I am looking for a room for an all-day conference for 8 people. Ideal venue would be a moderately priced restaurant, preferably Thai food, with a private room where we could have a couple meals during the day and not have to pay extra for the room.

Good luck with this one. Most places I know of will charge you for using a room regardless of wether you buy food or not. I don't think there's much in life that is free these days.

Unless there is some ma and pa restaurant out there who are willing to oblige, I fell you may be hard pressed to find something in central CM.

Well it is not Thai food. I am not sure of the rent but Dukes in the Night Bazaar has an upstairs room they might be wiling to make a deal with you for. I know the VFW used to meet there.

Being low season it might be doable.

A couple of cheap meals and a free exclusive room? Hate to be a pessimist, but I don`t think so.

I would go the reverse route, rent a cheap hotel room for your conference, then take a couple of breaks and use an outside restaurant for your meals or perhaps the hotel`s room service.

I've met in Salad Concept, Kuhn Mor and Why Not. Why Not? is Italian, Kuhn Mor is healthy Thai and Salad Concept is what it is. I got tired of Kuhn Mor's food. I like Why Not? better. Good luck.

A couple of cheap meals and a free exclusive room? Hate to be a pessimist, but I don`t think so.

I would go the reverse route, rent a cheap hotel room for your conference, then take a couple of breaks and use an outside restaurant for your meals or perhaps the hotel`s room service.

I don't know about cheap hotel rooms but most hotel rooms I've been in don't have seating/work space for 8 people.

Upstairs at River Market and at Tawan's Corner Bar. Tawan's has aircon.

I sometimes do meetings of this nature in my living room and order in food from Meals on Wheels 4U.

I am overwhelmed and grateful for all the helpful suggestions. I count 5 restaurants suggested so far. As for the the "no chance" comments, I think they must often be made by younger people who just haven't been around much. I am 73 and have lived in 6 countries, and my experience is that there almost always are restaurants with private rooms at little or nominal cost. I should have mentioned that nominal cost would be OK. For example, I have had meetings in a private room at an upscale seafood restaurant at Central World in Bangkok, Laem Charoen Pla, paying 400 TB for the room. To have it all day might cost 800. . . anyway such a fee is workable, unlike the thousands that are charged for 4 and 5 star hotel conference rooms. I know also of 5 restaurants along Sukhumvit with free private rooms. So I am confident that at least one of these suggestions for Chiangmai will work out.

For me, this is such routine information that I presume it will be useful to others who wish to have small meetings in Chiangmai. I hope so.

You are correct, most places will charge a small fee and as a lot of replies said, good luck in finding something for free. I'm 54 so I don't consider myself either old nor young! Maybe I'm just a fence sitter and can't makeup my mind.

Never the less I hope you find what you're looking for. Chiang Mai is fairly hospitable to like minded people.

If all else fails have a look at Starwork. They have serviced offices and conference rooms available for about 400 baht an hour.

Many hotels should have meeting rooms.....possibly for just the price of food ordered......

In general, hotels are going to look for a room fee for setting up a meeting room, in addition to charging for food.. If the OP doesn't need audio-visual equipment, then a meeting room at a restaurant is just the ticket. And some restaurants even have AV equipment. For example, Tawan's has a large screen TV in their upstairs room and you can hook up a computer to it very easily or show visuals from a USB drive.

The River Market has an upstairs and downstairs room. Groups that meet there are the CEC computer club and photography club, the VFW and the Chiang Mai Rotary. They have a projector but for the second time it is being fixed. It's taking forever. No air conditioning. You have to check for availability. Depending upon the group and what you need the room for. No scammers, vacation sales, or get rich quick. Unless it is just for yourselves and not some public event. You'd be surprised what we are confronted with. Check with event management at the restaurant.

Most upscale Chinese restaurants have private rooms, several located inside hotels.. Not sure if they're intended to camp out for the day, but it is Thailand so you can probably get away with it.

One thing to check is that it's actually open all day, and not just for lunch and then again later for dinner.

Nicks playground have a nice air-conditioned area.

Not to much Thai food but delicious Tappa's and i think if you order enough they will provide Thai food also and let you have the room during day time.

Good luck

You could also pick a restaurant that's routinely empty, then the whole place becomes your de-facto meeting room.

Like, The Game in Hang Dong, or the new sports bar/restaurant next to Mad Dog on Moon Muang, or River Market during most of the day, etc.