Luangprabang River Lodge1

The location was the only thing I liked. Our room faced the main road and river, so it was noisy all night, and the room was generally in poor repair. The mattress was hard and lumpy, as if the springs were coming through. The guy at the front desk didn’t tell us anything about the hotel facilities.

The husband and wife who run the place were very kind and helpful in arranging things for me, and breakfast was great. The room and washroom were clean, and the location was excellent. I had a good stay, though I’d avoid the balcony because locals start heading to work around 3am and it gets very noisy.

The room was clean and nicely furnished, and the location was great. There were few guests, since Covid travel restrictions had just come down and there weren’t many tourists. It seemed like one woman was handling reception, housekeeping, and breakfast, which affected the service. The amenities shown on the booking site weren’t there: no off-street parking, no bicycles, and the small indoor pool was out of service. At checkout, although the reservation was marked as prepaid, the manager asked for full payment in kip. He said it hadn’t gone through until he confirmed the payment, and he didn’t want to do that. This meant he could avoid paying the booking site and credit card fees, and give himself an exchange rate around 7% above market. The week internet, missing amenities, and dishonest handling of the booking were major negatives.

The staff were very nice and the decor was pretty. We first got a lovely room on the first floor with a balcony. Then, after asking if we were okay with it and promising the rooms were identical, they moved us upstairs to a smaller room because another guest couldn’t climb the stairs. We got somewhat poor service, while that guest got really good service, so all in all I’d call the service okay :)