Bangkok - Bangkok's first hotel boom dates back to the mid-1960s when the Thai capital became a pleasure hub for American GIs seeking rest and recreation (R&R) from the war in neighbouring Indochina - Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Remarkably, given the other dramatic transformations Bangkok's landscape has undergone over the past four decades, many of these GI hotel relics have survived relatively unchanged in the metropolis, offering a unique retro glimpse of the Vietnam War era.
Surviving veterans include the Embassy, Federal, Florida, Grace, Liberty, Honey, Manhattan, Miami, Prince and Rex hotels, most of them situated along Sukhumvit Road.
All these 'economy class' establishments offer cheap, air-conditioned rooms in the 20-50-dollars-a-night price range, a swimming pool, coffee shop and a slightly sleazy ambiance.
There is a good reason they are so similar. Most were built to meet the specifications set by Tommy's Tours, a Thai company run by former air chief marshal Thawee Chulasap that monopolized the R&R tours to Bangkok.
'All hotels had to be 5 dollars a night, have a swimming pool, 24-hour room service and, be, er, 'guest friendly,'' said Allan Dawson, a Bangkok-based Canadian-born journalist who covered the Vietnam War after serving as a GI.
Hotels like the Miami had contracts with Tommy Tour's that kept their 123 rooms full almost every night. Business was good.
'We made our money back on the hotel in four years,' said Surachai Tansirichaiya, owner of the Miami, which opened on November 26, 1965.
The hotels were not the only ones making money. The hotels had to give Tommy's Tours a commission, industry sources confirmed.
The GIs were easy to please, Surachai recalled.
'When they came here, after checking in they would go to New Petchaburi Road and pick up the girls, then come back to the hotel,' he said. 'They'd spend five to six days in their rooms. That's all. No sightseeing. No shopping.'
New Petchaburi Road, parallel to Sukhumvit, was Bangkok's 'night entertainment' district during the Vietnam War years, but essentially closed down after the war. The bars migrated to Patpong Road.
'There used to be about 30 hotels on Petchaburi but they all closed down after the war, except for the Prince,' Surachai said.
The Prince Hotel now sits in a wasteland of closed bars and deserted buildings on New Phetchaburi, although the neighbourhood will no doubt benefit from the opening of a new rail link between Suvarabhumi Airport and Makkasan junction, due for a soft opening at year-end.
The hotel's lobby and coffee shop boast vintage Vietnam War era style, as do their brochures.
'For those of you who like to keep late nights, our 24-hour room service is on constant call, ready to fulfill any needs you may have,' reads a Prince Hotel leaflet.
Most of the GI hotels found new markets among European tourists after the R&R market dried up.
'We used all these hotels in the 70s and 80s as after the GIs moved out the charter clients from Germany moved in and we got very good value for money in those years,' said Luzi Matzig, a former director of Diethelm Tours and now owner of Asian Trails, a tour company in Bangkok.
The Grace Hotel switched from GIs to tourists from the Middle East. It is now one of the prime hotels of Little Saudi, as Sukhumvit's Soi 3 neighbourhood has been dubbed.
The Rex Hotel, near Sukhumvit's Soi Thonglor, has become popular among Japanese tourists.
'First we had American GIs, then German and Dutch tourists and now our biggest market is Japanese,' Rex Hotel's reservations manager LH Eng said.
Eng, 81, has spent the past 41 years working at the Rex.
While American Vietnam War veterans are among the Rex's clients, they are a diminishing market. 'It is rare now,' Eng said. 'Most of them are finished. Some come back and say, 'I remember you,' but I say, 'Sorry, I don't remember you.''
The Miami Hotel also attracts returnees.
'Sometimes they bring their grandson and come and stay here,' said Suphol Tansitichaiya, son of the owner Surachai. 'They show me pictures of when they were young and jumping from the balcony into the swimming pool.'
Suphol, who stands to inherit the hotel, is not planning to sell it or radically alter the establishment.
'Our hotel is retro style,' Suphol said. 'I think it is one of our selling points.' That and the 26 dollars-a-night room rate.
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