Laos forum

I stayed at Nice Guest House Phonsavan in July 2012 for 4 nights. Everything was fine and I had no major complaints. Then it was time to check out when all the drama started:

The check out time on the 'rules and guidelines' of the guest house in my room was 12:30 in the afternoon. By the time I went down with my bags it was 1:15pm. I paid for the 4 nights stay and tried to leave. The guy at the desk (either a worker, or manager or the owner) demanded that I pay a whole nights stay for late check out. I have been traveling for nearly a year around South East Asia and no guest house has ever tried to charge for 45mins overstay. This was ridiculous.

Part of the problem was that at the desk the check out time was noted as 12:00 noon. This discrepancy was their fault. However, even considering this, it was low season, the place had plenty of rooms free if anyone did arrive and they couldn't get my room ready in time, there was going to be no loss for the business.

The guy kept demanding that I pay and I refused and he threatened to call the police. I told him he was welcome to. He then started saying/making threats that he wishes I have a crash or accident during the rest of my travels.

He and another friend of his then brought round a "police officer" along with an "interpreter". I told my story, then they told me to go to my room with them, these 4 guys.

I then got uncomfortable by this and demanded to see the identification of the "police officer" who was most likely just a security guard working around the area. He couldn't show any ID. Then the worker/manager/owner produced a sheet of paper showing that the check out time in my room was 12 noon - which he had just printed off - this wasn't the one that was in my room when I was there. Then I knew for sure there was foul play at hand.

So I said that if they can't produce evidence that the guy is a police officer then I will walk off and call the police myself. So I walked off.

I had a feeling that Nice Guesthouse would try to do something like this - I saw them try to sell a trip to the Plain of Jars to two girls for 600,000kip!

I took a tour with Kong Keo which included the bomb crater, the village, a trek to the waterfall including a picnic lunch and the plain of jars plus a tasty dinner in the evening all for just 130,000kip. Oh, and a sleeper bus back to Vientiane with Kong Keo was only 150,000kip while with Nice Guesthouse it was quoted as 200,000kip.

Now I haven't seen the rooms at Kong Keo but if you want a great atmosphere and the usual discretion with check out times and things like that then stay at Kong's and not Nice Guest House.

I hope this helps someone in the future.