The Proud Exclusive Hotel — A Pool Beside the Restaurant at City-Hotel Prices
If you want a place in Nakhon Pathom with an actual swimming pool but you'd rather not pay 5-star rates, The Proud Exclusive Hotel is a name guests bring up often. It's an earth-toned boutique block of concrete and wood that opened in 2015 and was renovated in 2020. The detail people keep coming back to is the outdoor pool that runs the length of the ground-floor restaurant, paired with rooms that are larger and cleaner than the price suggests — and a city hotel with a real pool at this rate is not easy to find in Nakhon Pathom.
The Proud Exclusive Hotel sits on Rachamanka Road in central Nakhon Pathom. The building is a boutique design in earth tones, set off by wood-clad walls and wooden balconies the hotel describes as built with environmentally friendly materials. It opened in 2015 and had a major refresh in 2020. There are around 50 rooms, from a 26 sqm Superior King up to a 41 sqm Super Deluxe. Most rooms have a private balcony, and the Suites add a sofa and a separate sitting corner. Guests consistently describe the rooms as roomy and clean, with a full set of good-quality toiletries — shampoo, conditioner and shower gel all provided.
The standout here is the outdoor pool, which stretches along the ground-floor restaurant in emerald-green water, with a rock waterfall at the far end and tables lined up along the edge. It's the spot people photograph and settle into in the early evening, and several reviews call the pool nicer than the room rate would imply. One honest caveat up front: the pool sits toward the front of the building, right next to the dining area, so it isn't especially private. If you want a quiet swim without much foot traffic, the morning or late-morning window is the calmer time to go in.
"The room was bigger than I expected and the bed was genuinely comfortable — good linen, properly clean. I went down to the pool just before seven in the morning when nobody else was there yet. The water is a deep emerald green, there's a small rock waterfall at the far end, and I just floated there for an hour with the light still low. After that I walked straight into the Café de Proud for breakfast — a buffet with rice porridge, fried eggs, a few hot dishes and orchids on the counter. Staff were friendly the whole time; check-in was fast and they switched my floor without any fuss. The free parking in the hotel compound made the whole trip easy. For the price in a city with a real pool, I'd have a hard time finding better in Nakhon Pathom."
The hotel restaurant is called Café de Proud, serving Thai food with room service available. Breakfast is a morning buffet, and young children eat free. Here's the honest read from the reviews: breakfast leans Thai and Asian, with only a small selection of Western options, so anyone who wants a Western-style morning spread may find it a bit thin. The upside is that the area around the hotel is full of food — a short walk reaches a recently opened night market, coffee shops and plenty of local restaurants.
On location, the hotel is in town and about a 5-minute drive from Phra Pathom Chedi, the tallest stupa in Thailand and the symbol of the province. Silpakorn University's Sanam Chandra campus and the Central plaza in Nakhon Pathom are a few minutes away by car, and Nakhon Pathom railway station is around 2.7 km off. What drivers like most is the free on-site parking, which is genuinely hard to come by at a city hotel. If you don't have a car, though, the hotel sits slightly off the dead centre of town, so keeping a Grab handy makes getting around easier.
The Trip.com score sits at 8.8/10 from 175 reviews. The highest-rated category is service at 9.2 — staff regularly draw praise for being friendly and helpful — followed by cleanliness at 8.8. The honest feedback worth knowing in advance: in-room Wi-Fi can be weak, with some guests connecting better down in the lobby; the air-conditioning in certain rooms blows straight onto the bed and is awkward to regulate; and a few reviews note that rooms in the older building look less fresh than the newer ones. These are the trade-offs that come with this price bracket.
On price, The Proud Exclusive starts around ฿850/night for a Superior room without breakfast on weekdays, rising to roughly ฿1,100 with breakfast included. The larger Super Deluxe and Suite rooms with sitting areas run a little higher. For a city hotel with a pool and free parking, that's good value. Rooms fill quickly over long weekends and during the Phra Pathom Chedi temple fair, so book ahead and compare a few platforms before you commit.
The bottom line: The Proud Exclusive Hotel works best for drivers visiting Nakhon Pathom who want a city hotel with a pool, clean and spacious rooms, and free parking, all at a budget-friendly rate. Friendly service is the thing guests praise most. It isn't a full-service spa resort, but for this budget and this in-town location it delivers solid value. If you depend on strong in-room Wi-Fi or want the newest room available, ask for the newer building when you book.
Summary from Booking & Agoda
- ✓ Rooms clean, spacious and comfortable beds
- ✓ Attractive pool with a good evening atmosphere
- ✓ Friendly staff, good service, quick check-in
- ✓ Free parking · close to the night market and food
- ! In-room Wi-Fi can be weak — lobby is better
- ! Few Western breakfast options, mostly Thai dishes
- ! AC in some rooms blows onto the bed and is hard to set
- ✓ Strong value for the price, and it has a pool
- ✓ Near Phra Pathom Chedi, Silpakorn and Central plaza
- ✓ Full set of good-quality bathroom toiletries
- ✓ Clean, simple earth-toned rooms that photograph well
- ! Pool is toward the front, so not very private
- ! Older-building rooms look less fresh than newer ones
- ! Slightly off the town centre — keep a Grab handy without a car
- 💡If you need strong in-room Wi-Fi for work — several reviews note the in-room signal can be weak and the lobby works better → bring a mobile data backup if it really matters
- 💡If you want the freshest room — the hotel has both an older and a newer building, and some reviews say older-building rooms look less new → ask for the newer building or a renovated room when booking
- 💡If you want a quiet swim — the pool sits next to the front dining area and isn't very private → go in early morning or late morning, before it gets busy