Lertnimit Hotel — a nearly-50-year-old Sawtooth Building still running as downtown Chaiyaphum's go-to stay
Drive through central Chaiyaphum and you'll spot a strange-looking white building — balconies that read as angled fins, alternating with round windows stacked floor by floor. That's Lertnimit Hotel. It opened on 1 January 1978, a 5-storey 1980s Modernist block that has since become a small landmark for the town. It isn't a new or luxury hotel, and it doesn't pretend to be — but a downtown location five minutes' walk from the bus terminal and rooms from around ฿650 keep business travellers and overnight stoppers coming back to it.
The first thing people mention here is the building itself. Designed in the 1980s with a reinforced-concrete frame, every room's balcony is an angled sun-shading fin set on a tilt to keep direct sun off the walls, alternating with the round porthole windows that became the building's signature. The centre of the block opens into an atrium that runs from the ground floor straight up to the roof, pulling daylight down through the building. Walking in, you get the genuine feel of an old provincial Thai hotel — not a new interior dressed up to look vintage.
Rooms come in three main types. The 18 sqm Standard on the 2nd floor is the budget entry option; the 27 sqm Junior Suite sits on floors 2–3, and the 36 sqm Suite on floors 3–5 is roomier with a clearer city view. All have air conditioning, a fridge, a flat-screen TV, a work desk and an en-suite bathroom with toiletries. Past guests note the rooms are clean with plenty of storage and a large mirror, though the corridor into the Standard rooms is fairly narrow — wrangling a big suitcase takes a moment.
One guest put it simply: the room is "neither big nor small, and at this price in Chaiyaphum that's more than fine — there's a convenience store right outside the door."
The ground floor has a large restaurant with gold fretwork ceiling panels in the style of older upcountry hotels, serving Thai and Isan dishes and doubling as the breakfast room. Breakfast is a simple affair built around rice soup, and a few reviews call it on the plain side. There's also a small café and bar, plus a conference and banquet room that locals use for weddings and seminars — so weekends can bring a function or two and a busier lobby.
Location is where Lertnimit genuinely scores. It sits on Nivetsrat Road in the town centre, about a 5-minute walk from Chaiyaphum bus terminal — handy if you arrive by coach and don't want a second ride. Convenience stores, restaurants and a market are all within walking distance. As for sights, Prang Ku is roughly 1.7 km away and Tat Ton National Park is a short drive out of town, so a car makes the wider area easier to cover.
The Trip.com score is 8.1/10 from 23 reviews, with location (9.1) and service (9.1) leading the ratings — the 24-hour front desk earns repeated praise for being helpful and quick to sort things out. The honest complaints are few and consistent: shower water pressure is on the weak side (multiple reviews flag this — ask the front desk to move you if it matters), and parking is an uncovered open-air lot with limited space, so on a busy night you may end up on the street. Front-facing rooms can also pick up some road noise from Nivetsrat Road if you're a light sleeper, so ask for an interior room. Worth knowing before you arrive so expectations are set right — none of these are deal-breakers at ฿650 in central Chaiyaphum.
Rates start at around ฿650/night for a Standard room, which is very low for the condition and the location. Breakfast is included on some rates and adds roughly ฿150/person on others — check at the time of booking. Chaiyaphum doesn't draw heavy tourist traffic year-round, so rooms are usually easy to find, but during festivals or a local event it's worth booking a week or two ahead.
The bottom line: Lertnimit works best for travellers who want a clean, low-cost stay in central Chaiyaphum and aren't fussed about resort-style facilities. There's no pool and no gym, but you get a walkable bus-terminal location and an old building with a character no new hotel can copy. If you want more space and a better view, the small step up to a Junior Suite or a higher-floor Suite is the smarter spend.
Summary from Booking & Agoda
- ✓ Central location, 5-minute walk to the bus terminal
- ✓ 24-hour front desk staff are attentive and helpful
- ✓ Rooms clean with plenty of storage space
- ✓ Very affordable for the location
- ! Shower water pressure is on the weak side
- ! Parking is an uncovered open-air lot and limited
- ! Breakfast is simple and a little plain
- ✓ Characterful old building — rare 1980s architecture
- ✓ Downtown setting with shops and food within walking distance
- ✓ Higher-floor Suites are spacious with a good city view
- ✓ Strong value for an overnight stop while travelling
- ! Corridors into the Standard rooms are fairly narrow
- ! Limited elevator capacity — a short wait at check-in
- ! Some traffic noise in the front-facing rooms
- 💡If you want space and a view — skip the 2nd-floor Standard and take a Junior Suite or a Suite on floors 3–5 → noticeably larger with a city view, and still cheap
- 💡If you're arriving by car — the open-air lot is limited and can fill up late at night, leaving street parking → check in before dark for an easier spot in the lot
- 💡If water pressure matters to you — multiple reviews agree the shower runs weak → the front desk is good about moving you to another room or floor if you ask