Bann Kong Kam House

For the price, the free breakfast and parking make this a five-star stay. The hotel is clean and well priced, a couple of minutes' walk from the main street and the bridge to Myanmar. My room and bathroom were spotless, and the young man at reception was pleasant and helpful.

The room was basic but clean, with a Thai-style bathroom, and the bed was surprisingly comfortable. It was very quiet at night, and breakfast was really good, with eggs and sausages cooked for us. Parking was across the road at a construction site, and when we arrived there was no staff around, only a card asking us to call a number for someone to come over. You get what you pay for. For a visa run, this is a handy place: Mae Sai border checkpoint is a five-minute walk, and we went early and finished in 15 minutes. All in all, a nice hotel.

I've been coming to this Mae Sai guesthouse hotel for about 8 years, and it's my usual choice. The family-run property was fully rebuilt and renovated, with nicely designed rooms in a somewhat Oriental Thai theme. It's 20 meters from the river and 100 meters from the bridge to Myanmar. The young man who looks after the property has always treated me like a friend and taken care of what I need. If the owner is away shopping or elsewhere, the maid is usually on-site.

The service was awful. I booked through Agoda, but when I arrived nobody was at reception, and they didn't know about my reservation. The receptionist was a maid who couldn't communicate. The hotel is beside a narrow road at a fork, with noise and an unsafe crossing. Parking was included in my booking, but they didn't provide it when I got there and told me to park beside the narrow street, which didn't feel safe. They wanted to charge 150 bath to use their offered parking location, even though that charge wasn't supposed to apply. I called the owner about parking. He said he drives a Mercedes and usually parks along the street without anything happening, and that he would happily refund me if I wasn't okay with their parking. The worst service I've experienced in the hospitality industry.