Vansana Plain of Jars Hotel

Not a bad place, overpriced though and no restaurant so no lunch or dinner, over a kilometre walk to any shops and not an easy walk back, all uphill. No swimming pool or spa, empty and not maintained. They offer free rides into town and back and the views are great and free airport transfers .

Very friendly staff. Our room was large with a private balcony- every thing was clean. Minibar with a selection of sodas and beerlao. The beds were very hard - hard indeed. One morning breakfast buffet - there’s an egg station and some Lao options. We had better - and worse other places

The hotel has a lovely location, with view over small farms and houses to the hills beyond. It is a motel style hotel, semidetached chalet style rooms & suites. Our suite was clean & had lounge, balcony (to watch the sunset), bedroom with a large kingsize bed, tea area & ensuite shower room. Our stay was very pleasant, sad it was only for one night. Breakfast was included (the baguettes were excellent) & the hotel has an evening restaurant, where we enjoyed three Lao dishes, steamed rice and BeerLao. Lovely staff, pleased to help with any request.

If all you are after is a bed for the night that is clean, then this would be an option. Otherwise, the staff have zero engagement with guests. The service was otherwise silent and perfuntory. The hotel appears to have been there for a few years and yet it remains half built. Breakfast was edible but otherwise unremarkable.

This isn't really a hotel. In fact it reminded me a bit of a US motel. Rooms are external to the main part of the building. They look and feel quite dated. Water would not drain out of the bath/shower unless you got at it with a spoon! Aircon not really man enough for the job. Breakfast buffet was shut so you got what you were given (with a choice of Eggs). No bar or restaurant and no bar or restaurant within a 10 minute walk. There is a shuttle bus, but nobody to operate it. Room safe is locked before I get here and I can't be bothered to ask someone to open it for me. To top it all both nights we were here, a house 100 yards down the hill decided to have a karaoke session both evenings. The town is pretty much closed after dark so entertainment options are limited. I wouldn't come back here.

Out of town, quiet pleasant rice paddy views, clean staff speak little English and if you are patient with them are very helpful, the biggest drawback to us was no functioning restaurant for dinner, however they do offer a shuttle to and from the towns eateries. Breakfast is table service straight from the kitchen. Our honest impression,,,, we felt the staff were desperate to please, the management, were not interested in the Hotel or its guests. Great Shame.

One of our worst hotel stays ever, and we had to stay for 2 nights. Don't get me wrong, we fully knew it would be basic but it could be so much better quite easily. There is very very limited choice in this area. The mattress is rock rock hard, you'd be better off on a camp bed. I checked under it and yes there are slats and a matress topper plus the mattress was relatively new but you'd never know. On night 2 we re-purposed the 2 extra duvets to go under the bottom sheet just about got some sleep but more through deprevation! Fridge in our room didn't work, the light came on but thats it. Some nice hot 7 Up to cool us down at 1am. The a/c seems to be set to only work at certain hours and not overnight so 2 nights of sweaty bliss!! The shower/bath with hot water boiler and electrics directly above the shower head is a death trap. Breakfast was left over buffet on day 1 after a tour party had eaten everything vaguely edible and day 2 was order only with stewed coffee and orange squash. Balcony view was nice though. No evening food and no bar/sitting area. No gym And finally there is a swimming pool and plunge pool area plus a new unfinished extension to the hotel which all look to have stood untouched as there were 4-5 years ago. Yep pool left with dark green sludge and plastic bottles. Such a nice place all round. Come on owners you can do better than this despite the lack of competition right now, it will come and your guests will vote with their feet rapidly.

If you can avoid staying here, then do so. The staff are very miserable, rooms dated and really in need of renovation. Food in the hotel (only breakfast being served), is quite inedible, fruit juice reconstituted and tasteless, along with the hot drinks such as tea/coffee just hot brown water! This is probably the worst review I have written but feel it necessary in order to warn other unsuspecting prospective tourists.

The hotel felt eerily empty when we stayed for 2 nights during the shoulder/low season. On the positive side, our room was huge! It had a sitting room, two TVs and a small dressing area. The shower was in the bath tub and water pressure was on the low side but still manageable. The bed was quite hard. Breakfast was simple but still good. The 180°C view from the main balcony would've been much nicer had it not been so smoky (due to slash & burn farming method). Their dining room was closed so the complimentary hotel van took us to town where there were food choices for dinner. We stayed in Vansana Hotel because we wanted to visit the Plain of Jars (Sites #1, #2 & #3).