La Locanda Bangkok Rooms&Food — Hotel in Pom Prap Subdistrict

I hardly write reviews. But this one demands a review. Will be a long one, so buckle in.||||My wife and I traveled to Bangkok in the month of January. We were to spend one night in Bangkok before we moved onward. This was an trip that we planned on a very short notice, and while going through options to stay in Bangkok close to Lomprayah bus pickup, we found this place on Tripadvisor. We booked La Locanda only a day before we were arriving - like I said, very last minute.||||It looked pretty, had good reviews and the tariffs were well below our budget.||||The only problem though - we were landing early morning and would have arrived a lot before the actual check in time. So, we dropped a mail to the hotel email giving them a situation. What we got back was a pretty standard response that check-in time is at 12:00 noon and how to access the keys and WIFI! Yes we know that.. we were looking for you to let us know whether you could accommodate us early. We sent another mail before the day before. We were worried - we had a long travel and didn't want to be stranded outside a hotel. Before you call us cheap, we offered to pay extra for the early check in. No response - the owners later told us that they received the mail post 8 PM so they were not obligated to respond. Good enough.||||We arrived at 7 AM. We found the lock box outside and entered the premises. No room keys in the lock box though, and we knew we were in for a long wait.||||Giulia (apologies for any errors in spelling the name) came to the reception at about 8 AM. No hellos, no welcome. We could sense trouble already. We asked if there was a room available and we are ready to pay extra for early check in. We got a pretty curt response - the standard check in time is 12 PM! Yes we know. Thankyou.||||So we waited. We asked whether we could wait in the small cafe inside their premises. We were told only if the tables were not required, could we sit there. I, for one, felt pretty small. We had breakfast in the meanwhile. And to make sure that we do not come out as stingy, we made an advanced payment even though we hardly got a decent response from any of the owners||||I should mention here - the breakfast was pretty good and delicious. I believe we had an omelette and a pancake. The coffee - brilliannt.||||So we moved to the small verandah they had outside their hotel, right on the road, next to a pretty smelly drain somewhere. We waited till 9:30 AM, and in the meanwhile we saw guests from at least 3 rooms check out. Finally, at 9:30 AM, we checked once again if we could get a room. No - was the response. No further explanations were deemed necessary. A suggestion was made though - why don't we go around and visit some place?||||We went back to the verandah outside. We hoped that we will soon get a room. It had taken us 3 hours to get through the immigration check after a 4.5 hour flight. We had almost spend the entire night either in the aircraft, or at the airport. We were tired and exhausted.||||Finally at 10:30 AM, we checked once again if we could get a room. The breakfast was done by then. Carlo (correct?) made it clear, quite rudely so, that we were early and we have to wait till 12 PM. Our patience had run out by then but we decided to wait some more time, while I started searching for an alternative accommodation close by.||||At 11 AM, Giulia called out and told us that the room was ready. While I went upstairs with the luggage to check the room with Giulia, she like a truly pleasant host - made me realize that I should have booked for two nights and should not have been stingy. Thank you Giulia - we know. That's why we tried to check twice and offered to pay extra. Of course Giulia had more to say. When asked why couldn't they accommodate us in spite of multiple check outs that happened earlier - and this is a gem - I was told that the rooms that were vacant were not the class that we had booked. Now, could this have been told to us? Yes. Would we have been happy to accommodate in a room 'lower' than the class we had booked for? Absolutely yes. Also, Giulia made it clear that they manage the place on their own, and they can't make breakfast and clean together - so we had to wait. Well, that was something we had not ever heard before. And we travel pretty regularly both in and outside our country.||||Suddenly, I realized my wife had been calling me. So I rushed downstairs. And what I see infuriated me! Carlo was threatening my wife. As I reached - I asked my wife what happened. I was a fool to still give the couple a benefit of doubt. My wife tells me that while I was upstairs, Carlo came up to her and told her that we should be thankful that we are getting to check in early. Really? Really! My wife responded in the politest way possible, given the situation. She asked Carlo to simply not speak to her.||||I lost it to be frank. What ensued was a slugfest of words. And the next few things shocked us - and I need to write these down as a list||1) We were told Indians rude, impolite and didn't deserve to travel||2) I was literally pushed off by Carlo from the hotel premises to the street - a literal push||3) Indians were called out as stingy and greedy||||While standing in the middle of the road - I obviously asked Carlo to give us back our money and adjust for the breakfast. He lost it I believe because he told me 'Oh! It is all about the money huh..!' He almost threw the money at my face. And while we fought on the road - he, in a very charitable state of mind - told us that we should be grateful that they are not charging us for the Wifi we used. Carlo - my friend - both of us were on international roaming with our data services working better than your Wifi. Indians can afford such perks you see Carlo.||||I had found a hotel close by in the meanwhile. We called a cab - and carlo we didn't use your Wifi to call the cab - and moved on. As a parting gift - Carlo blamed us for ruining our day. Carlo, you spoiled our much looked forward to trip. Thankfully we didn't meet people like you over the rest of our journey.||||We travel quite frequently and choose either boutique hotels and resorts or small B&Bs. We know how things work and we have always tried to be friendly with owners wherever we stayed. We were respectful, stayed clean and caused minimal disturbance wherever we stayed.||||This experience though was a nightmare. My wife actually asked me to never plan a trip to Italy. Thankfully, our opinion changed during the trip itself when we met an Italian on Koh Lanta and who became a good friend of ours.||||I would advice Indians at least - to not stay here. The couple, and choosing the pleasantest words here, is heavily biased against Indians and will do the best to make your life difficult.||||I know Giulia and Carlo respond pretty negatively to any criticism of their place. Well, its your show now. Go crazy!||||End note - whatever little I could see of their rooms, they were pretty, well decorated and looked cozy. Once again - the coffee...

After staying at family song in Koh Lipe our host recommended us we stay at his friends place in Bangkok. La Locanda. Now we are all friends. ||||Carlos place in bangkok is a wonderful guesthouse in an alley close to China town. The Italian atmosphere hits you outside the entrance at the meeting of a classic Vespa standing outside. ||||Carlo and his significant other Julia was most helpful during our stay. Besides being very friendly they made us feel so welcome. ||||The rooms are big and nice. We shared a room for 3 people, but spent most of our time in the reception/cafe area with our lovely hosts. ||||The breakfast is something different then what you normally would be served in Thailand. As Italians should be; Carlos cooking is fantastic. Homemade bread with butter for breakfast. Served with an omelett or eggs at your choice. What more can you ask for? A really good coffee maybe? You are not wrong. The best coffee I had in Thailand by far (2 months!!). And I drink coffee wherever I can find it. ||||Safe to say we really enjoyd our stay. ||Would recommend anybody to stay here. ||||Oh… and he makes great(!) Italian pizza. And he is happy to share...

I feel a little sorry for the friendly Thai woman who co-owns the place giving this bad review but her boyfriend doesn't deserve any better. Something went wrong with the booking process and even if the mistake would have been on my side (which I doubt but can't be sure about) his attitude was just super unprofessional. He raised his voice, didn't listen to me and didn't wanna give me a few minutes to look for the pictures of the room that I booked. The next day he talked bad behind my gfs back. about her not wanting breakfast. She is vegan and there would have been only bread and jam. To her he was nice but to his gf he complained about her attitude. She did nothing but saying she would rather have breakfast outside. The beds in the first room were uncomfy. You can feel every single spring... Also the toilet in the room we had on the second day had a toilet seat that was too small and didn't stay up which is quite unpleasant.

Bro, seriously work on...