One of Bangkok’s most recognizable riverside buildings is becoming a hotel. The Langham Custom House Bangkok is now accepting reservations for stays beginning December 20, 2026, marking the Hong Kong–based Langham Hospitality Group’s debut in Thailand.
The 75-room hotel occupies Bangkok’s former Custom House, an ornate neo-Palladian complex completed in 1888 on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. Once a gateway for merchants and travelers arriving in the city, the landmark eventually fell into disrepair and has undergone a years-long restoration ahead of its new life as a hotel.
The project brings together three historic buildings with a new contemporary structure housing the guest rooms and suites. Together, they occupy more than 500 feet of riverfront in Bang Rak, near some of the city’s best-known hotels, restaurants, galleries, and historic buildings.
Restoring an 1888 Bangkok landmark
Italian architect Joachim Grassi designed the customhouse in 1888. Its symmetrical facade, arched windows, and central clock tower made it an unusually prominent example of European-influenced civic architecture along the river.
“I would call the Old Custom House one of the earliest and, perhaps, the most important 19th-century examples of neo-Palladian public architecture designed specifically to be seen from the Chao Phraya,” says Dr. Vipash Purichanont, an art historian, curator, and lecturer at Silpakorn University who has written a book about the building.
By the time Thai investment firm Rabbit Holdings began restoring the property in 2019, decades of deterioration had taken their toll. Among the most complicated parts of the rehabilitation was preventing the historic structure from sinking below the waterline. The building was raised approximately 10 feet using 420 jacks, according to hotel general manager Nick Downing. Rabbit Holdings subsequently partnered with Langham Hospitality Group in 2024 to turn the site into a hotel.
Restoration work preserved such architectural elements as the central staircase and returned the facade to its historic palette of turmeric yellow, brick red, and celadon green. The three historic buildings will contain much of the hotel’s public space, including restaurants, two ballrooms, a museum, and a riverside bar.
Bangkok’s historic Custom House was built along the Chao Phraya River in 1888, when the waterway was a primary gateway into the city.
Courtesy of the Langham Custom House Bangkok
The rooms, spa, and restaurants
Thai architect Smith Obayawat, founder and principal of OBA, designed the new building that contains the hotel’s 60 guest rooms and 15 suites. The glass-walled structure’s lower roof and sloping lines symbolize a grandson (the modern building) bowing to a grandfather (the Custom House).
The contemporary-feeling, earth-toned guest rooms will have design features that reference the building’s 19th-century origins, including etched mosaics and brushed metal bathtubs, and will have views of Bangkok’s skyline, the hotel gardens, or the Chao Phraya River.
The hotel will also have a 20-meter outdoor swimming pool, a fitness center with Technogym equipment, and Langham’s Chuan Spa, where treatments embrace principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Guests will be able to arrange transfers and excursions using the hotel’s fleet of Bentleys or aboard the hotel’s private riverboat.
Dining will include T’ang Court, a Bangkok outpost of the Cantonese restaurant at the Langham, Hong Kong, which currently holds three Michelin stars. A still-to-be-announced Indian restaurant is also planned for the riverfront.
A historic stay
The restoration uncovered physical remnants of the Custom House’s earlier life. Archaeological excavations conducted before construction recovered glass bottles, ceramics, shells, building materials, and other everyday objects, which were preserved and cataloged—some will be on display at the hotel’s new subterranean museum gallery.
A documentary crew also recorded the restoration, including the process of raising the historic structure. The hotel plans to offer tours and screenings of the resulting footage, giving guests a glimpse into the building’s past.
“We say the Custom House has been ‘welcoming the world since 1888,’” says Downing. “Everything once came into Bangkok through this building. We are eager for everyone to return to it.”
Nightly rates at the Langham Custom House Bangkok will start at $660.
