Accommodation - Holiday Inn Chiang Mai Review
Six days while travelling
4*
The hotel had a very impressive entrance and lobby, as well as kind staff and a great swimming pool area which was open 06:30-20:00. The gym also looked good with plenty of equipment and was open 24 hours.
In terms of location, as Chiang Mai is not that big it meant that even being located outside the city centre, it was still within a 40-80 baht, 5-10 minute journey of anywhere within the vicinity you may want to visit. And there was a free shuttle bus to popular locations like the Saturday night market at Wualai Road & the Tha Pae Sunday walking street, and a daily shuttle bus to the Night Bazaar. We got from the airport to the hotel using the 150 baht fixed price taxi service which only took about 10/15 minutes. There's also a 711 and Tesco's located just outside.
The rooms, however, could really do with an update. Our room had no main lights, only lamps, which meant after 5pm our room was very dark. Secondly, the overall colour scheme and furnishings are very dated (dark green bathroom tiles, discoloured toilet seats, dark green walls in the room) and the shower temperature was a bit unstable where it would go scolding hot and then back to warm cyclically. The bathroom, though fairly clean, had a few stains and hair on the ceiling and walls which wasn't pleasant. The walls of the room are quite thin and we could hear our neighbours most nights, who for some reason were choir singing until about midnight? There is also a high deposit of 1000 baht per night to be aware of. Furthermore, one day we planned to go to the pool after a day out only to find it closed at 4pm to guests as there was a private function, this was disappointing as when you pay for a room you are paying for all the facilities advertised within the hotel, yet we were not allowed to use the pool on this day.
Other than that, the rooms and hotel in general were spacious, for two people we were given a room with two double beds and a fantastic view of the Ping River. Housekeeping was adequate and the room included most of the expected amenities like a safe, fridge, TV, toiletries (which are replenished), free bottled water and so on. There was even an ironing board and iron, as well as a bath tub.
Overall, a nice hotel with good facilities and kind staff, but it could do with some room renovations to improve the standard of the hotel.
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