Royal Peninsula Hotel & Serviced Apartment, Chiang Mai

We booked 3 nights in this hotel thru agoda. We are traveling on a budget and have been staying at hotels in this price range for the last month. So I've grown accustomed to basic accomadations. This was the worst that we'd seen. We left after 2 nights even though we pre-paid for 3 nights. The rooms were clean, however they were so dark and dingy. Even with every light on, it was hard to read. I asked the front desk for another room higher up. They showed me another room on the same floor (4th floor). Just as dark and depressing. When we decided to check out early, I went to the front desk to let them know and get assistance with luggage. There were 2 girls working the desk and neither acknowledged me. They just kept there heads down. Granted, there was a steady flow of calls and other people walking up. But I had to grab their attention after several minutes when they were not busy. When I told them I was checking out early and moving to another hotel, they never ever asked why. They just told me to wait until they checked the mini-bar. To top it off, there were no taxis in the area and we were really anxious to leave. We requested a taxi from them and they charged us 200 baht to get to the other hotel. I told them to take it out of the money that I prepaid for the 3rd night that we weren't going to use. They said they didn't understand and insisted on the money. We paid and left because we were so desperate.

Peninsula Royal hotel was very good. It was clean with good beds. Downtown (or almost downtown) location made it very convenient to go sughtseeing and access all the restaurants and bars in Chiang Mai. Some inconvenience was dark rooms and no carpets there.

I stay here almost every time I go to Chiang Mai. The rooms are nicely decorated and comfortable. The breakfast is okay but better than most. This time they offered free wi-fi for the first time. The staff are always nice and helpful. Only negatives are the rooms are a little dark as there is not a lot of light. A nice economical place to stay.