The U Inn is a hotel built and located for a purpo...

The U Inn is a hotel built and located for a purpose - to provide accommodation for visitors to the the giant Srinagarind hospital across the road not as a general tourist destination. As such it is a pretty bland and uninteresting place to stay situated in an area that offers very little unless you are connected to the hospital. We spent ten days there recently and U Inn does the job at a daily rate of 790 baht.

The location for access to the hospital is great - a ten minute walk with the option of a pedestrian overpass across highway 2 during busy times, which is a 12 lane road at this point.

The rooms are small but adequate. The bed is Thai style firm but not uncomfortable. Linens are good quality and changed daily. The air con controller is fixed so you can't access it so you can turn it on and off and adjust the temperature but nothing else. It was set on high fan speed, which was noisy.

The bathroom work well for a Thai place. They have an exhaust fan and the shower is in a separate enclosure so that you don't flood the entire bathroom with water like so many Thai hotels and resorts. Water pressure was low but you could adjust the shower head to make it look as if there was more!

The walls and floors are thin so if you had noisy neighbours you would certainly hear them. The views are of typical Thai city ugliness as you can see from the photos and we never bothered to open the curtains. The penthouse has limited appeal in Thailand. The curtains are not blockout so you will certainly know when morning has arrived.

The major downside was that there is no coffee/tea making option in the room. I have been to many hotels across Thailand and I think this is the first to miss out on this pretty standard option.

The limited room service meals on offer for 55 baht are actually microwaved from a packet so don't get too excited. The one I had was inedible.

Wifi worked all the time we were there at around 10 mbps download speed. There are two modern lifts so getting to any of the seven floors is easy. The staff have a little English but wouldn't be able to cope with more complex enquiries.

Breakfast was adequate with a rice soup and a main course with rice for the Thais as well as eggs (they have fixed the warmer a complaint in previous reviews so the eggs are warm), toast, jams, cereal, coffee, tea and juice. The emphasis is on Thai guests and as the vast majority of people staying there are locals it is no use complaining that they don't do more western choices.

The immediate area is a wasteland of empty shops on the whole. There's an Isaan restaurant immediately in front of the hotel, which was well frequented by locals but I didn't think the food was special. Maybe a kilometer down the road heading into Khon Kaen is a place called the T Bone Steakhouse and it's the closest farang food place. All you can eat steaks and sides for 219 baht. Good value. Open 6:00 - 10:00 pm.

If you are into massage there's an excellent place just behind the hotel run by a farang and his wife. Clean with air con she does an excellent mixed Thai/oil massage - one hour 250 baht.

All in all U Inn did the job providing a clean, and mostly comfortable place to stay. If you are a tourist there are better choices. If you are in Khon Kaen because of the hospital this is one of the best options.