Started in the 1970s, Siam Hotels & Resorts is an independently owned and branded Thai hotel group. Its properties consist of the Siam City Hotel in Bangkok and the Siam Bayshore Resort & Spa and Siam Bayview Hotel in Pattaya, a seaside city located two hours south-east of Bangkok. In all, the group currently operates 4- and five-star luxury properties in Thailand with a hotel-room inventory of over 1,000, overseen by a team of 1,100 local and international management and staff.
History
The origins of the brand date back to 1972 when Kamol Sukosol – entrepreneur, business tycoon and chairman of the Kamol Sukosol Company – acquired a 20-acre (81,000 m2) plot of land in Pattaya and decided to build a resort. The Siam Bayshore Resort opened in 1975 (one of only three hotels in Pattaya at the time), under the leadership of his daughter and managing director, Kamala Sukosol. In 1983, the family acquired another beachfront plot in the centre of Pattaya Bay and built the Siam Bayview Hotel. To complement its Pattaya operations, in 1990 the hotel group opened the Siam City Hotel in down-town Bangkok, beside the Phayathai Skytrain Station.
Expansion plans
In the coming years the hotel group has further expansion plans, starting with a luxury 39- room boutique property, The Siam, on the banks of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, near Krungthon Bridge. This new addition is slated to open in 2011. Krissada Sukosol Clapp is helping conceptualise and design the property along with architect Bill Bensley and Associates. The Siam Bayview Hotel in Pattaya is also expanding, in the form of a colonial-inspired two-storey boutique hotel, The Bayview Colonial, to be located at the front of the property directly in front of the beach.
Company name
What began as Siam Bay Hotels in 1983 has changed over time. In 1990, with the addition (along with the Siam Bayview Hotel and Siam Bayshore Resort & Spa) of the Siam City Hotel in Bangkok, the name ‘Siam Bay Hotels’ was no longer adequate. Thus was born ‘Siam City Hotels and Resorts’, to represent the three properties. Then again, in 2009, with the looming addition of yet another hotel, The Siam, another name change was instigated. At last, the current name, Siam Hotels & Resorts, was born.
Parent company
Siam Hotels and Resorts is a member of the Kamol Sukosol Group of companies with interests in diversified businesses. The Kamol Sukosol Co. Ltd traces its history back 70 years to 1939, when Mr Kamol Sukosol started his trading business with a shipment of 12 radio sets from the United States. Over the following years, Mr Sukosol expanded the business into several other industries, including automotive, finance, insurance and construction. When the company needed to form independent business units to maintain focus, the Kamol Sukosol Electric Co. Ltd was established in 1973. Henceforth led by his daughter, Kamala Sukosol, the company now focuses on the trading of electric and medical equipment. The real estate holdings of the group include numerous property and office rentals in and around Bangkok.
Ownership and management
Siam Hotels & Resorts is wholly owned and operated by the Sukosol family: Kamala Sukosol is president, her eldest daughter, Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, is executive vice president; her youngest daughter, Daranee Sukosol Clapp, is vice president of finance, her youngest son, Krissada Sukosol Clapp, is a consulting designer and her eldest son, Kamol Sukosol Clapp, is director of projects. In addition, the hotel is managed by a team of Thai and multi-national hotel professionals. Siam Hotels & Resorts currently has 1,100 employees and is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand.
