According to an article in the Bangkok Post, the Bangkok Hospital in Soi Soonvijai tries to buy more serviced apartments as part of a broader plan to create a medical complex that features a shopping mall and movie theaters in addition to health care services.

“The new stand-alone serviced apartment is expected to materialise over the next six months,” said Dr Chatree Duangnet, chief operating officer of Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Plc (BGH), which operates Bangkok Hospital. “The investment could be made through the acquisition of existing condominiums adjacent to the hospital, or a new construction.”

It tells you something about the speed of developments here that the company has not even decided if they are going to buy or existing condos and still want to start using them in six months.

Bangkok Hospital started managing apartments when it spent 20 million baht to transform the seventh and eighth floors of Building C into 40 apartments that opened in August.

BMC Serviced Apartment, which manages the rooms, claims it has booked up to 90 percent of them. Customers are mainly foreigners who accompany foreign patients. They are mostly from the Middle East, Bangladesh, England, Burma and rural areas of Thailand.

Rooms cost 1,800 baht per night for a standard studio, and 2,500 baht for a deluxe room that includes a buffet breakfast and lunch. On top of standard facilities on par with those of leading hotels, the serviced apartments also offer additional services such as visa renewals for foreign customers and airport transport.