Villa Champa

Tldr - bookings don't matter. Luang Prabang. I've spent seven months of the last three years in this town, a place I know intimately. The gilded streets, the gentle flow of the Mekong, the quiet grace of the people—it all feels like a second home. I've sent many friends and acquaintances here, often with a recommendation for a place I thought I could count on: Villa Champa. A week ago, my brother and I checked out of a twin room we'd occupied for eight nights. The plan was simple and straightforward: return a few days later and pick up right where we left off. We had a booking, a firm reservation for the same twin room. It's a small detail, but one that matters when you're traveling with your brother. Two beds. A small, but significant, buffer zone. We returned, bags in hand, ready for another stretch of riverside tranquility. But the front desk had other plans. The twin room, our room, had been given away. "No problem," they said, with a shrug that felt less like an apology and more like a dismissal. "You can have a double room." One bed. Two brothers. A level of intimacy we weren't looking for. This is the kind of short-sighted behaviour that makes you shake your head. A place that knows me, a place that knows I've sent them a steady stream of business, a place that knows I'm here in this town for a significant part of the year, chooses to give away a booked room rather than inconvenience a walk-in. It's a classic case of sacrificing the long-term relationship for a short-term gain. The Lao people have a beautiful phrase: baw pen nyang. It means "no worries," "no problem." A phrase of quiet acceptance, of rolling with the punches. In this case, baw pen nyang. There are plenty of other guesthouses in Luang Prabang, wonderful places run by people who understand the value of a booking and the loyalty of a repeat customer. Places that, unlike Villa Champa, won't leave you and your brother in a single bed, wondering what happened to the simple courtesy of a room reservation. From where I'm standing, Villa Champa gets one star out of five. And that single star is for the memories of the way things used to be.