I had a sinking feeling while checking in, when it seemed that I had somehow angered the receptionist by merely walking through the door, dragging her away from the animated conversation she was having with a coworker. "Passport," she more or less snarled at me. She indicated a form I should fill in, spent some time tapping at the computer, then summoned someone to show us to our rom, and that was the extent of our interaction. No smile, no "enjoy your stay". Maybe she knew it was unlikely that we would.
We were shown to our room, which was an average low- to mid-budget hotel room. A bed, a table, a small balcony, a bathroom. Meh, whatever. (Disclaimer: I have a fondness for flash hotels, but if I can't afford five-star, I'll take a cosy little B&B or guesthouse over a mid-budget hotel any day. So I was unlikely to be impressed by the room from the get-go. We only wound up at the BP because we wanted to extend our stay in Chiang Mai and the guesthouse we had been staying in was fully booked). We were told we were in the recently opened new wing of the hotel, so we were in one of the better rooms. It all looked OK enough, until closer inspection. Like... we could hear the TV from the next room, even though it was obviously playing pretty softly, so we felt we had to moderate our voices so our neighbours couldn't hear us. And there was a lack of ventilation in the bathroom, which meant that although we were in a new room, it felt damp and there was a hint of mould in the air. And there was around quarter of a roll of toilet paper left in the toilet-roll holder and no spares to be found. And there was nowhere to hang up your towels after taking a shower - they just had to be draped damply over the shower door. It's hot in Chiang Mai. You want more than one shower a day and you don't want to have to call down to reception for a fresh towel each time. And, most grievously, THERE WAS NO HOT WATER! I know I just said that it's hot in Chiang Mai, but I'm not given to taking cold showers even when it's 35 degrees outside. I mean, most of your cheap Chiang Mai guesthouses can manage to provide hot water!
After an alright sleep in a fairly hard bed, we went out for the whole next day. When we came back to the room at 4.30, the place had not been serviced. Our towels were still hanging damply, our bed was unmade and there was no freakin' toilet paper left at all. I don't think toilet paper is too much to ask from a hotel, right?! My partner had to go to reception to ask for the room to be made up and was greeted with such indifference, as having our room made up was an added extra that we shouldn't just expect them to provide. Reception did send two men up who did a real quick job on the place - they were in our room for less than five minutes. And still no spare roll of toilet paper. Who knew it was such a precious commodity?
We only stayed for two nights, so I have no idea if the place improved after that, but I wouldn't have held my breath.
I'm giving it 2/5, because the only place I've ever given 1/5 literally had urine on the walls. And if I can say one good thing about BP Hotel, it's that it didn't have urine on the walls.
