Chanthra Hotel

From the outside the Chantra hotel looks like many other new hotels in S E Asia. Presentable, yet soulless. Inside however annoyances abound. Desk staff are functional but not overtly friendly. We were simply given our room number and sent in a general direction, up 2 flights of stairs. The room itself was generally clean and well prepared, The first problem arose however when we tried to connect with the wi-fi. We followed the instructions but neither of us could get connected. We sought help from the front desk and were told we needed to add a further digit to the password (one that wasn't on the instructions in the room). It did connect to the hotel's wi-fi, but the connection was so slow (almost 30 seconds to load a simple web page) we continued by using a roaming package we keep on our phones for travel. The corridor on which our room was situated was extremely dark on arrival. Although it was daytime there were no windows in the corridor, and we had to blindly find our room and manage to use the electronic key card to open the door. Although the air conditioning was ok, it kept reverting to 25 degrees when we were attempting to get it down to 22. In the end we gave up and experienced a hot night. The bed was too small, especially in a room where the aircon isn't functioning well. Being forced to sleep very close together made us both hot and unable to sleep well. Rather than being firm, the pillows were spongy and insubstantial. The bathroom was small but functional. The floor tiles however were very slippery when wet, and could easily cause an older person to slip and hurt themselves while bathing. The bathroom had no handle on the outside of the door making it impossible to close it from the outside. We could find no switch for the lights above the bed, except the one by the room door. This made it impossible to turn off the lights from the bed. So one had to switch off the lights at the door, and feel one's way back to bed in the darkness. Luckily we brought a torch. The room service, which we didn't use, appeared to have a small but adequate selection of food and drink at reasonable prices. Breakfast was included in the price, but it really was a tragedy. There was tea or coffee, but only sweetened milk. The cups were plastic and stained after much use. There was only thin white toast, and no butter. The toast had obviously been made earlier and was stone cold. Cold, stale toast without butter is unacceptable. There was pork porridge, ready served in dishes, but once again it was stone cold. The one staff didn't offer to heat it up for us, so once again, it was left for u to take it or leave it. When asked for non-sweet milk and butter the staff seemed utterly disinterested. So breakfast was essentially a non event for us. I managed half a cup of black tea without milk, and my wife struggled to consume the one remaining cold pork porridge. When we asked for a bill before we left it took almost 15 minutes to produce. What would have happened if 10 people had asked for bills one can only imagine. One additional annoyance is the entrance to the hotel, which is also the exit. Because the management allow parking on both sides of the entrance only one car can enter or leave at a time. So one may get half way into the car park and have to back out again if one encounters a vehicle trying to leave at the same time. This entails reversing onto a busy road at peak times. Most of the problems in this hotel can be solved quickly with a firm management approach. And the cost of doing so would be small. It just requires a management team with an attention to detail.

Located on the main rd 5 to 10 min walk tonthe Big C shopping mall. Carpark Quick and easy check in/out. Rooms good Comfortable beds . Clean modern rooms. Breakfast was included but very basic Can order off a menu for extras. Not much round this area. A 7/11 is close by

I stayed here for one night on a two-week self-driving road trip that included Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Lampang, Nan, and Nong Khai, following the Mekong and the borders with Laos and Cambodia. I chose this accommodation because it had ample parking. It’s a typical Asian city-center-style budget hotel. The room and bathroom were large, comfortable, and reasonably clean. The refrigerator, air conditioning, hot water, and wi-fi worked well. The bedding, towels, etc. were good. At a walk-in rate of 650 THB (without breakfast), I thought it was a good deal and a good choice for a night’s stay.