Furama Hotels: Location, Location, Location

Furama is not a brand particularly well known to Australian and New Zealand visitors to Southeast Asia. Still, the joint Thai-Singaporean company has quite a presence with some 40 properties owned or under management around the globe.

Singapore-based Furama Hotels International (FHI) is a hotel management company providing excellent mid-level accommodation choices in the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. As one of the largest global hotel chains based in Singapore, FHI manages more than 60 hotels, villas and resorts, comprising an inventory of more than 7500 rooms.

On my most recent visit to the Thai capital, I stayed at the flagship Furama Silom and the newer, smaller 110-room FuramaXclusive at Asoke, a stone’s throw from the massive Terminal 21 shopping complex.

Deluxe room at FuramaXclusive Asoke (supplied)

The Furama Silom is a 4-star rated property with 258 excellent-sized rooms. My Deluxe room was a whopping 40sqm with both bath and shower and a sitting area with couch and working desk. The Silom area, about a kilometre south of the better-known Siam shopping district, is quite popular with the EU market, especially the Spanish.

FuramaXclusive Asoke, Bangkok, is the flagship hotel for the boutique brand - FuramaXclusive hotels - in Bangkok and was honoured with a TripAdvisor Readers’ Choice Award last year (2021). Again, excellent room sizes with Deluxe starting at 32sqm and Premier at 42sqm.

Meeting with Group DOSM, Khun Krit (Chris) Phakaphong, I took the opportunity to educate myself on the group and its range of hotels.

“We have three primary brands,” Chris tells me as we sip coffee in the second-floor Executive Lounge, “Furama is our primary brand for larger hotels of more than 200 rooms, while FuramaXclusive is our contemporary boutique brand. FX is for ‘comfort and convenience.“

The lagoon pool at FuramaXclusive Resort & Villas, Ubud is filled with natural spring water (supplied)

There are nine properties in Thailand, with six in Bangkok. The others are in Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Hua Hin.

“While we may not promote our F&B as much as some of the competing brands, we are all about location,” says Chris, “we make sure our properties are situated where guests want to be - whether it’s close to beaches, rivers, business hubs or shopping precincts.”

FURAMAfirst loyalty members enjoy many benefits and privileges across any of the Furama hotels in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Bali. And membership is complimentary.

Furthermore, Furama properties comply with The Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration (SHA) certification. This certification, awarded by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, is a recognition of commitment to maintaining the highest levels of sanitisation, hygiene and staff vaccination levels.

For more information, bookings and comprehensive hotel details, see www.furama.com.