Once the largest hotel in the world, now back to almost zero...

 

The huge 40 floor tower 100% no guests, empty...

What the heck? 

Why? everywhere else busy

According to the property 'gurus'   counting lights on in a building can't be used to judge  occupancy 😋

 

Perhaps all the hotel guests are on the beach facing side ?

there are also other  smaller buildings in their complex..

 

I'll try to remember to look out my window tonight and count the lights on ..or not  it will also be a  land facing count..with perhaps a free photo thrown in too !

Multiple people told me the founder died in 2022, the ones inheriting it do not agree with each other, so down the drain it goes... (poor setup of the last will I guess)...

1 minute ago, johng said:

Perhaps all the hotel guests are on the beach facing side ?

 

 

Nope, empty on both sides. I offered the security guards 1.000, then 2.000 Baht if they bring to the top floor. No way, not even 10.000...

5 minutes ago, zappalot said:

Multiple people told me the founder died in 2022, the ones inheriting it do not agree with each other

I have not heard that rumour  just the one about it being the prime candidate for a casino  and that they already have a floor set up waiting for the day they become legal...they have been waiting a looooong time.

 

Didn't you ask the guards why the tower is empty .. renovations maybe ?

34 minutes ago, zappalot said:

Multiple people told me the founder died in 2022, the ones inheriting it do not agree with each other, so down the drain it goes... (poor setup of the last will I guess)...

I didn't realize it was empty.  I had noticed a lot less Russians gathered in large groups waiting for the Baht Buses on Sukhumvit nearby.

Not an unusual situation to see properties abandoned and deteriorating while heirs fight it out in court which can be unending.    One possibility is that it accumulated a huge amount of debt that nobody knows how to pay off.

I always think of that huge residential development: custom townhouses with boat access and two condo towers in Bang KraChong off the tollway by the big powerplant.   90% completed when the bank crisis hit 30 years ago.  Still sitting empty, never occupied though still minimally maintained.  Still tied up in multiple overlaying lawsuits, original players all dead and numerous family factions dueling it out in endless court filings.

There are no renovations in Ambassador Tower. Guards do not know anything.

6 minutes ago, dddave said:

I always think of that huge residential development: custom townhouses with boat access and two condo towers in Bang KraChong off the tollway by the big powerplant.   90% completed when the bank crisis hit 30 years ago.  Still sitting empty, never occupied though still minimally maintained.  Still tied up in multiple overlaying lawsuits, original players all dead and numerous family factions dueling it out in endless court filings.

 

yeah, I see that also every time passing by from BangNa Trad expressway... Crazy...

 

For the Ambassador: if there are huge debts then keeping it empty does not bring in needed cash... It would be easy to fill up 10-20 rooms in the upper floors for between 1000 and 2000 Baht night with minimal investment... And building from there.

4 minutes ago, zappalot said:

 

For the Ambassador: if there are huge debts then keeping it empty does not bring in needed cash

She's been around for decades, probably paid itself off many times. 

 

 

2 minutes ago, zappalot said:

For the Ambassador: if there are huge debts then keeping it empty does not bring in needed cash... It would be easy to fill up 10-20 rooms in the upper floors for between 1000 and 2000 Baht night with minimal investment... And building from there.

Easy?  Not really.  To re-open a smaller section of a place of that magnitude with in house systems geared to the entire structure would be really difficult.  Just staffing a place that large is not easy.  Established hotels are reporting difficulty staffing so re-starting and trying to retrieve legacy staff would be a challenge.  A place that large has to operate at a certain level of capacity to make money, not easy in an older, out of date building.

 

Pure speculation on my part so don't quote me but founder led institutions like this tend to have a huge debt load.  Certainly 3 years of no occupancy during Covid must have caused a financial disaster for a place this size.  I would guess that the heirs are faced with a huge cash crisis.  Before assets can be distributed to heirs , debt usually has to be resolved.  I'd guess the heirs don't have the cash needed to resolve the outstanding debt.  The only wat to raise that kind of money is to sell the property but that place will be a tough sell because it will probably cost more to renovate to modern standards than to build new.  A true "White Elephant"

Always a bit out of town IMHO.

2 hours ago, dddave said:

Certainly 3 years of no occupancy during Covid must have caused a financial disaster for a place this size.

They had plenty of occupancy during most of the 'Covidiocy' 

lots of company seminars and government shindigs 

I believe they were one of the quarantine hotels during the worst of it.

But yes it must cost a lot to keep the place running.

12 minutes ago, johng said:

They had plenty of occupancy during most of the 'Covidiocy' 

 

What is your source to this statement?

I slightly doubt that when the malls were closed, also most hotels, this very hotel had "lots of company seminars and government shindigs". 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably not worth re opening. To upgrade the rooms, lifts, safety etc would cost as much as the hotel is worth.´Once debt / inheritance etc sorted it will be demolished. When was it built ?

The tower itself is dark for at least 4 years. So there was no "plenty of occupancy".

 

4 years ago, for the beach party, for sure not many people showed up, people staying there back then describing it as a ghost town...

 

 

I guess that TAT will say the opposite.

It was originally built to be a casino in anticipation of a change in the law. That is why it is rather ugly.

Some 20 years ago, there was a rumor that the building was owned by Mr. Taksin.

Is this the place?

 

https://amtelcity.com/photos/

 

The Ocean Wing is apparently still bookable on Priceline.

 

 

5 hours ago, Lee65 said:

Is this the place?

 

Yes it is.

If it's not being rented they could just pull it like WTC Tower 7 and build a nice green space to combat 'climate change.'

Top two floors of that tower is what kept it afloat for many years, the biggest known casino in the province, cost between 50 and 100K a night and by invite only, packed out by Bangkok gamblers every weekend.

My next door neighbor at the time used to be the head cashier in the casino, superbly dressed in her black and whites every day when she set off to work, very proud of her position she was.

14 hours ago, Halfaboy said:

Some 20 years ago, there was a rumor that the building was owned by Mr. Taksin.

 

Details about the ownership of the Ambassador hotel is publically available, and it isn't Thaksin, so rumours are just that.

A Thai worker  there told me you can stay there everyday for 7 years and never sleep in the same room twice

On 12/22/2025 at 11:44 AM, scubascuba3 said:

Why? everywhere else busy

Ambassador have nicer places.

On 12/22/2025 at 12:31 PM, zappalot said:

 

yeah, I see that also every time passing by from BangNa Trad expressway... Crazy...

 

For the Ambassador: if there are huge debts then keeping it empty does not bring in needed cash... It would be easy to fill up 10-20 rooms in the upper floors for between 1000 and 2000 Baht night with minimal investment... And building from there.

You ting too mut.😄

On 12/22/2025 at 12:21 PM, dddave said:

I didn't realize it was empty.  I had noticed a lot less Russians gathered in large groups waiting for the Baht Buses on Sukhumvit nearby.

Not an unusual situation to see properties abandoned and deteriorating while heirs fight it out in court which can be unending.    One possibility is that it accumulated a huge amount of debt that nobody knows how to pay off.

I always think of that huge residential development: custom townhouses with boat access and two condo towers in Bang KraChong off the tollway by the big powerplant.   90% completed when the bank crisis hit 30 years ago.  Still sitting empty, never occupied though still minimally maintained.  Still tied up in multiple overlaying lawsuits, original players all dead and numerous family factions dueling it out in endless court filings.

 

 

Country Marina City, Bangpakong River

https://www.smc.co.th/projects-detail.php?ic=2&id=2

On 12/22/2025 at 12:46 PM, dddave said:

A true "White Elephant"

Well, it is both white, and very large!