Bow Chiangmai House

We paid around £10 for a twin room for one night. Room was as clean as it could be but a few mozzies, and other insects lurking around. If your not bothered about a nice decor or comfy bed and on a budget this place is for you. Man on reception was nice enough and even offered to show us the 3 rooms he had left. You get what you pay for and for £10 it's pretty good value

I was recently visiting Chiang Mai with cousins for a week and I needed a place to stay. They like staying in hostels, and while I love the concept of hostels (meeting fellow travellers, etc.) I simply can't get comfortable sleeping in a room with strangers. Enter Bow Chiang Mai House. I was able to book a room at a very reasonable rate (just a bit more than a hostel). The location alone makes it worth it. There are quite a few restaurants and bars and even laundry services within the vicinity and plenty more in the old city. Everything is very close. The room is very basic, just a bed and a toilet room. There is a TV but I never turned it on because I really only went to my room to shower and sleep. I would definitely stay here again if in Chiang Mai.

The good: the location is great! Any place I think in the old city - within the wall is perfect. You can walk in any direction and see something amazing! There's food, laundry and temples all within a short walk. They have free toast, tea or coffee here and will give you a fridge if you like. We got a room at the front of the hotel so our balcony overlooked the street. Wasn't even noisy and it was nice to watch the goings on from the privacy of our balcony. Staff were nice and at the time we went, it almost felt like we were the only ones there. They have a business center where you can go online if you need it. Wifi worked well though. The bad: The beds in Thailand are hard. I came to know this at pretty much any place we stayed but the bed here was like a brick! We overcame this by asking for 2 blankets which were thicker comforters and put them under the fitted sheet which helped immensely. Also, I decided to try their toast, and when placing the toast on the grill-like toaster, I got electrocuted. It was just a short buzz, nothing huge, but scared me! The front desk girl took over for me and I nearly fell over when she reached for the metal tongs to flip the toast but she toasted that bread unscathed. Have no idea how or why I go the zap but ended up with toast. The "butter" turned the toast an almost florescent yellow though so sort of lost my appetite. Besides the bed, which we fixed, parts of the bathroom were unclean. They have lots of wooden shelves to put things on which is handy, however, are not regularly cleaned. They had dust piled on them. The one behind the bathroom door had a used glass still in it, with grungy dirt/dust build up. The mirror and wall still had toothpaste splatter and the sink didn't look like it had been cleaned properly. Once we asked for it to be cleaned, it was.