Anchoring a corner of the town centre square, just steps to the night market and Mekong river, Inthira Hotel is a longstanding Tha Khaek favourite.

Unfortunately it doesn’t take long for guests to realise that the hotel's popularity is due to the prime location and not the service, which is terrible/non-existent. Expect lazy service offered with dour looks and shuffling feet at a hotel that is often fully booked in advance. Don’t have high hopes for courtesy or hospitality.

The once good bones of the hotel, set in a French colonial building, have faded a bit. Of course, there are the mod cons such as flatscreen television, a rain fall shower with piping hot water and soaps and shampoos that wash away the sweat and grime from your motorbike touring. For the comfortable beds and linens, air-con and speedy WiFi, you may be willing to overlook the quirks stemming from a lack of maintenance of an ageing hotel like leaky faucets, gurgling toilets, in room safe that needs batteries, broken electrical outlet, out lights and gangs of mosquitoes that obviously found their way in while housekeeping was doing up the room.

Inthira room interior. Photo: Cindy Fan

The saving grace is the convenience. Breakfast is included, served in their ground floor restaurant—it’s your standard hotel eggs, juice and proper machine coffee which hits the spot when you’re anxious to hit the road. For other meals, the restaurants, night market and riverside eats are all right there, as well as Wang Wang’s motorbike rental, the most popular shop in town.

The cheapest rooms are small, darker and affordable, perhaps a treat for a flashpacker in need of R&R from the grind of basic guesthouses. Solo travellers get a discount. For the more expensive spacious rooms, they have modern bathrooms and a balcony, though the newer Le Bouton D’Or, just a couple blocks away on the Mekong, currently outshines Inthira in offering better value and comfort.