Inthira Vang Vieng

There’s a lot of potential here: lovely views, friendly staff, and comfortable rooms. But the rooms aren’t well maintained, and the staff need more professional training. The food was average and overpriced. I had to wait a few minutes for an omelette because the chef was on her phone. The other staff kept calling her, but she took her time. We arrived late and ordered pizza for an easy meal. It tasted like all the ingredients came from 7/11, with cheap string cheese on a frozen pizza. It was awful. The pool was dirty, and they hadn’t even cleaned the river in front of the hotel. The place needs a well-trained manager and general care. We should have spent a little more and stayed at Amari down the road. Hopefully they read the reviews and make some changes, because there’s so much potential.

The river and mountain views are lovely, and I appreciated the glass water bottle in the room with a refill station in the lobby. I wish all hotels did that. But the river noise was intense during the day, with boats going back and forth constantly from about 7 am to 8 pm. The windows weren’t properly insulated, and we could also hear noise from the downstairs bar and people walking around in the room above us. The bar was quiet by around midnight each night. We’d booked months ahead and asked for a high-floor room, but got a ground-floor one. Maybe we would’ve had a quieter stay if they’d read the request. We were given only one key card, and when we asked for another, we were told none were available. With two people going different places during the day, that made coordinating access annoying. There was just one front desk staff member, and they seemed unfriendly. In Luang Prabang and Vientiane, the front desk staff greeted us with big smiles. Here, the one person was on their phone and didn’t look up. When I said hello, I got a grunt back. Breakfast was very average. There were only three kinds of fruit, and the hot food was cold. They had an egg bar, but the fried eggs were made ahead and left to cool. When guests took them, the staff made fresh ones to replace them, so asking for a fresh fried egg didn’t make sense to them. The restaurant wasn’t busy, either. We chose the place for the river view, expecting it to be quiet because it wasn’t on a busy road. The view was nice, but only half of that expectation came true.

My girlfriend and I are so glad we picked this place. The staff were fantastic, and the views of the river and mountains were spectacular. We had a great room balcony, and I’ve attached some photos from it.

The hotel is in a beautiful setting in Vangvieng, with good, very clean rooms. The staff were excellent, with lovely service and typical Laos hospitality. The restaurant is well worth visiting: the Lab, fried fish, and pizza were all delicious. Breakfast had a decent spread, though it could be better.