The smaller or non-major-brand airport area hotels with free transport vans may not have vans runs as often in one or both directions as some of the other hotels. So you many want to plan on using a Grab (app) vehicle in one or both directions.
The tunnel walk between the airport and the Novotel works nicely, and you can even watch a dated YouTube video about how it goes so you are familiar with what to do when using the Novotel BKK hotel. But it won’t have fancy big city views from a rooftop pool that will make you excited to join the Instagram posting crowd with your own contributions from up on high of a big city view.
BKK security lines and passport control may become more of a mess next month with Thailand having by then relaxed visa entry conditions for Chinese visitors. But last month and this month, I found BKK passport control pretty fast moving even when it was crowded. BKK security screening seemed more varied in how long it takes even when it wasn’t so crowded.
If going into the city, road traffic can easily become a mess even unexpectedly. This using the SkyTrain+whatever can make for less variance between long it is scheduled to take and what it actually takes. [The newspapers there mentioned something about one or two sections of track that were taken out of service due to safety concerns and needing maintenance work by the contractor, but not sure where in Bangkok that was impacting.]
Getting around with Grab/Uber in Thailand as a family of 2-4 persons is a lot easier than for larger families. Just saying that in case the family is larger than the average family and considering options on how to get to and from the hotel during an extended layover.
