Hotel Concepts

“Ratsada Road” refers to the name of one of the most important roads in the heart of Old Phuket Town. A place full of fond memories and stories, being the location of the island’s first shopping mall with an escalator nearly 40 years ago. The area was a meeting place full of life and considered as the centre point of Phuketians back in the day.

As such, we at “Hotel Midtown Ratsada” hope to tell the story of transformations of the daily lives of Phuketians throughout the years. The space in the hotel illustrates these stories, with each room concept based on the transitions of immigrants moving to the island for trade along with their growth and success as Phuketians, to the lobby and restaurant that depicts the memories of the liveliest and modern shopping malls of the time. 

In the mid 1980s, Phuket Shopping Centre was established as the first shopping mall with an escalator in Phuket. Ratsada Road and the entrance leading into our hotel premises as you see today was a bustling and lively market square of which many locals still have fond memories of today. We have captured some of these moments per our history wall displayed in the lobby. 

There are a plethora of memorable moments that happened within these walls. Such as the time where they held an impossibly cheap  sale whereby all items in the shopping centre were on sale for the mere price of 1 THB. This of course caused somewhat of a riot with police getting involved and thus banning such sales in the future. Another fond memory was that of special payment plans that allowed people to buy goods such as LEVI denim jeans or ‘Scholl shoes’ with instalments. There were even several parades and festivals like the annual Phuket Seafood festival which was held here during that time.

However, one of the most significant stories is of one we have illustrated in the artwork displayed in the hotel restaurant. 

With the Shopping mall being the first on the island to have an escalator, many flocked to the mall to experience this wonderful and at the time very modern technology. The owner of the shopping mall at the time retells one particular encounter. In Thailand, the term to call older, middle-aged women would be ‘auntie’ - of which in Phuket, the localised term would be “Ah Ii”. During the first few days of the mall opening, the owner noticed one auntie who had taken off her shoes and was standing hesitantly in front of the escalator, whilst staring at the moving stairs.  Puzzled, the owner greeted her and asked:

“Auntie, what’s wrong? What are you waiting for?”.

The woman smiled and pointed at the escalator,

“I’m waiting for the stairs to stop, so I can get on!”.

This is still a fond memory for the owner till this day. 

In our hotel restaurant, one of the supporting pillars for the original escalator in the shopping mall still remains. As such, we have decided to pay tribute to the story by illustrating the Auntie who waited for the escalator stairs to stop for her.