The rooms are nice and spacious, and the food in the restaurant is good as well. But by comparison the prices are high and alternatives are somewhat far away. The internet connection is shaky, and reservation by phone seems to be chaotic from what I observed. Mr. Ku next door has reliable, though expensive scooters for "the loop".
We arrived at 11pm after our bus was very late, but were relieved to find someone (sleeping!) behind reception who could check us in to a room. Double with fan and private bathroom was 90,000 kip, versus 60,000 for the same but with shared bathroom. Double with air con and own bath was 110,000 kip. This doesn't include breakfast. Tuk tuk from bus station cost 20,000 kip per person.
Their contact details have been updated, as the email and phone number on Lonely Planet is incorrect. Phone number is 051212931 and email is thakhektravellodge@gmail.com.
Wifi is very good, at least in room
7 where we were. Hot shower is great and room was very spacious with good furniture and comfy bed.
Restaurant service is awful, staff write down your order but it either arrives wrong or not at all. They will make sandwiches as a packed lunch on request which is great if you're heading off on the Loop.
Log book is full of other travellers' advice about the loop which is really helpful. They won't get bus tickets for you, so you'll need to get them yourself the day before or the day of travel. Mr Ku is also very helpful about renting motorbikes and map of the loop.
We stayed here as it seemed to be the cheapest place based on advance research and it seemed like they catered to backpackers going off the Lonely Planet description.
When we arrived it seemed like they were suffering from the 'low season syndrome' ie where the place is mostly empty so they just give up and can't be bothered to do their jobs. Sadly, we've been to a few places like this where they pull out all the stops in high season and get the positive reviews and $$$ but then just give up when it gets quiet. Either that or they found themselves in the Lonely Planet and so will just rest on that for eternity.
The staff always seemed to be playing on their phones or listening to music or watching videos on their laptops. There was free wifi here but it was terrible and was probably deliberate as you had to pay to use the PC hooked up to the ISDN line.
The food was also terrible. In fact I think I had the worst meal I'd had in the whole of my stay in Laos here. It wasn't a personal taste thing it was just really bad food!
The first room we were given had a broken fan which made a loud clunking noise. They only had a twin to move us to. They were foam matresses and one of the matresses had a huge chunk missing from it making it difficult to sleep on so my girlfriend and I had to share a single bed. The rooms are in dire need of an overhaul!
The 'lodge' is also miles away from the centre of Thakhek (not that there's much there) and there is absolutely nothing in the immediate vicinity. Only stay here if it's for a single night before heading out to do 'the loop' if you've done you're research and are happy to rent from the guy based here. We didn't so can't comment really although did notice that bike rentals were cheaper at other places.
We stayed at the Travel Lodge for a night before starting "The Loop". The place itself is nice and really good to meet other travellers and obtain information about the motorbike trip from the Logbook (by the way: we made good experiences with the bikes from Mr. Ku - fair price, good quality!) The food at the restaurant was ok, but small portions at normal Laos prices.
On our departure day we unfortunately had some really bad experience with the staff:
We wanted to take an overnight bus to Pakse which leaves the bus station (about 4km away) every hour. The staff offered to take us to the bus station for 15.000 Kip per Person. Shortly before the departure they suddenly changed the price to 50.000 per person. As it was already 30 minutes before the departure we did not have any other choice than either taking their offer or to RUN (quite a lonely and unlit street).
This is a behaviour I would not expect at a Backpackers Hostel as they purposely tried to rip us of and did not mind to let two girls walk quite a long distance during the night.
After reading in the Lonely planet that it was great for the food we were disapointed. The portions were small and with ordering food it is a mess there. They make many mistakes with several things. When we ordered breakfast they came with not enough eggs, they didn't had any more eggs, also there weren't oranges so the just gave us lemonade instead of real fruit juice. We discussed a discount on the breakfast and got it, also we got 2 real fruit shakes. Only afterwards we discovered the fruitshakes were charged for on the bill.
Also we found the bed very hard, the price of 90.000 kip is too much. They also have rooms for 60.000 but they are almost always occupied.
Appart from the food and the concrete bed it is a great place to stay, they also have a fireplace and the free wifi is good. Nice place to meet other travellers. We checked the other guesthouses and they weren't any better so if you are in Tha Khek we still recommend to stay in Travel lodge.
