I’m staying at the ‘Garden Guesthouse’ in Chiang Mai which is essentially just three bedrooms upstairs from a bar and cafe. Their street sign is so sun-faded that I can’t read it (I just look for the blank sign when walking up the street) so I doubt they have a lot of walk-in customers.
The have poor street advertising, but very good internet advertising. One of the owners, Tim, is an expat whose main work is in web-design and search engine optimization. His tiny 3-room operation comes up on the 1st page (3rd link!) in a google search for ‘Chiang Mai Guesthouse’.
The place is really nice, although I suspect that Tim keeps it running mainly as a test-bed for web design and as a venue for his band which is currently rehearsing a Fleetwood Mac song outside my window.
