Phayao Northern Lake Hotel (โรงแรมพะเยานอร์ทเทิร์นเลค) — Hotel in Wiang Subdistrict

Just got to Phayao today and went straight to a guesthouse recommended by a friend (Arunothai Homestay), but thought it was too expensive, so hey, let's have a look around town and find smth better. ||I knew the Northern Lake was the cheapest around, so went to find it. From the outside you have no idea what's coming, it actually looks like a proper decent hotel. The receptionist doesn't speak English almost at all, but you really can't hold that against him. ||Asked to see a room, he gave me a key and I went upstairs, room 307. I'm mentioning the room number in case someone thinks it's an exception to the high quality of the hotel. ||I walked in as immediately felt the damp smell and knew that was not the place for me. But out of curiosity, I took a look around. ||The room is so ugly, didn't even look very closely, but it felt dirty. The bathroom was unbelievable, so dirty and old and run down. The sink tap was broken, the toilet seat was yellow from time passing and the shower..really, despite the heat, you would not want to shower there, just to avoid touching it. ||When in Phayao, try not to book anything, but rather go and see for yourself what you're paying for. There are very few places to stay at, but it's also not a touristy city, so you can take your chances. I found a guesthouse by the lake with just 500Baht for a big aircon room, looking so clean and with a smell of fresh linens, moving. Can't remember the name now, but they're only about 5 guesthouses in that area, so you can't not find it. It is opposite another guesthouse,...

I just checked in today (11 Oct 2012) in the morning. At first, I had gone to another 2 hotels before I came here. Unfortunately, they were full, so I had to come here.||||The receptionist wasn't friendly at all. She looked annoyed at my aunt -- who lives here at Phayao, when my aunt asking about the room. And I was surprised with the hotel policy. They require full-payment at the first day (I was planning to stay 3 nights) Luckily, they told me I could pay for a night by night. Nexy, my aunt was asking for someone who could help me lift my belonging to the room. There was a man but he looked not willing to do anything. He tried to stand up slowly, so I decided to deny him to help me and I carried all my stuffs by myself to the room.||||When I got into my room. The room had bad smell. There was dust almost everywhere in the room. The climax is its toilet!! It was absolutely terrible! So, I couldn't stand something like this. I decided to go out off this place in 15 minutes, and I think I waste 400 Baht for my experience. ||||Finally, I've found another hotel which is much better than this hotel. I promise to myself I will not come to Phayao Northern Lake...

Old business hotel that had it's good years a long time ago. Now everything is run down and badly maintained. The substance is actually not bad but the details make it impossible to choose it for a night. The issue that sealed it's fate fit me were bed bugs. Legs under the blanket were bitten badly in huge patches. It's bad. The blanket by itself is not great. The bed is old, the mattress worn out. The floor has many stains and is smelly, not well cleaned. Same for that bathroom, dirty floor and dirt spots everywhere. The toilet bowl is bad. The shower works but warm water didn't exist. It got luke warm water after minutes of running but not warm, maybe that gets better when more guests stay. At my stay only two guests were in the hotel. Most things in the room work but also make noise. It's not easy to get sleep there, good sleep is impossible. Parking is large and convenient.

Overall despite the cheap price I will never stay at this hotel again. It's just not worth the trouble, which is a shame, the location is good and the general substance can make it a good hotel. Just it is not right now. Look for...