Duangtawan Hotel Chiang Mai — Hotel in Chiang Mai Province

Stayed here for several nights on a business trip.

I've stayed in this hotel several years ago, so I had realistic expectations before I arrived.

I booked a room (not a suite) with King bed, and asked for a room on the higher floor and away from the elevator. They gave me a room on a mid-level (which is good, away from the street and less noise), and at the end of the corridor.

The room was big, bigger than the ones I had during my previous stay. This might be because it's at the end of a corridor. What surprised me was that the room was configured to seem like having two rooms; a big bedroom with it's own spacious sitting area, and a smaller writing-desk area, separated by a corridor that leads to the bathroom and wardrobe (this was not a suite). Both areas have big windows looking outward. The view was not fantastic considering I was at mid-level, but I imagine it would be much better on higher floors.

The room was clean, generally well maintained. The bed and pillows were acceptable, though I wish they had better pillows.

The air-condition wasn't strong, and it didn't cool the entire room sufficiently. One half of the bedroom felt cool while the other half wasn't. The writing-desk area definitely felt much warmer.

The hot water delivery wasn't consistent. After I've adjusted both the cold and hot water taps such that the water is at a temperature you like, the hot water sometimes seem to fade away, leaving the water cold. And if I turn up the hot water tap in anticipation of the "fading away", the water eventually becomes too hot for comfort. Showering can be a little troublesome at times because of this.

Entertainment channels provided on their TV was limited. Mostly Thai language channels, limited Movie channel.

There were insufficient electrical outlet in the room: one next to the wash basin, another next to the TV/fridge area. So while having the writing-desk area was nice, I couldn't actually work there because there was no electrical outlet there.

Internet access was really bad. They provided complimentary wifi, and allows you to connect up to 4 devices simultaneously. However, the speed was so slow that it was difficult to get things done. While there were periods where the speed seem to increase, those were just occasional spikes. I had to use my mobile phone's internet connection to get things done. The password that they gave me had a validity period of 7-days from the first login (stated on the card), however, the password expired the day before I left, which was only the 5th day of my stay.

Breakfast provided at their 2nd floor restaurant was adequate. There were enough selection to satisfy the needs of different people. Breakfast service starts at 6am, which is really great for those who wants an early start to their day. Their coffee tasted bad though, basically like instant coffee.

Food at their Marco Polo restaurant (ground floor) was disappointing. But that's the subject of another review.

The hotel's location is good. The nearby night market provides lots of shopping opportunities. There were many food outlets (Thai, western, fast food, etc.) nearby so you can easily satisfy your basic needs.

The hotel offers airport shuttle service (for pick-up) for THB150. Initially I was planning to just hop into a taxi at the airport, but I found out they have shuttle service and asked about it. Turns out that they charged a very reasonable fee and in return someone will wait for me at the arrival point (instead of me having to go look for a cab). Getting to the airport, however, is a little inconvenient. They said that they offer a shuttle every hour on the hour which, depending on your flight's timing, could mean you arrive too early for check-in. I eventually got my own taxi when getting to the airport (the meter reading says THB66 for that one-way trip).

Overall, I would say the stay was acceptable considering the price,...

This is probably one of the worst hotels I’ve ever stayed at. Luckily, our stay in Chiang Mai was only 4 days. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to survive any longer in this hotel.

At first glance, this looked like a really fancy, big hotel. The interior looked nice, with stone flooring and mirrors on almost every wall. There are some stores (although they weren’t open) and a restaurant on the 1st floor. Right when we walked it, it was very confusing. There was no one to greet us. There was a front desk near the entrance, but they didn’t say anything to us. We came to Duangtawan from a different hotel where staff greeted us and kindly took our luggage. We went to ask the front desk and he told us we need to up a floor to get to the front desk to check in. Very confusing for a first timer. You would think that would be on the first floor.

There are about 23~ floors. There are only 3 SLOW elevators. The staff did not seem welcoming, smile, or greet us. Again, we came from a hotel who had top notch customer service so we were disappointed.

We got to our room where the AC had no cold air. It was just warm air. We complained to the front desk and they had their staff come up to check. All the staff person did was move the vent thing to direct air to our bed. He said to wait 10 minutes for the air to cool. We waited all day. It was still just warm air and we set the thermostat to the lowest it could go. So we requested for a different room.

This room had slightly cooler air so we settled. But then we found that this new room’s shower wasn’t draining. We had to literally pry out the drain cover for it drain. The shower floor was slimy and the walls were covered with pink mold. The toilets also have those long flush handles that school bathrooms usually have. It was just not homey at all. In the closet, they provided us room slippers. The note next to it said that it we lose these slippers, they were going to charge us. Well…the slippers were dirty, unsanitary, and were probably just thrown back in the closet after the previous use. They did not need to worry about us losing it; we were not going to touch that.

We had an excursion the next day at 7. We went up the elevators to grab something from our room and it took us 10 minutes to just go up. Long queues at the elevators. When the elevator doors open, the elevators were already at full capacity so you had to wait again. We decided to just take the stairs to our room (7th floor). Once we got to the 4th floor, there is a door closed and blocking the stairs. If you didn’t know to open it, you wouldn’t be able to go past that door. (Isn’t that also a safety hazard during say a fire?) Then once you reach the 5th floor, the lights are off on that floor for the stairs.

Just not a pleasant experience. The location was perfect though, that’s something I appreciate and probably why people stay here. Would I book this hotel again? No, I’d rather pay a little more to get AC, a cleaner bathroom, and...

Update 12/30/22 - I came back after 3 nights away and it almost feels unfair to not write this update as a separate review because the experience is so much more different...

The rooms in this hotel definitely have very very different levels of refinement and rehabilitation. Some rooms look very dated and are a terrible value at 1500 baht a night, while other rooms (suites) are a terrific value at 2800 a night. Rooms in excellent condition with very modern touches throughout and everything being in much better condition and quality. My current suite is fantastic and I am surprised that it is even in the same hotel. I did pay more this time, but in this particular situation, the age old adage of " you get what you pay for" could not ring any clearer.

The rating reflect my most recent experience. The original experience was 3 stars with 3 stars for room, 4 stars for service, and 5 stars for location....

Original Review- 12/23-27/2022

I have a feeling that this was one of the shining stars of Chiang Mai's hospitality scene in its heyday but those days have passed... I dont know how many of you are familiar with Las Vegas, this hotel has the smell of an off-strip hotel, the kind that caters to the locals.

The musky smell of faded glory is strong and if these walls could talk... I'm sure there would be some fabulous stories about weddings, birthdays, seafood buffets and...

Otherwise, for an old hotel, as long as one doesn't expect a super modern botel, one shouldn't be too disappointed. Many of the hinges creak and often the doors do not quite align, the water pressure was excellent but the lack of hot water was very, very disappointing.

It was a very good value and pro tip - the lady at the hotel told me directly it is cheaper to book a room using a 3rd party site than it is to book directly. It's one of those hotels that it's definitely cheaper not to book directly. (Unless one is doing a 30 day or longer stay, than it is much cheaper to book direct)

The cleaning lady was excellent, very efficient and her timing was impeccable. No matter how briefly I would leave the room, as long as I had the sign requesting the room be cleaned, it most certainly was. Since I stayed during the holidays, I was sure to give a generous tip...