The Empress Premier Chiang Mai

I had a very unique 5-day stay at the Empress Premier. Here’s the lowdown, which I provide affectionately. The rooms and the hotel itself is clearly decorated by a Chinese grandma…in 1987. This is perhaps the most unsustainable hotel on earth…and antiquated. Double wrapped bars of soap. Tiny disposable bottles for shampoo. Paper based accounting. The food is like your 8 year old nephew trying to cook for you. White bread. Potato chips. Lots of mayo. See the pic of their tuna sandwich poolside. It’s cute but fairly unappetizing. The breakfast buffet was similar. Lots of effort but not great. Service is like they have no training at all. My bathroom was cleaned but had 5 large visible female hairs all over the floor. The front desk staff doesn’t acknowledge passersby. The doorman is often absent and you’re unsure if he works there. They are all kind but fairly oblivious. The facilities are barren and perfunctory. The pool is decent and the gym is great but the lounges and other common areas are ick. Spa costs are bananas for this city. Room service options are weak. Internet is painfully awful. Guests tend to be obese walking fossils or party crowds. Since nearly all rooms are adjoining you will hear loud shouting or persistent coughing. And you will hear the marching band practicing from the school across the road. Location is outside the crazy area, which is nice. Ownership needs to stop squeezing profit so hard and invest back into this hotel. Could be so much better. I liked my stay here and I will return despite all the experiences. Whatever star rating is claimed is wrong. This is a friendly and effortful two star.

We enjoy our stay there, comfortable and cosy. Staff are nice and helpful.

The room is huge and super clean! Staff are friendly. They even help me to pack the welcome gifts into a card-box in order to take it with my flight. There are varies choose in the breakfast. It is close to the night market, just about 10 minutes walk.

This is a gem tucked away somewhere near the older bazaars area. Old in an older way, but the luxury of space makes up for it. Overall I'm very happy with the start, they even give you a package of free snacks, what the heck, that's amazing. Gym is big, pool is 25-30m long, they've a sauna in the showers too, room is big, bathroom has tub and shower head separately. High value for this price point. There's a old wooden musky hotel smell, overall in the public areas —might be the upholstery but I'm not concerned by that at all.