Marble Arch De Loei Hotel

The decor is minimalist and the place was neat. The king bed was incredibly soft and comfortable, probably the best we’ve tried at several three-star hotels. There’s a big 7-11 just across the street. One odd thing was the instant water heater: unlike the other amenities, it couldn’t provide enough hot water when running at full blast.

I’ve worked as a hotel inspector, so I know what to look for, and this place doesn’t come close to a 9.0 Agoda rating or a four-star rating. It’s fairly new, but the all-white tiled interior is let down by cheap, kitschy furniture and decorations. Traffic lights and waiting cars at the nearby busy intersection often block the hotel entrance. The pool wasn’t usable: the water looked greenish and the bottom was sandy. The TV only had a few local channels, and without an antenna every picture was snowy. Breakfast was a disaster, with almost nothing to eat. For hot coffee, there was instant powder, powdered whitener, and hot water for you to mix yourself, like in the room. Reception seemed untrained and totally unconcerned. They also wanted 200 Baht for a second key.

The service was amazing and the staff were very good. It’s a brand new, nicely built hotel in Loei town, with excellent-sized rooms and what may be the longest hotel swimming pool I’ve ever seen. Breakfast was cold, though, and they really need to do something about that.

The pool is huge, the rooms are big, and the bathroom was nice. There’s a good promotion at the moment, so I still give it four stars, and you can get a Grab taxi for the 3 km trip to the city center. The walls don’t block much sound, and I couldn’t understand why a four-star hotel had no safe. There’s also no light switch by the bed, so you have to walk back to the entrance to turn the light off. A high-pitched noise started up about every 15 minutes, day and night, probably from the concrete factory next door. I was tired enough to fall asleep anyway. Maybe ask for a poolside room, though some of those are family rooms with direct pool access. Check-in took 15 minutes, which felt long after a tiring day. Breakfast costs 200b, but you have to make coffee yourself from powder or a 3-in-1 sachet, so it didn’t feel worth the price.