Le Meridien is one of the newer hotels in Chiang Mai.  Located right next to the night bazaar, the 384 room hotel is convenient for meeting delegates to just step out for some night shopping and massage, after having been stuck in the conference room for the entire day.

The modern design of the hotel with predominantly white colour scheme, which was carried through from the main lobby to the guest rooms, has a cheerful and refreshing feel.  The normal deluxe room is not extremely spacious but comfortable.  Other room type include the diplomatic suite and junior suite, and one single Royal Suite.  For small but very senior management level private meeting, one may consider putting the CEO up in this very large 2-bedroom Royal Suite with a good view of Doi Suthep Mountain.  The suite comes with a very large living room and long dinning hall, so the senior management may as well hold their meeting in this very same suite.

In terms of convention and exhibition facilities, Le Meridien has a convention hall on the fourth level that sits about 500 guests classroom style, a grand ballroom on the third level for 150 guests classroom style, and another 5 smaller meeting rooms for breakout sessions of up to about 30 guests each.  The convention hall can be partitioned into 3 sections while the ballroom can be divided into two.  Both the convention hall and the ballroom have fairly sufficient height of between 6-7m for good LCD projections.  Both also have sizable pre-function areas for pre-dinner cocktail or exhibition.  What is unique about the third level ballroom pre-function area is that it is an L-shaped area, such that even if the ballroom is partitioned into two for two different events, each event can still have its own distinct, private cocktail or exhibition area.

Although Le Meridien's breakfast is much touted to be innovative and creative, this reviewer did not experience anything spectacular during the review period.  In fact, during the specially arranged breakfast for the group, service was a little sluggish.  Staff did not promptly take orders for the much needed morning coffee or tea, and the chef's specially prepared signature dishes were not introduced until most guests had finished breakfast...a pity.

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