Room 554: Great View, but Keycard Was Deactivated Before Check-out Time
I booked the room for around USD 68.06 per night, excluding breakfast. When making the reservation, I requested a higher-floor room away from the lift with a good view. I was assigned Room 554, a twin room on the right side of the building, close to the stairs. The room had a very nice mountain view.
Overall, the room was clean and well maintained. The beds and pillows were quite soft and comfortable, although the beds were a bit small. The bathroom in the twin room is fully enclosed, so there is no glass wall overlooking the bedroom, which I actually found to be a plus when sharing the room with a colleague or friend. There was no bathtub. Shaving kits were also not provided in the room and had to be requested from the reception desk.
**Food & Catering: the snacks served during the coffee breaks were fairly basic and, personally, I did not find them particularly impressive. On the first morning, chicken satay was served as one of the snack options. On the second day, rambutan and longan were provided. Unfortunately, I happened to take one piece of fruit that was already spoiled.
Lunch was arranged by the meeting organisers and consisted of Lao food. The taste was fairly ordinary for me. One dish I remember was Luang Prabang-style papaya salad, but the smell was quite strong. The sticky rice was individually wrapped in plastic bags. The portions were also more than sufficient, although most of the dishes seemed to consist mainly of meat, so there was not much variety in terms of vegetables.
The main issue: I stayed at the hotel for two nights because I was attending a two-day meeting there, but I made separate bookings for each night. On the first night, I stayed in Room 218.
I understood that the check-out time was 12:00 noon. On the day of check-out, my meeting finished shortly before noon, so I returned to my room at around 11:54 to collect my belongings before checking out.
However, when I tried to use my keycard at around 11:54, I found that it had already been deactivated, even though it was still before the stated 12:00 check-out time.
I mentioned this to the housekeeping staff nearby. She contacted reception and asked me to go to the front desk. When I explained the situation, the staff told me that the keycard system automatically deactivates the cards at around 11:30.
I was quite surprised by this because, in all the hotels I have stayed at before, a keycard normally remains valid until the official check-out time, or guests are at least informed in advance if the card will be deactivated earlier.
This incident did not ruin my stay, but I hope the hotel can review its keycard policy and either keep the cards active until the stated check-out time or clearly inform guests that the cards will be deactivated earlier.
