Downtown Inn Closed

[chiangmaicharlies]

Last week saw a notice pinned outside Doomsday Inn ,,,,,,,,,,, oops, sorry - of course I meant Downtown Inn ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, stating that it would be closed for most of the year, possibly opening for Loy Kratong.

During the next two days, numerous songtauws arrived taking away mattresses and bedding. Presumably we will sometime soon see ghost exorcists in the vicinity.

[elektrified]

Songtaews are hauling away the mattresses??? That is very bizarre!

[chiangmaicharlies]

Evidence to be destroyed..................... only a thought.

[naboo]

Another death?

[eyecatcher]

When a place creates such an undesirable reputation; as it has currently. It needs someone to completely re brand the place, lose the name, the stigma and everything associated with the original place.

Has that time come now or like many other buildings, will it now be left, empty, abandoned and a home for weeds, rats,insects for ever more?

[animatic]

Likely the only course left for this local pariah.

Just the name alone reflects badly on the town and much of officialdom.

Rebranding is not gonna be easy. Try a totally different business for the building.

[jajohnson]

Good riddance to them! I stayed there once, before I knew about everything that had happened there, and it was a pretty lousy experience.

[CMX]

eyecatcher said -

"Has that time come now or like many other buildings, will it now be left, empty, abandoned and a home for weeds, rats,insects for ever more?"

***********

I dunno. I ask myself, if I were an insect, is that a place where'd I'd like to hang out? Have friends over?

Anyway, almost seems as if honesty IS the best policy.

[JeffreyMcCollum]

If it was my building, with all the bad press and what has happened, I would strip out all the rooms. Lingering Poison ? let it sit a while with no sign. Up grade or convert it but more than a year must pass

[TantraMantra]

If it was my building, with all the bad press and what has happened, I would strip out all the rooms. Lingering Poison ? let it sit a while with no sign. Up grade or convert it but more than a year must pass

It might be best to demolish the building and build something new and unrecognizable from the Downtown. i.e. Make it totally disappear.

[hellodolly]

The sign out front said that they were remodeling and would be open for Loi Kertong.

I saw several pick up trucks hauling off desks and there is no furniture in the loby or restaurant.

The other night I was passing by and saw a guard inside and part of me wanted to knock on the door and ask how long to get the ghosts out.

Seriously though if you follow the ownership you will find it belongs to a family member who we don't discuss because of certain laws.

If they had just renamed and put the name change in advertising there would only be a handful of people who could look at it and know the last year history for it. It received a lot of publicity but the picture was not that prominent. People here in Chiang Mai might have a easy time of it but we don't use it any how as it was not for a long stay.

[barefoot1988]

Should had taken note the number plates of the songthaew transporting the mattress. Truck bed might catch something nasty

[elektrified]

Should had taken note the number plates of the songthaew transporting the mattress. Truck bed might catch something nasty

Doesn't make sense that a business like that would use songtaews for removals.

[paulbrun]

I stayed there when it first opened almost 20 years ago, and it was a very good hotel. It was never going to be top-end, but it was comfortable, well managed and in a great location. Many years later, I held my 50th birthday party there, hiring the area around the swimming pool, and the staff couldn't have been more helpful, and accomodating. It is very sad that something went so badly wrong, after all their efforts to provide good quality accomodation, at affordable prices. I hope they manage to clean the place up, and open again without the stigma that is inevitably going to be associated with the old hotel name..? Burning the mattresses is absolutely vital, because it was found to be those that absorbed the chemical that gave people such a bad reaction. I am quite surprised that they were even still in there..!

[hellodolly]

Should had taken note the number plates of the songthaew transporting the mattress. Truck bed might catch something nasty

Doesn't make sense that a business like that would use songtaews for removals.

I saw them there removing things for two days it looked like about three pick up trucks. I saw no songtells.

[elektrified]

Should had taken note the number plates of the songthaew transporting the mattress. Truck bed might catch something nasty

Doesn't make sense that a business like that would use songtaews for removals.

I saw them there removing things for two days it looked like about three pick up trucks. I saw no songtells.

Songtell???

[wolf5370]

Why close for months if it's just to shed the stigma? Just a name change is all that would be needed, after all only those of us that live here would notice and we are unlikely to be their meat and spuds anyway. I would guess they are renovating, maybe after a new grading or just because it makes sense before a reopening - people forget very quickly. The mattresses et al maybe just going to storage - if they are doing out the rooms etc, then the furniture must be removed first (otherwise the workmen just paint around them!).

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I saw them there removing things for two days it looked like about three pick up trucks. I saw no songtells.

Songtell???

Personally I've given up.

[eyecatcher]

Perhaps if it re-opened as a hospice; its credibilty would rise.

Its gone through the dress rehearsal fine!

[HaleySabai]

Perhaps the owners are having trouble keeping staff......the Thai's have a massive 'ghost-fear', getting them to work in a deathly environment may have been the death-sentence for the place itself.

[muchogra]

Quote: "Last week saw a notice pinned outside Doomsday Inn ,,,,,,,,,,, oops, sorry - of course I meant Downtown Inn ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, stating that it would be closed for most of the year, possibly opening for Loy Kratong."

When it reopens, it may be under another name. Be it or not, what had happened will be forgotten or "forgiven". Like it or not seems nothing you and I could do. Do you think otherwise?

[jackr]

They should dust off, nuke from orbit, then bung some more stalls on the site.

[ARISTIDE]

then the furniture must be removed first (otherwise the workmen just paint around them!).

Oh I see you have some bad memories

[folium]

I saw them there removing things for two days it looked like about three pick up trucks. I saw no songtells.

Songtell???

Personally I've given up.

I thought they were called "show & tells"!

[WinnieTheKhwai]

The same people who own Downtown also own two other major tourist hotels in town.

If Downtown Inn is refurbished and then re-opens, explain why it deserves more hate than the other venues?

Secondly, if I understood the whole saga correctly, the blame may well lie with the fumigation / pest control company. That same company is happily still doing work on just about any other hotel in town.

I'm not sure everyone is rational on this forum.

Edited May 8, 2012 by WinnieTheKhwai

[CMX]

The same people who own Downtown also own two other major tourist hotels in town.

If Downtown Inn is refurbished and then re-opens, explain why it deserves more hate than the other venues?

I'm not sure everyone is rational on this forum.

Who could disagree with this last statement? But to speak of the topic:

Certainly mistrust might attach to the owners. If one knew the names of the other joints, one might avoid them. And why, if others were to blame (lot of confusion here, yet), pick on owners rather than exterminators?

Fear.

If there is fear building to hatred, it could be related to the lack of transparency - indeed, some reported that they though that there was opposition to open honesty about events coming from a number of directions. So did a news outlet, I seem to recall. Such uncertainty, born of being denied a clear effort to determine the causes (at least publicly), could cause hatred.

But, in an attempt to be rational, we must figure that transparency issues are a matter of culture clash, while 'developing country' is to blame as to causality. So it goes. Right? Just comes with the territory. Plus, "Don't worry, be hoppy!"

[PETDCAT]

For those of you wondering who owns the Downtown Inn this might help.

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/viewfa.php?id=3432

[Curt1591]

It was never proven that "the rooms" were the source of the poisoning. There will be "residual" found wherever this stuff has been used. And, it has been used, without such deaths, for years and years. Almost all deaths, from such poisons, are the result of suicide by direct ingestion.

Unfortunately, after the lynchmob circled, with torches aglow, any real investigation ended. The final "conclusion" was simply telling everyone what they wanted to hear, yet not directly implicating anyone.

I still think the source was something else. Maybe adulterated booze from any of many sources. This could help explain the time span, different rooms with deaths, same rooms without illness, and the fact that a few of the victims didn't even stay there.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Curt1591

[elektrified]

It was never proven that "the rooms" were the source of the poisoning. There will be "residual" found wherever this stuff has been used. And, it has been used, without such deaths, for years and years. Almost all deaths, from such poisons, are the result of suicide by direct ingestion.

Unfortunately, after the lynchmob circled, with torches aglow, any real investigation ended. The final "conclusion" was simply telling everyone what they wanted to hear, yet not directly implicating anyone.

I still think the source was something else. Maybe adulterated booze from any of many sources. This could help explain the time span, different rooms with deaths, same rooms without illness, and the fact that a few of the victims didn't even stay there.

Obviously you never read the final report signed by experts from around the world.

[Curt1591]

I don't believe anyone has read the final report from the international experts. What everyone has read is the Thai authority's conclusion, written after the findings were in.

If you can point me to the actual findings, by the international experts, please do.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Curt1591