this hotel along Pasay Road for some time now, and it was a very pleasant meeting I had at their Executive Lounge (library is shown above) last week.  I remember when the hotel was the Nikko Manila Garden; Kong and I have pleasant memories of their Japanese Grill Restaurant, Gojinka in the mid-seventies.  Years later, in the early eighties, my late father-in-law would take me to dine at their Benkay restaurant, which was then still of top-notch quality.  By the mid-nineties, however, it was obvious that the hotel needed not just a face lift, but a massive renovation.  The owners were not keen on starting the needed works, and were ready to part with the property.  I looked at the hotel for a client of mine, but the Dusit group was the lucky prizewinner.  I distinctly remember spending some time discussing the deal with a known French hotelier who previously worked with the Accor group.  The new owners closed the hotel for a year-long renovation, and today, the hotel is pretty much the Thai icon in the local business scene (the other being state-owned PTT).  Refreshing!