Parasol Blanc Luang Prabang

We had originally booked to stay over Christmas for 4 nights (at $135 a night). In the end, we changed to 2 nights and moved on Christmas Day. The hotel is ok but there are a number of issues: 1. The rooms are all the same. The decor is very outdated, with the rooms painted a yellow/brown shade. All the rooms feel quite dingy, we moved rooms as our first one was next to the road and quite loud. 2. Double beds are just 2 singles pushed together. 3. You can see from other reviews that the WiFi is very patchy, in our experience it just didn’t work. Mentioned to the front desk who said the issue had occurred ‘this morning and IT were off work today’. Based on other reviews, this is clearly an ongoing issue. 4. Breakfast is ok. That sums it up. Better elsewhere. 5. Pool is nice but there is a lack of beds (8 in total) so sometimes there are no beds available. The beds are extremely heavy (they are nice) which means they cannot be moved into the sun after 3pm which is when they lose the sun. No one from the hotel came to the pool during the day to take food or drink orders. 6. The towels in the room remind me of old gym towels. The ones by the pool are actually much nicer. 7. Bikes are only available from 6am to 6pm so can’t be used for dinner… either they should buy lights (these could be removable and rechargeable) or let people decide. 8. A couple of suggestions based on what we experienced at two other hotels in Luang Prabang (which were nearly half the price!) - fresh juice at breakfast, freshly ground coffee in the room and a cafetière rather than instant packets, somewhere to fill your water bottle (particularly given Parasol Blanc is branding itself as an eco hotel - there is nowhere to refill bottles, and the glass bottles in the rooms come with single use plastic caps), snacks in the room in jars to save on plastic cling film, water being available by the pool, food and drink service by the pool. The staff are very nice and helpful, and the grounds of the hotel are lovely. But at 135USD per night it is bad value and the price does not reflect the standard of the hotel. If it were 50% less you could overlook some of the issues. Recommendation would be to look at cheaper alternatives- there are a lot in Luang Prabang and some of the boutique alternatives include a pool, updated room decor, modern breakfast, and some of the nice touches mentioned earlier. I’m still surprised that it is the number 1 place to stay on Luang Prabang on Tripadvisor and Booking.

I loved everything about that place: quiet location, amazing service at both reception & restaurant. Tasty breakfast and very comfy rooms. Will be back for sure!