Phong Nha Bolero Bungalow — Hotel in Quảng Bình Province

The bungalows are run by a young Vietnamese family and I love to support local businesses directly so we booked via phone rather than using ‘sharing platform’ leeches like Agoda or Booking. The bungalow my family stayed in was spacious with a queen bed and bunk beds, and plenty of convenient sockets which is helpful and rare. There are picturesque views of the fields and mountains in every direction but the location is isolated, so fortunately they provide bicycles and rent out motorbikes. We arrived in the afternoon and wanted to cycle around and see the surrounding area but all the bikes were unusable. We asked the owner to try and fix at least 2 and he did, but within a kilometre the tires on one bike had gone flat. In the morning I came down for breakfast (included in the price) and asked the only person I could find if I could have breakfast. 15 minutes later after nothing had happened I asked her again and was told they have fried egg, omelette, pancake or noodles. That sounded great so I asked for omelette and a Vietnamese coffee with no sugar. A whole hour passed from 8.30am to 9.30am during which time a small boy came and threw small stones at me until his mum shouted at him to stop, and then finally she brought me a heavily sweetened, undrinkable Nescafé. My omelette came 15 minutes later. The second day, no choice was offered and we each got a bland, oily omelette slapped on a plate and we had to serve it ourselves and get our own bread and locate cutlery and sauces because the wife was busy with her kids, one of them wandering around without pants on, peeing incessantly next to the pool and then playing in his own pee. It seems pretty clear to me that businesses are maximising profits in the very short term by spending the absolute minimum on anything at all. In this case, here is a business where a husband and wife try to do everything themselves and so do it badly. The husband disappeared early in the morning to pick up guests so he could pocket the money instead of letting a taxi driver do the job, leaving his wife to look after their three young children, do all the cleaning and washing, and take care of our breakfast needs. Taking care of 3 kids seemed to take up her entire time and without anyone else on the payroll, the pool didn’t get cleaned once nor emptied of all the stones thrown in by her children, the towels weren’t changed and we were left to take care of ourselves. They could easily choose to pay one extra person a very basic salary to be a breakfast chef/waiter and solve these problems entirely but they instead choose to save money, do it all themselves in a substandard manner and create dissatisfied guests who won’t come back and won’t provide recommendations, these last two things being much smarter methods of increasing profits in the long term rather than relying on short term greed. And for goodness sake, where is the ‘passion’ to do something WELL that should be the inspiration for every business venture? I see no passion in most businesses in Phong Nha, only the shallow pursuit of making a quick buck. My mother in law spent a lot of time entertaining the children and thinks the couple are lovely and friendly, and I don’t disagree on this point, the husband offering to drive us (for 450,000 Dong) to and from the train station at inconvenient times, but it is important to clarify that we are not their mates. We are paying customers who expect certain services and a standard of service in return for giving the business our money. I would never tell anyone to put work ahead of family, but I do think it is reasonable to suggest that if your family keeps you so busy that you can’t do the work competently, you should either give up the work or pay someone else to do the work that you’ve been paid to do. I do want to make clear that this review is not intended to criticise the Bolero Bungalow owners as people, but rather as...

Location away from town. We are OK with it as we have motorbike.

Room is spacious but very cold and damp. We slept with full clothes and jacket and socks to sleep. No thick blanket provided and No heater.

Water heater on off so beware when you take hot shower during cold day.

No mineral water provided.

No hanger at all.. No hook to hang your jacket in the room.

Breakfast has some option. Refer picture of the menu. Do not choose the 'Local noodle' option as that was just instant noodle. (unless you really want to have instant noodle for breakfast).

No drink provided for breakfast dispite in description stated breakfast included. Basically they just give you food and drinks you have to pay.

We booked for 5 nights but decided to check out after one night stay. Even with no refund and book somewhere else

You can have better accommodation with similar price at other places in the town or near the river.

I never come across any hotel that provides breakfast with no drinks.

Their kids will be screaming and running in the morning. If you not a morning person, this will be disturb your sleep.

Bar soap provided was used one from so many guests before us.

No tea/coffee in the room. Has kettle and cup only.

We were the only guest when we arrived. After stayed a night, we understand why there's no other booking during our stay.

I would not recommend this place. Not worth the money.. Spend similar budget and get better place...

The location is truly amazing, on the edge of town, and since it is a very small town we could easily walk around on our own, while also be able to hike towards the caves and river. The staff is friendly and helpful, but doesn’t speak much English, which is ok, but it makes it difficult to order a simple breakfast (which seems to be limited). The rooms were ok, but were falling apart. Scratches on tv, showerhead not attached to the wall. Think the place is very nice and local, but it could do with some maintenance. Bike rental was supposed to be available, but when we asked, no bikes present.

My main concern was that one evening I was doing some work from the garden, and several children of owner were constantly killing any kind of animal they saw. Frogs, bees.

The pool is very though, so if location is the main reason, this...