The best budget hotels in Bangkok, including slick rooftop pools and free workout classes

Located on the edge of Bangkok’s historic Chinatown on trendy Soi Nana, one of the city’s trendiest (and least seedy) nightlife areas which is lined with bars, restaurants, a cultural centre and exhibition spaces. The three-floor corner building was once a Chinese merchant’s home and business, reinvigorated with a great eye for history and detail. It offers just six large rooms, with mezzanine floors or balconies, wooden floors, Asian and European antique furniture and plenty of retro vibe. The coffee shop on the ground floor serves coffee and cold drinks as well as some craft beers.

This hotel feels just right amongst sky trains, high rises and gigantic malls – reasonably smart, very cosmopolitan, but informal. The designers really had a field day, with traditionalist modern art covering walls and corridors, painted in nicely muted colours. Unique, quirky, compact and comfortable, the 203 rooms offer large bathrooms and manage to be colourful without being gaudy. On the 25th floor, Taan restaurant serves Thai cuisine with French influences. The rooftop bar has 360-degree views of the city.

The Mövenpick sits slap bang in downtown Bangkok: an eight-storey, 297-room resort offering highly efficient service and cool, contemporary ambience. The style is certainly ostentatious and rather European, from the massive entrance doors to the minimally furnished and smartly turned-out room interiors. Water plays an important role in the hotel’s aesthetics – ponds and cascading waterfalls can be seen everywhere. Feng Shui apparently was a deciding factor in how the hotel interior has been laid out. Enjoy a cocktail and contemplate the sea of high rises around on the expansive pool and terrace on the roof.

A bright, brash, colourful hotel right in the heart of Bangkok’s world famous backpacker quarter. Despite the fact that the building has been around for half a century, the hotel exudes young, contemporary flair: the funky colours extend from the large and busy lobby to the stripey pool and the rooms which feature pop art tapestries and carpets. The attractive and compact air-conditioned rooms are either kept in predominantly blue or orange tones; some feature single beds and two bunk beds. The in-house restaurants serves innovative Thai cuisine and comfort food.

The Well is a health-oriented hotel well-placed for visitors keen to enjoy Bangkok’s downtown delights. There’s a small saltwater pool, a well-equipped gym with a sauna, and a spa with four treatment rooms offering foot, oil and Thai massages on the seventh floor. The free fitness classes, including Muay Thai cardio work-outs, are great extras. It offers cooking classes on a dedicated open-air terrace. Rooms are in top condition; the larger executive rooms and suites feature yoga mats, exercise balls and spinning bikes. The food therapy menu really stands out, with menus designed for stress, anxiety set and office ailments.

This large, luxurious hotel offers near faultless service in the heart of the city’s shopping district, with the Platinum Mall just across the road. There’s a vast gym with group classes and personal trainers, plus two squash courts. There’s also an outdoor pool with children’s splash area and a bar, plus the own-brand spa. Large, carpeted rooms with contemporary décor in muted colours have huge windows, many overlooking the city. The fourth-floor Amaya Food Gallery is open all day and aims to represent street food from around the world, with chefs cooking made-to-order dishes in show kitchens behind each stand.

The Continent is a modern and elegant downtown hotel, close to both the BTS skytrain and the MRT underground and minutes away from the new Terminal 21 shopping complex and the seedy but popular Soi Cowboy entertainment street. Rooms are divided up into four themes – forest, space, ocean and desert, which determine the colour tones of the furnishings and the photographs that grace the walls. Facilities include a rooftop infinity pool and bar, and a small but well-equipped gym. The Medinii Restaurant on the 35th floor serves decent Italian cuisine, prepared with an Asian touch.