Mandala Boutique Hotel

The Mandala Hotel was a great choice for our two night stay in Vientiane. Easily accessible from the city centre. The room was comfortable and facilities clean. Breakfast suited our needs. Staff were friendly and helpful. Well worth considering.

The staff were friendly enough on our arrival. From the outside the hotel had seen better days with paint flaking away from the windows and the walls. The hotel has no lift, so I had to carry my large suitcase up the wooden stairs to my room on the first floor. The room was pretty dark....no problem. However, when we started to look round the room we noticed stains on the paintwork around the doors, marks and chips on the woodwork, mould on the wallpaper, dust and dirt in the corners, wallpaper coming away, black tape over a plug socket and finger prints/marks on the mini fridge ( I have photos to prove it). At this point my wife and I decided that we couldn't stay there any longer and rang our tour operator who to their credit moved us within the hour to another hotel. We have never had to do this before and were pretty sad as Vientianne is a lovely City....as we later found out! The hotel needs an immediate complete cleaning, redecoration and facelift.

What an absolute hole this place is. The pictures on the website must have been taken in it’s heyday as they certainly do not resemble what it is now. Bed linen may be clean but the decor is tired and walls and woodwork is dirty. We were given a ‘superior’ room. The curtains were full of stains, as were the walls - I wasn’t sure if one of the stains was blood! The plug sockets on the walls are loose and there is even a sign saying to unplug the kettle when you go out for safety! We complained to our tour rep and were given an ‘upgrade’. This room was a little cleaner but still just as shabby. There is tea and coffee in the room but that is about it. There is a small room next door which is used only for breakfast but nowhere else to eat or drink. No lift, no pool, no bar, no restaurant, nothing! The positives are that it has a lovely temple on the corner and it is a short walk to shops. Breakfast is sparse: a couple of fruits to choose from, three cereals, some yoghurt, bread and you can order bacon and eggs off a menu card which is prepared next door and brought through. This is allegedly a three star hotel but I think it is not worthy of two.