I found this great hotel thru TripAdvisor, so I feel compelled to write a review for others. TripAdvisor mistakenly listed the rate of this hotel as around $653 per night, but that's completely inaccurate. The rack rate for a standard room is $200 per night, and I got a room for $95 per night (including breakfast) on "www. ratestogo.com", a discount website. (FYI, that website gives discounts on hotel stays within 21 days or less, so if you're travelling in the distant future, I'd suggest that you hold a reservation thru another site, and then check this one as the date draws nearer).

The RarinJinda is a beautiful boutique hotel in a great location. The staff were incredibly helpful and the facilities top-notch. I would definitely stay there again, and would highly recommend it to others. The hotel is across the street from the river and two good restaurants, and a short walk to the night market. The facilities are charming, and you really feel like you're in Thailand; it has a very tropical feel to it.

The only two cautions I would advise about the hotel are: 1) the bed was incredibly firm, which was fine for me but might be a problem for some people; and 2) the day I left, there was some noisy construction behind the hotel that started around 7:30 a.m. If you stay there, you may want to ask for a room that's not near the construction in the rear. (The construction isn't part of the hotel; someone else is just building something behind it).

Other than those two minor cautions, I would wholeheartedly recommend this hotel. It really made my stay in Chiang Mai wonderful.

The Rarinjinda was certainly a good find. My wife and I stayed there for three nights and the service, rooms, and amenities were excellent. It's a small-medium size hotel with about 40+ rooms in it and has really nice spa attached to it. I was reluctant about using the spa, considering that one can get a massage for as low as 100-150 baht an hour (usually they are around 200-300 in Chiang Mai), but I got one at the Rarinjinda and it was by far the best massage I got in Thailand (and although it's 1200 baht for two hours, I thought it was well worth it - think about it, that's less than $20 hour). I guess in Bangkok they also have a spa (not a hotel, I think), which may be a reason why they did such a good job (but I'm certainly no expert in the quality of spas, since I've rarely have gone - but my wife said they did an excellent job).

I used both the workout room and swimming pool as well. The hotel staff always left me a dry towel and a small, fragrant wet towel for my workout, as well as a bottle of water. As for the swimming pool, although not Olympic size, it was a nice pool (they use glass tiles, which they also use for their bathrooms), and again the hotel staff always left us with a towel and water.

In addition, the Rarinjinda had free wireless, though it was slow. They also provide you with internet connectivity through a computer in their business room, and again, while I was using it one day, an individual from the hotel left me with a glass of water.

The staff was very prompt with cleaning our room, and on the two days we were there, they actually cleaned our rooms twice. We both thought the service was equal to both the Peninsula and the Oriental (a honeymoon gift from my very generous sister) in Bangkok (though those were excellent as well - I will write a review on them and the Krabi Spa and Resort as well).

Also, my wife left some clothing in a drawer in the room, which we discovered when we arrived in Bangkok. The Rarinjinda was kind enough to mail the clothing back to us in Seattle, which we just got a day ago. Muy bueno!

The hotel is also situated pretty close to the night market - about a ten minute walk. The hotel is across the river, but it's not that difficult of a walk to get there. However, the one negative, I must write about in regards to the location of the hotel is that we happened to be there during some celebratory event for the King (I think), and since we were near the river, a number of youngsters were lighting firecrackers during the night. And athough the rooms are very nice, it did not prevent this noise from penetrating through the door of our room.

Nonetheless,we were fortunate to find this hotel, which I was able to find through this venue (which is why I feel compelled to write a review as well). I think the hotel had incredible value for the price we paid (we did not pay the rack rate, but went through a discount website).

I work as a Flight attendant and would make seldom visits to spots like Chiang Mai. The nature of my job, as it is known to many, is indeed very taxing and taking time to relax came to be extremely important. It was my second time to visit Chiang Mai and I had the luxury to choose where to stay. I don't have a single idea of at least a good place, good thing one of our regular passengers, who's also a frequent Asian traveller, started to acquaint me on the
"RIGHT" places to go and also, an ideal place to stay and spend a short stint. I never understood this guy, all the while I was thinking that he had the tendency of overstating things. But simply because I have no spot in mind, I just thought that this place he was trying to sell was worth a try. I got to Rarinjinda at around past three in the afternoon, the ambiance was different, the people were profound and the interiors were unconventional – these things made me feel that certainly, this place must have been one of the finest around. I was told by our passenger that the hotel was new and
I won’t believe him at first because people in the hotel exemplified years of experience in customer service. They were very good people and they were extremely hospitable, they knew their products, they understood what you needed and they were flexible. I got a middle graded room and room prices were acceptable. The guest room was clean, it provided me with the level of comfort I needed, it had sufficient supplies and facilities inside did not only spelled out aesthetics but also were very functional. The night was still young so I rushed into the Spa and had a very relaxing massage. Everyone seemed to be so hospitable that will surely make you feel honoured. Everyone smiled at me and greetings were all around that made me feel
as if I was a royalty. My sleep that night was one of the best I ever
had and I must say, I over relaxed. Check-out the next day was conventional and fast. I had two more visits in Rarinjinda and those visits seemed as if it were my firsts. This hotel is indeed
comparable to the finest hotels I’ve been to in the world. It was more like an experience of comfort with an authentic oriental touch. I can’t tell you more because I might be accused of having the tendency of overstating things myself. All I want to say is, you better experience it. I am not trying to sell the place just like what our passenger did to me, but believe me, it was indeed “worth a try”.

To start off with, the initial corresposndence with the hotel via email was prompt and informative. To me this says a lot about the level of service that was to come.

Needless to say they did not disappoint the moment I arrived. The resort was beautifully maintain and best of all, being a small boutique hotel it offers a seemless balance of service with a sense of privacy that the larger premier hotels i.e Mandarin & Four Seasons could not provide.

All in all strongly recomend to travellers who wants a first class resort with more privacy then the big boys can offer.