Sawasdee Chiangmai House

I came back for a second stay because the location is so good. The rooms are spacious and clean, with a pleasant setting and a balcony where you can sit. They don't get much sunlight, but I could live with that. What was inconvenient was the internet: it uses a one-time password, and I couldn't get my laptop connected, so I had to work from a cafe. Also, if the bathroom fan runs for a while, it seems to pull smells from other bathrooms.

The staff were pleasant to deal with, and the hotel is decent for the price, but I wouldn't stay here again. Sound carries badly through the building. During my five days, I could often hear neighbors coughing, sneezing, and making other unpleasant noises. One night the staff held a celebration outside, talking, laughing, and playing music past 11 p.m. and after midnight. I eventually went downstairs and asked an employee to get his colleagues to quiet down, and then it stopped. There were other sleep problems too. On a couple of mornings, between 7 and 8 a.m., announcements and music from what seemed to be a nearby school or educational facility woke me. My room got very little natural light, and I had to use the lights all the time. After showers, water stayed pooled on the bathroom floor for a long time and left a damp smell. The plumbing pressure was odd, and the pipes made noticeable noise when the shower was on.

The sitting area outside the hotel is really nice, and our studio was fine in some ways: the sheets and towels were clean. But the sound insulation is practically nonexistent, so we heard everything the neighbors did from every direction. The shower partition let water run into the toilet area, where it didn't drain well. It eventually seeped through the sliding door into the room. Reception couldn't move us, so we had to ask for a mop and clean it up ourselves. 😕

We left a few days early because the room was so bad we couldn't sleep. The bed was extremely hard and sat right on the floor. It was dark, smelled moldy, and the bathroom stink never went away because the shower flooded the floor. Noise from the school next door started early, too. We gave up the cost of the remaining nights with no refund, but at least we found somewhere we could sleep. Do NOT book this. You've been warned.