Stayed at the Rimping Village Hotel in a Rimping Deluxe room for 4 nights in Feb 2015. This was our first visit to Chiang Mai even though having visited Thailand 8 times over the last 15 years.
We were greeted and collected at 2:30pm by the hotel at the airport and bought to the hotel in a nice air conditioned van (airport pickup and drop off included in the cost of the room). The journey took about 25mins. At the hotel we were greeted with a cold drink and cold towel by the hotel staff, much appreciated. The staff took us through the hotel, when breakfast and where breakfast was served, where the pool was (can’t really miss it given the hotel isn’t huge) and we were shown on a map where we were and how we could get into town, including night markets and old town. As a few people have mentioned the walk is about 15mins to the night markets and 25mins to the start of the old town. To get to the night markets and the old town you have to walk up a small laneway from the hotel that is also used by motorbikes making it a bit tight. My wife hated it at night as she said it didn’t appear safe, but we never had any problems and we would always return to the hotel late at night via the laneway (see day time photo). Also, the streets to and from the night market and the old town are not easy to walk due to the undulating footpaths and streets, but this is no different to any other Thai city.
The Deluxe room is very large with a large bedroom, separate sitting area and large bathroom with a double vanity and bath tub, off the bathroom is the toilet in its own room. Something I have never encountered in Thailand before (only ever seen it in Greece) is that you can't flush the toilet paper in the toilet it has to be placed in a bin (please see photo). There was plenty of cupboard space in room and the room also had a safe, unfortunately our safe was not secured and could be easily moved or picked up. I never bothered to mention this to the hotel staff as the hotel had great security with cameras everywhere and also a security guard at night on the front gate. We had a significant mosquito problem in our room the first night and I spent a good 45mins killing mosquitos (8 in total) before managing to get to sleep. I obviously missed one or two because both my wife and I were bitten. Not a biggy, but you would expect better when you are paying AUD$152 a night. I bought the mosquito problem to the attention of the hotel staff and they sprayed the room the next day. I also mentioned to them that when the room is being made up if they could keep the door closed, as in most instances this is when mosquitoes get into the room. Whilst we were there the hotel grounds were also sprayed, another common occurrence in Thailand.
I have seen other reviews mention how cold the pool was, and this is by far my biggest gripe with the hotel. It was ridiculously COLD, I have never been in a pool, in ALL my travels, that has been this COLD. The first day we were there we went for a walk and got back about 5pm, the temperature for the day was 31C. I stepped into the shallow end of the pool and thought, yep this is cold, I thought it was my imagination. I then dove into the deeper part of the pool and the COLDNESS took my breath away….RIDICULOUS!! That was the first and only time I went in the pool. After a long day sightseeing it is always nice to go for a swim to cool down and relax, unfortunately at this pool you could only freeze and shiver. The only people who swam in the pool were the kids, there were never any adults swimming around. They REALLY need to do something about it. My wife asked them why the pool was so cold and they told her it did not have heating, which means they are expecting the sun to warm it up, and that won't happen when the overnight temperature drops to 17C.
Breakfast was good, there wasn’t a vast selection of food items (I’m sure others who have stayed may disagree), but I’m judging on other hotels where I have paid less and had a bigger variety. None the less there was enough variety for my wife and I as we aren't big breakfast people. The staff at breakfast were always friendly and helpful, whilst some were limited in their English this is no big deal as English is their “work” second language, and knowing all the different English accents that they have to decipher you can see why sometimes they get confused, but even so they were always helpful and friendly. We never ate at the hotel restaurant as there are many great Thai restaurants near the hotel and around the night market. There is a great restaurant on Loi Kroh Road, which is the road that has the Iron Bridge, you can’t miss this road once you come out of the laneway from the hotel that I spoke about before. The restaurant is called Lemongrass Thai Restaurant and is about 250 metres before you reach the intersection of the night market on Loi Kroh Rd and Chang Klan Rd. Highly recommended, just be prepared to wait. A small tip with getting a table at this restaurant, don’t be shy, you need to be in the waiters face otherwise other people who have waited less time than you will jump the queue ahead of you.
About a 10min walk from the hotel is a large supermarket that has a huge variety of western and Thai items. All items are very reasonably priced. We were made aware of the supermarket by the hotel staff during our introduction to the hotel.
We also organised tours outside the hotel and that is not because the hotel was expensive, it was because we just happened to be walking around and looking at brochures and then made bookings. To be honest the hotel may have been cheaper but we never checked.
On a couple of occasions we used a Tuk Tuk to come back home after a long walk at night, and it cost us 80Baht back to Rimping Village from the Old Town. Also it is worth noting that while pickup and drop off from the airport is included in the room cost, it only covers you for certain times, from memory I think it is between 7am & 10pm. As we had an early flight out of Chiang Mai (6:30am) and we left the hotel at 4:45am we had to pay 300Baht for a taxi that the hotel organised, that is fine and fair enough. As a highlight, because you will miss breakfast for that day, the hotel prepares a breakfast parcel for you to take with you when you depart, a nice touch.
The jury is still out for my wife and I on the Rimping Village, whilst the hotel was fine I’m not sure I could rate it a 5 given other hotels we have stayed at in Thailand have been cheaper, more modern, better locations, their pools heated and their breakfasts with a greater variety and in some instances their staff friendlier. None the less we enjoyed our stay at the hotel. Would we stay again if we returned to Chiang Mai? Not sure, we may just try somewhere else to compare.