The Langham, Custom House, Bangkok Sets a December Opening

The Langham, Custom House, Bangkok is to open on 20 December 2026, Langham Hospitality Group announced in August. The hotel will have 75 rooms, 60 guest rooms and 15 suites, on the bank of the Chao Phraya in Bang Rak, in and around one of the most admired and most neglected historic buildings in the city.

The Custom House was built in 1888, in the reign of King Chulalongkorn, Rama V, as the place where duties were levied on goods entering Siam by river, at a time when the Chao Phraya was the country’s gateway to international trade. Its long, symmetrical facade in the neo-Palladian manner, with arcades and a central pediment, was one of the first sights for visitors arriving by ship. When the customs service moved downriver in the middle of the 20th century, the building became a fire station and quarters for firemen and their families, and it slowly decayed. Its restoration has been discussed for decades.

The project keeps the heritage buildings for restaurants, bars and public spaces and adds a new wing for the rooms, designed by the Bangkok architects OBA with a curved plan that follows the bend of the river. The interiors are described as residential in feeling, with natural textures and references to Thai craft: geometric details taken from the mosaics of temples, and sculptural bathtubs intended to recall the prosperity of the Rama V period.

The hotel will have a Chuan Spa, the group’s wellness brand, a gym, and several restaurants, reported to include the first Bangkok branch of T’ang Court, the group’s three-Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong. Guests will be offered private boat journeys on the river. Bob van den Oord, the group’s chief executive, said the building would welcome the world again.

The site lies in the old European quarter of Bangkok, among embassies, the Assumption Cathedral and the galleries of Charoen Krung, a short walk upstream from Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok, which has stood on the river since the same era. Downstream are Capella Bangkok and Four Seasons. With the Custom House, the riverside will have a fourth hotel of the first rank, and the only one in a 19th-century public building. Our Bangkok guide follows the city’s hotels.