Baanpin Hostel & Cafe

Wee is the best employee in Bangkok, so kind and always ready to help with useful recommendations. You can tell he has a good heart and likes helping people. Thanks to Zaw too, who was also awesome and suggested some good places. It was really nice talking with them and meeting such genuine people.

It looked like a lovely cafe from outside, so we went in and were met by a whole wall of cannabis. If that’s what you’re after, great. If it isn’t, avoid this place.

Dirty walls, a horrible smell, and a lot of noise. There were ants and hairs in the bed. I can’t recommend it.

My room had clean white linen and was comfortable, but it was also full of rats. When I complained, the owner said they were like humans and deserved to live. I was charged too much to have the linen cleaned, and after I challenged it, I came back from an outing the next day to find my luggage outside in the rain and the doors locked. That’s just a short version of my dramatic three-month stay during the 2020 Covid lockdown. The location could suit people who like Khao San Road, but the service was awful. The owner, an elderly woman, and her son Bank were running the place then. I saw them insult staff, physically assault them, and publicly shout at elderly European guests from Spain they tried to scam. A friend stayed recently and didn’t have the same terrible experience, since Bank and his mother weren’t there, but she still found the service poor and felt scammed over the price.