We arrived at the Raming Lodge early, around 12pm so had to wait a couple of hours for the room which didnt worry us as there is heaps to do in Chiang Mai and we were the ones that showed up early!

Read great things about Raming Lodge on TripAdvisor and it certainly did not disappoint... The rooms are HUGE, Clean, and given its location really quite.

Service was professional and pleasant. Booked a couple of tours through the hotel and had no problems at all. The location is something that cant really be beat, its in the red light district yes but as others have said you can take the back entrance out if you wish although we never found it a problem, there are actually a lot of great bars around that you should have a drink at and listen to some music.

Restaurant food was good, had dinner there once. You can also walk to night bazaar with very little effort, 5-10 minutes down the road and you can be in the old city within about 5 minutes in the other direction.

All in all it was a great stay and we really enjoyed Chiang Mai, Would definitely recommend this hotel and will return.

One thing I would not recommend however is PING PING restaurant in the main night bazaar area (where there are a few bars and restaurants, trust me you'll see it), please remember the name and DO NOT EAT THERE. We ordered 3 items, duck, lobster, sweet and sour pork. Each dish came out on its own (our rice side order NEVER came). There was a good 20 minutes between each dish, duck was terrible, lobster was the worst i have had in thailand and the pork cold. Service was terrible.

travel date: 19th jan 2012

pro: as above. rooms r clean. close to sunday mkt, bars & pubs.

con: there isnt any airport pick up service for us. rooms felt constraint due to tiny window overlooking to the side wall of next building (room 210 & 212). in-room local call charges r ridiculous.

I chose this hotel after reading Trip advisor reviews and was not disappointed. The free airport transfers were very efficient. The room large and very clean. The hotel is about 10 minutes walk to the Night market which was fantastic.We felt very safe walking to the market and although you do need to walk past many "massage parlors" this was not a problem at all. The breakfast was good and we also ate in the restaurant each night. Bottles of drinking water, fruit and cans of soft drink were providred daily, and there is a shop a few doors away if you require extra supplies. We used the hotels travel service to book some tours and I can highly recommend this. There is no iron or ironing board in the room but it was not a problem to get one from housekeeping. The pool and small gym were a very short walk through the car park but this was no further than what you would walk in many hotels, The staff always had a smile for you and their English was good. I would not hesitate to stay here again if returning to Chiang Mai.

This is generic-feeling hotel but some of my other choices weren't available. I was getting frustrated making hotel inquiries, it was high season, and I asked the woman from Active Thailand for her recommendation and she mentioned this one.

Rooms are "lanna style" which means that the hotel is a U-shape around the central restaurant/courtyard area. It's motel-like in that there are no internal corridors or hallways to rooms.

It was perfectly fine--clean, friendly, included breakfast and had a reasonable rate. It's just bigger than where we would normally stay. It's very close to walk to the Old City and the Night Market but the street is a nightlife street so it's loud. The hotel compensates by having a guitarist/singer perform nightly to drown out the noise from the nearby bars. He mostly performed 70s folk. We liked him but this might not suit everyone's taste and you can certainly hear him from your room.

The other downside on this place is that everything required a coupon--breakfast, the massages that were "included" in the room, the dinner that was "included." It just makes me feel cheap to present a coupon every time I want to use one of the things supposedly included in my rate.

The included breakfast was a buffet with lots of good choices including some healthy ones like fruit and yogurt.

The bathroom was really nice and spacious with lots of room to spread out your toiletries. And the spa was nice; even though I felt cheap presenting a coupon for my massages that was my own hang up; the employees there were ALWAYS gracious and never made me feel cheap for presenting them.

The travel desk was helpful and if someone at the desk didn't know the answer to a question, there was always someone else ready to jump in and help.