New Years Eve At Imperial Queens Park Hotel, Soi 22 Bangkok

My friends and I decided to go to the party at Imperial hotel for New Years Eve so that we could see the new year in by watching the fireworks from the roof. Seemed like a good deal, 800 Baht entry, four rooftop and 2 poolside dance floors, 12 DJ's, free Carlsberg from 8-10 and reasonable prices for booze thereafter.

Arriving there at 8:30, we spent the first 3 hours, sitting by the pool on the 4th floor where the music was not so loud that we could talk. Decided to head up to the roof at 11:30 so that we could see the fireworks.

On exiting the elevator on 37th floor we were thrust into the crush that was trying to make its way to the roof. To get there, one was required to use the fire stairs and walk up four flights of unlit stairs.

Picture several hundred drunken revelers all trying to get into the stairwell at the same time, the stairwell was full of people trying to get up and as we neared the entrance the security guards stopped any more people from entering saying that the roof was full!

For a reputable hotel, I was shocked at the gross negligence shown by this place, clearly they had done NO risk assessment, nor had they determined what the maximum safe capacity of their roof area was. They just kept selling tickets with no consideration to any potential problems that may arise when there were hundreds of people unable to get to the roof.

Being still fairly sober, we decided that it was not in our safety interests to continue trying to get to the roof and returned to the lobby where, believe it or not, they were still selling tickets!!!

I spoke to the duty manager and later the F&B manager and asked them if they were aware of the situation and reminded them of the tragic consequences that they were potentially facing (think SANTIKA).

They could not have cared less and could not understand why I was angry that even as we spoke they were still selling tickets to unsuspecting people who wanted to go to the roof and see the fireworks!

My friends and I will not be patronizing this establishment in the future.