I stayed at the Chiang Mai Plaza, very close to to Yaang Com Village. They have a pool and a lovely lobby. (People are always photographing the lobby) Breakfast buffet is included. It's not small and intimate but it's a great value for the price. By the way, I booked with Asiarooms.com and had no problems.

I have also stayed at the Chiang Mai Plaza and it is as different from Baan Orapin as night from day. Chiang Mai Plaza is a large commercial hotel filled with tour groups. You can stay there for very little money and you can get decent value but given the option I would stay at Baan Orapin in a heart beat. One makes you feel like you're in thailand -- the other could be anywhere (and yes I know about all the thai decor in the lobby).

I very much like Chiang Mai Plaza Hotel, although a high rise business hotel, it has a lovely interior spa, a pool, an enormous lobby, rooms are spacious, with good rates, and it has a late-hour restaurant (good if you've been shopping at the Night Market until late, like I always do, and want something to eat past 11pm). I certainly prefer it to the mosquito ridden Yaang Come Village, which is next door to it, the rooms which remind me of a La Quinta Motel, Thai style.

But Baan Orapin is the best, wonderful owners, their newer wing has lovely rooms, in old Thai Lanna style buildings set back in the trees-this is a place where you can stay for weeks and months at a time. It may not have a pool, but ambience, serenity and a genuine Thai atmosphere more than makes up for that. Pools aren't important to me at all in Chiang Mai-the Lanna Thai ambience is everything.

if you want something like Baan Orapin, Chiang Mai Plaza is the exact opposite. Only similarity is that it is around the same price and decent value. But one is small, intimate and personal and the other is a huge commercial hotel filled with tour groups.