Price
500 baht
What
A clean large double room, shared bathroom with warmish water, fan only, bottle of cold water on arrival, bars of soap, toilet paper, strong wifi in room
Where
Behind the National Library, Sri-Ayutthaya Rd, Soi 14 (walk towards the temple at the end of the street, and it’s in an alleyway on the right, before 7-11).
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Comments
This is a great deal in Bangkok. It’s difficult to find something nice and clean for under $20, despite the hundreds of options, but Tavee excells at being a budget, very clean, tastefully decorated, organised guesthouse.
We took the double room, shared bathroom option but there are rooms with en-suites priced at 750 baht.
Bedding is clean and the rooms aren’t too stuffy. The double bed is huge! Shared bathrooms are clean enough though using the toilet means walking barefoot through the previous person’s shower water as the toilet and shower are combined in the stalls. There are six toilets, with five showers. The only busy time we observed was around 8-9am where you had to wait. Every other time there was a shower available. You also need to remember to bring toilet paper with you as there is none in the stalls, though it is supplied in your room.
There is a free luggage room where we stashed our stuff while waiting for the night train.
Staff can be a hit or miss and they are usually flustered as it’s quite a large, and often filled, guesthouse with people coming and going. Some can be very helpful by pointing out bus routes and tips, but one lady was quite abrupt and impatient.
Location is ideal. There is a 7-11 opposite, a fresh (wet) market one street away, various streets carts outside, and several ‘touristy’ restaurants. There are also buses that will take you directly to the train station or Siam Square (see map). If you walk through the market and turn right, you will also end up at Thewet ferry stop. This public ferry costs only 15 baht to get to the Central (Sathorn Taksin) ferry stop, and is a very efficient way to get to the other side of town, bypassing the horrible Bangkok traffic. The Central stop connects with the BTS skytrain that can take you into the city.
The worst thing about Tavee is that the rooms have very thin, plywood like walls so you can hear everything from the other rooms on the same floor. We’ve heard snoring, fighting, Skype chats, singing, someone lighting up a cigarette and even a French couple getting amorous in the late hours.
And omg, there are a lot of French people at Tavee. There must be a French speaking staff member as I’m sure at least 98% of guests are French.
Annoyingly, some people, French or not, do smoke in their rooms and as the walls are barely walls, and there’s only a fly screen separating the top of the wall to the hallway, you can really smell it. I’ve even seen cigarette butts in the toilet and the bucket in the bathroom, despite the NO SMOKING INSIDE signs.
As it is such a large guesthouse (we stayed in Room 52, so I assume there’s at least 52 rooms), there is a high turnover of guests and you might get noisy guests depending on who is staying there.
I would definitely stay here again as it’s a good price for a very clean, and comfortable room despite the noise situation. Actually, we’ve stayed here on three separate occasions now, a total of about 14 days. That’s how awesome it is.
