President Hotel Udon Thani

just arrived here in Udon Thani a couple of hours ago and thought I made a good choice by checking myself in to the President Hotel

I had no reservation for this hotel prior to arriving , just walked in and asked for a room , told me they had only suites available junior or senior, was planning on taking standard room but once told that wasn't available, thought why not take the "best" room they have

took the senior suite for 1700 bath a night , very expensive by Udon Thani standards me thinks , but , this way I thought I would have a nice first night here , withouth any hassle , good service and everything one could want for a basic hotel stay


boy , was I wrong ,

hotel room is very big / spacious, but all the furniture is fake wornout Ikea stuff if you know what I mean ? really cheap looking everything and old ,

bathroom has this terrible stench , and its clear they tried to mask it with some lemon flavoured scent , wich in the end only makes it worse , the combination of the natural scent and the lemon stuff is just horrible


nex thing I want to do after finding out all this stuff is getting online catch up some news and work and maybe get an early night , not too much too ask it seems ,but of course the wifi in the room does not work , call the reception and tell them I can connect to the hotel network but I can't go online ,

they tell me I should try again , and if it doesn't work take my notebook to the lobby so they can find out what is wrong , tried again , and doesn't work , go down to the lobby and once there I can connect , but only because it is another network I connect to

explain them that when getting the "best" room and being promised wifi in room I also would like to get that , .. they tell me they will solve the problem , good I think , and trust them , , tell them I am going to get some dinner and hopefully when I get back problem will be solved

of course that was a bit naive of me , thinking they will actually try and solve the problem , two hours later I go back and ask them if I can go online now, they tell me try again , it should work now,

I go back to my room all excited thinking I could go online , but of no avail , nothing works , go down again , and the dumb lady at reception tells me she is going to call somebody to try and solve it ,

lady on the phone for over 20 minutes , talking in thai , right in front of me , but it was so damn obvious she was just calling a friend and having a chat, not in the least bit trying to solve my internet problem ,


after this bullshit I just gave up and was planning on taking a shower and go to bed , untill I get in the bathroom and there is this animal walking around , !! !

got my camera out and made a lil video as evidence :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRhwvzvbVn8


after all this bullshit I needed a drink and head down to the hotel restaurant / bar , the bar itself is not too bad, nice lil bar with restaurant ,only weird thing is there are like 6 or 7 prostitutes there ? ? WTF ? I know this is thailand , and bargirls are everywhere, but this is supposed to be a family hotel

why are there prostitutes working here ?

tomorrow am planning on going to jan condotel , hope that is any good,

Sorry that your initial reaction to Udon Thani & The President Hotel was not good. I have never stayed there (it would be a little out of my price range) but it is quite a new hotel, so I am quite surprised by your comments about the furniture.
As for the cockroach, well, sorry, this is Thailand. Our house is kept just about as clean as conceivable but we are regularly invaded by all sorts of 'beasts', some of which make a cockroach look positively friendly.
I have never visited the bar either so really cannot comment about the 'prostitutes'. Except to say that it certainly would not surprise me if there were young Thai ladies in a bar in Udon as to if they were prostitutes I cannot say, except that, given the worst scenario and if they were, that if approached and you clearly told them that their services did not interest you then the would undoubtedly leave you completely alone.
Again, I have not stayed at the jan condotel but I am told that it has a reasonable reputation. However, I would have said the same about The President before your note.
Nothing like a 5 star Hotel exists in Udon at the moment. There are certainly some plans afoot to change that but even when they are completed I would be amazed if they will guarantee a cockroach or prostitute free environment as this is North East Thailand and so the natural home to both.

I stayed at the President the night of Udon Maps birthday party. I had a normal room for 900bht inc 2 breakfasts. It was nothing special but it was clean and comfortable. the staff on reception quite friendly and helpful. Had to fight the bellboy to let go of my overnight bag but I thought what the hell , twenty baht means more to him than me .Generally for the money I thought it to be okay. Only complaint , no bloody lift and I was on the top floor. Okay its only 3 story high, but I'm getting on . Went into the coffee shop after the party so it was about 11.00. Seemed to be a seminar of sorts on. Pianist singing away, reasonably pleasant voice . Didn't see any obvious pros though and I wasn't approached despite being alone and an obvious target. Will stay there again if need to be in that area of town .

One single cockroach is an "infestation"? Or were there more not shown in the video? Should have done a little La Cucuracha on the monster and flushed it down the toilet, Sid.

In defense (although experience does beat hearsay), a friend from Arizona stayed at the President over a year ago but says his room was crawling with ants so he moved to the Charoensri (Centara) the next day and was a happy camper.

Sounds like Trubrit had a good experience and room so maybe it was just a one-off? I don't know about the dodgy wifi internet, that would turnoff a lot of people, I guess.

Good luck at the Jan Condotel.

My family and a friend coming over stayed in the President Hotel and were very happy about it, the (900 baht) rooms were nice and clean, the staff was friendly and the service was good. You can stay cheaper in Udon, but the price includes a breakfast. I've seen the rooms and they looked okay to me. Yes, I think they have a problem with ants, but they did something (sprayed some poison I guess) about it everyday I was told.

About the fearsome cockroach... you need lots of tape or memory if you are going to make a video of every cockroach or bug you see in Thailand.

Never stayed at the President, but agree for the price should have been better. Centara a bit old and faded, but bathroom fine and no smell. however, no wifi. Karin hotel - room good again, no smell, but wifi no good like President; also cheaper and includes a (basic) breakfast. Otherwise have stayed at Top mansion and Ruysuk, both cheap and clean with reasonable bathrooms. Ruysuk even has wifi which sometimes works. And, although i am aware that you get cockroaches in the tropics I have never had one in any of the hotels i have stayed at (over 50 nights in total). I have seen plenty of cockroaches in my life so it is not because i did not spot them.

ive stayed at the president many times before, even one time for a whole month.. cost ( 12,000 bt ) no complains quite happy there.. it was out of town in a quiet area, (when the planes arnt taking off) but very relaxing... yes there is a free breaky but thai buffet, so i asked chef ifi can have the odd full english breaky & that was no problem... ive never seen proses there in all my time in the bar/restaurant, just thai singer/entertainers.. the thai food there is very good, you can have free tea/coffee allday, the rooms were clean & tidy, staff were very good & pleasant.. and best of all most days i would have the whole swimming pool to myself allday, ifi wanted to go to town id just ask at receiption & the hotels own transport would take me anywhere i wanted. ( free ) didnt see many farang during my stays there. just middle/high class thai folk.. but all in all very good value for my baht

Whoever is responsible for the OP, we are all entitled to have an opinion. I have stayed at the President many times before and after reading your comments i have formulated my own opinion of you. You are a Spanker of the highest order. I have never read so buch BS in my life. Seeing as though i have mentioned the word "Life", go and get one...

Sid, next time you see an insect in a bathroom in Udon Thani just stamp on the bl0ody thing and chuck down the toilet, this way it will save the batteries on your mobile, and it will also save you getting on the receptionists nerves because you can't get on line to slag off her and the hotel.

O/T's wisdom is always appreciated... chock dee..

For enlightenment, see the other of Sids' vids in his YouTube channel.

Easy to forget sometimes who may be behind the avatar, or the camera, or the 8-ball.

Has anyone heard from Sid since his original 'cockroach invested' post?
..I'm guessing he probably took a ride out into the boonies, saw some real wildlife, then quickly fucked off back to the marriott in Bangkok. Most likely already landed back 'home' and is telling everyone how awful / backward / dirty thailand is.

Or I could be wrong and he's having the time of his life staying in the Jan Condotel

Sid, let us know how your getting on.

Maybe the internet is not working in the Jan Condotel too .

Funny enough i spotted that vid on the tube last night and was going to leave a comment on it....then i see this thread, and my thoughts have not changed when i first saw the vid.....seems it may have been your first trip to an Asian Country, In Thailand girls are all around...ever been to a top class hotel in Bangkok....seen the leaflets for 'Massage'.....?
Roaches are around to...if you look hard enough you will see Mosquitos as well, room look good to me, don't see evidence of worn out furniture, wi-fi....well its not great in many places imo...a bit hit and miss.

And 1 Roach under a glass in the bathroom.....Man did i chuckle at that, looked a clean one though, well it likes up market Suites anyway, surprised you didn't start screaming and jump up on the toilet seat.
Get a Grip Man its Asia.

here is a little update on my "situation" after the horrible first night I woke up next morning and after talking to the staff they convinced me to try another room , a room wich actually has wifi working they told me

and guess what , it did ! so I am still in the president hotel as of now and about to head out to Nong Khai ,


the biggest issue I had was the wifi not working and how they initially handled that situation ,


I have been in Asia now since early october going all over China , Hong Kong and Macau , arrived in thailand about a month ago , first couple of weeks in Bangkok then a week in Pattaya , in none of the hotels I stayed there were

a/ cockroaches or any other insects
b/ bargirls/ hostesses working for the actual hotel


I don't really care about bargirls as I do frequent the type of bars were you would EXPECT those girls to be, but I found it a bit peculiar to have them working for the hotel

Cockroaches on the other hand or any other type of big bug walking around while your sleeping is something that would put me and any other sensible person off of staying at that peticular hotel , the fact that all of you defend it as normal kind of says it all about Udon Thani , its the "boondocks" and there are no hotels that don't have it ? I pressume ?

Has nothing to do with Asia or Thailand but has all to do with this being an underdeveloped small but lovely little town , I quite like it here and find that the people are very warm , welcoming and open , however , I just do not like bugs in my hotel room

I have been living in hotels for the last 6 months, every night , in a hotel somewhere in the world , and I can tell you that this was the very first time I stayed in a hotel with cockroaches , and oh yeah , by the way , not only cockroaches are present but also some kind of lizard, a very small one , yes , but still small lizards crawling around the walls INSIDE my room ? I have it on tape but quality not that good, can upload for people that don't believe

So bottom line , President Hotel is quite a good hotel with helpfull/ friendly staff and if you know the situation with bugs and think that is normal, than go ahead stay here, I know I did for the last couple of days