We came in after a research of differrent gusthouses. We saw a room in the third floor and it smelled like sleeping in an ashtray. We left to see some other rooms around. Since everything else was taken we had no choise but to come back. When we came back 10 minuts later the price sudenlly jumped higher. When i asked why the staff Member mumbled somthing about sombody booking the room...lao people are bad liers. I was so upset i left Right away angry. I was lucky enough to find a diffrent gusthouse that was much more moddest than i intended but at least the people are honest and straightforward. Watch out.

We had pre-booked through Agoda at what we thought was a good deal, but (maybe because it was low season) we wished we hadn't. We paid 160,000 kip per night to discover it was only 150,000 kip rack rate at both the guesthouse and the newer mixok inn (for double with a/c & fan, cable tv, good wifi in the room and breakfast), 4 doors down the street and where breakfast was served (which wasn't an option to book on agoda)

The welcome was ok, and we were given a key and left to find our own way; we had been given 203 at the front of the building where the small communal balcony was overlooking the main road. As we approached the room saw it was still being cleaned, after standard check in time, but being tired just dumped our bags and waited for the lady to finish.

After a while we noticed the room smelled strongly of smoke, which we ascertained was coming through the extractor fan in the bathroom from another room, the smell came and went and so we went to sleep to reasses in the morning.

What an awful night. It was as if someone was chain smoking in the room with us. We tried turning the extractor fan off, air con and fan on, multiple combinations - we didn't want to open the windows because of the noise from the main road and lack of mosquito nets and no matter what we did the smell was just awful.
To top it off we were woke at 5am by some inconsiderate American and his friend sitting on the balcony outside our window smoking and shouting at the top of their voices, obviously drunk and despite numerous bangs on the window they didn't move or attempt to lower their voices.

Waking again a few hours later we decided to go for breakfast and head out for a few hours.
Breakfast itself was ok with 4 options: omelette, scrambled eggs, fried eggs and fried rice, all seved with a small baguette (apart from the rice) and some fruit with free flowing tea, coffee and water.

We left the windows open to try and air the room but returning at 2pm the room still smelt awful and we went to reception to ask for some air freshener or if they could stop the people in the next room smoking. The gent on reception gave us the key to another room (206) and told us that we should have told them before midday. I presume they had expected it and that we were not the first to complain and so we moved down the corridor to a room at the back of the building. It was about the same standard - but we later discovered the a/c unit, directly above the bed, leaked water onto our heads and so used a towel to stop it splashing us.

Our problem was that the corridor continued to smell strongly of smoke and they obviously do not enforce the no smoking signs thought the guesthouse or in Laos in general.

The locatation was good - but as mentioned by other reviewers, there isn't all that much to do in vientaine so I wouldn't allocate more than 2/3 days there to be able to comfortably see everything.

P.S. on some tourist maps the fountain is the central point - its currently a building site and barely recognisable. Pick something else as your landmark point!

We hadn't booked anywhere in advance before arriving in Vientiane so had the pleasure of walking door to door with our big bags. We hit up a few of the ones mentioned in the Lonely Planet and after viewing the rooms were left unimpressed considering the money they were asking for. We then got to Mixok Inn and at first thought we couldn't afford it. We inquired and they said they had rooms in the sister building Mixok Guesthouse. We went and had a look and were really impressed. Big room, large comfortable bed, decent bathroom, AC and cable TV. We did the maths and realised it was only slightly more expensive than some of the fan-only, windowless dives that we had just seen in other guesthouses down the street, plus this had free wifi IN in the rooms and also free breakfast.

The location is good (even if there isn't really a 'good' location in Vientiane as I just don't think it's a very interesting city to visit). The staff were helpful whenever we asked questions. We booked onwards bus tickets from them at vastly inflated prices (but we asked around and everywhere sold them for the same price). The reason for the mark up is that the bus station is a ridiculous 9km away from the city centre so you'd have to spend a fortune in a Tuk Tuk to get there yourself and then you may be unfortunate enough to find that the bus is full. We were disappointed however, that after booking our tickets in advance to ensure a good sleeper berth, when we got to the bus station to exchange the receipt for the tickets we were given berths on the back row! Anyone who has taken a sleeper bus and 'slept' at the back will know just how awful that is!