Phowadol Resort — Hotel in Chiang Rai Province

This is one of many hotels we are staying at over a 5 week tour. We were only in Chiang Rai for two nights and found this hotel wanting. There are a few reviews on here which mention the slightly dilapidated state. I concur. It is a very big resort with one big bedroom block and large and extensive grounds with lots of villas in. I saw a sign dated 2008 about being top resort in the world or something similar. Walking around and looking, first impressions of an impressive big estate turn to why have you let the maintenance and caretaking drop to such a level? We arrived on a Friday afternoon and it felt like a ghost town. Later some guests did arrive but it looks like people are giving this a wide berth. Sorry to say it’s looking unkempt and uncared for. It could be great again but someone needs to start looking at detail and maintenance and upkeep. The restaurant menu is far too extensive for the small number of guests. Better to reduce to quantity of choice and focus on quality. We ordered soup starters and grilled whole fish for the main. Instead of getting soup first everything turned up together at once. It was hot which was good. We were told there would be a 30 minutes wait for the fish which we accepted. The fish was quite nice but really over cooked. Being ex catering, and noting small customer numbers and such a big menu we suspected the reason for a long wait is the fish had to be defrosted? That’s an assumption not a statement. But the fish was deep fried resulting in a very crusty finish, not just grilled or pan fried for sure. Instead of greeting us with a hello, hi, or anything like that, the first words uttered on entering the restaurant (all 3 times) is “what’s your room number?” Sorry this review isn’t positive and it’s just our personal experience. Others may disagree. Thank you for our stay and we...

The resort is a bit older but has certain charm about the place. It's a decent place to stay in Chiang Rai. I am sure there are newer and better place to stay but may not have the same ambient. I would have given one or two more stars. But.. the room and the hotel in general need a hard cleaning through out especially at the main dinning hall and the guest room toilet. The breakfast is OK - not great and not un-edible. The most disappoint thing about this hotel is the staffs. I feel I should have given the team more credit since they are nice - very polite. But they are not well trained and do not seem to understand guest service protocol. We called to ask for 2 transportations from hotel to airport. We got the confirmation from the hotel that the "taxi" were booked. When we arrived at the appointed time, the "taxi" are not there. The morning staffs took a while to figure out the situation - finding a note from last night staffs. We repeatedly asked the staff to follow up and find out about the taxi. It took a while for them to figure out what to do. We ran really late to the airport - a bit nervous. They blamed it on the taxi operator at the other end. But that's not the case since the staffs didn't seem to know what to do and didn't seem to know the request was made previous night. We were later told that the hotel also has its own car service to airport at the same price as taxi. Why didn't they tell us...

Like others have noted, this resort has shown signs of wear, but it has so much potential! The location is great as it's close to town but still provides a garden/jungle like feel. Picture lots of trees, plants, small ponds. The issue is that the grounds are suffering from care. If staff did some weeding, trimming, etc, it would look so much better. Many of the ponds have fountains that don't work. Not great for any fish living inside them and very bad for mosquitos.

The pool is nice and big and we had it to ourselves. The downside is that there were weeds growing everywhere, and the normal water filter and pump were clearly not working. Instead, the pool water was being filtered with some outside contraption.

We rented a villa which was nice and spacious. Very quiet and snacks and water were provided. Furniture is a bit outdated but kept very clean. The bathroom floor had a very weird slant which gave a sense of vertigo, and the shower curtain was ripped.

Breakfast is provided in the main restaurant with a mix of Thai and Western food. Staff were pleasant.

It would have been amazing to see this place when it first opened. Would be great if someone put some money into it, to bring it back to its...