Winner Inn, Soi Buakhaw - review

[RCR]

Winner Inn is probably similar to all the other guest houses in Soi Buakhaw and surrounding streets. It's a small, cheap hotel. No swimming pool, no restaurant, no bar, no phone in the room.

 

The free wi-fi only worked half the time. There are computers cabled up in the foyer. If you want to use your own laptop you could plug into an adsl cable down there.

 

The room was reasonably clean - the cleaner pops in every morning and does a good job, and supplies two large fluffy towels. However I moved the TV to a more suitable location and found a family of dust bunnies where it had been sitting. The cupboards had a strong mildew smell. The cleaner sprayed with airfreshener each morning to combat this. I bought a can myself in an attempt to improve on her work. So it was a choice of unsettling smells in the room - mildew or sickly sweet airfreshener. I got a few mosquito bites the first night so I bought a can of insect spray and sprayed that liberally. No more mosquitoes.

 

The bathroom was newly refurbished which means the tile work was clean and unchipped and the washbasin and little shelves weren't sagging off the wall. The new hot water system worked perfectly.

 

The room had three spare power points which I appreciated. In my previous hotel I needed to use a double adaptor on the TV powerpoint. There was yet another power point in the bathroom. We're talking about a typical Thai 'wet' bathroom without a separate shower cubicle. There I was, in the nudie, sopping wet, standing in a pool of water, plugging my electric toothbrush into an ungrounded Thai powerpoint. How dumb is that?

 

The old style TV had the basic minimum cable news and entertainment channels. There's an in-room safe. There's an electric jug. I always pack my own travel jug but I used theirs and it was worked fine.

 

The small fridge was cluttered up with minibar beverages - no prices given. A number of times my previous hotel tried charging me for items I hadn't taken so finally I made them empty the minibar whenever I stayed there. As an experiment, I didn't do this with Winner Inn. When I checked out they didn't try to charge me for anything. Well done, Winner Inn.

 

The air con could only generate a trickle of warm air and a constant rattling noise. At times it was cooler in the street than in my room. The room was at the back of the building and was quiet. There was karaoke noise until 5am some days but no big deal.

 

The reception staff at Winner Inn are pleasant and eager to help but have poor English. Their only comment when I complained about the wi-fi was "Try later". I gave them one bundle of laundry. It sat on the counter from 9.30am until 2.30pm where anyone could take it. It reappeared back on the counter the following evening with an incorrect room number on it. Poor security and the laundry came back only in acceptable condition. When I wanted to put in another laundry on January 1st, I was told "Laundry close. Go another shop". I did. I went to the laundry shop I normally use on Soi 10. Speedy service and beautiful smelling cleaning and ironing. The Winner Inn Reception chick did organise a taxi to the airport for 2am without any stuff ups.

 

Winner Inn was only $353.34 for 14 nights of high season. You get what you pay for and I shouldn't have expected it to be better. It was my mistake - I tried to save money, and the air con, the mildew smell, the lack of wi-fi, spoiled my trip somewhat. I've learned my lesson - for my March trip, I've booked into a much more pricey place.

[petermik]

Winner Inn is probably similar to all the other guest houses in Soi Buakhaw and surrounding streets. It's a small, cheap hotel. No swimming pool, no restaurant, no bar, no phone in the room.

 

The free wi-fi only worked half the time. There are computers cabled up in the foyer. If you want to use your own laptop you could plug into an adsl cable down there.

 

The room was reasonably clean - the cleaner pops in every morning and does a good job, and supplies two large fluffy towels. However I moved the TV to a more suitable location and found a family of dust bunnies where it had been sitting. The cupboards had a strong mildew smell. The cleaner sprayed with airfreshener each morning to combat this. I bought a can myself in an attempt to improve on her work. So it was a choice of unsettling smells in the room - mildew or sickly sweet airfreshener. I got a few mosquito bites the first night so I bought a can of insect spray and sprayed that liberally. No more mosquitoes.

 

The bathroom was newly refurbished which means the tile work was clean and unchipped and the washbasin and little shelves weren't sagging off the wall. The new hot water system worked perfectly.

 

The room had three spare power points which I appreciated. In my previous hotel I needed to use a double adaptor on the TV powerpoint. There was yet another power point in the bathroom. We're talking about a typical Thai 'wet' bathroom without a separate shower cubicle. There I was, in the nudie, sopping wet, standing in a pool of water, plugging my electric toothbrush into an ungrounded Thai powerpoint. How dumb is that?

 

The old style TV had the basic minimum cable news and entertainment channels. There's an in-room safe. There's an electric jug. I always pack my own travel jug but I used theirs and it was worked fine.

 

The small fridge was cluttered up with minibar beverages - no prices given. A number of times my previous hotel tried charging me for items I hadn't taken so finally I made them empty the minibar whenever I stayed there. As an experiment, I didn't do this with Winner Inn. When I checked out they didn't try to charge me for anything. Well done, Winner Inn.

 

The air con could only generate a trickle of warm air and a constant rattling noise. At times it was cooler in the street than in my room. The room was at the back of the building and was quiet. There was karaoke noise until 5am some days but no big deal.

 

The reception staff at Winner Inn are pleasant and eager to help but have poor English. Their only comment when I complained about the wi-fi was "Try later". I gave them one bundle of laundry. It sat on the counter from 9.30am until 2.30pm where anyone could take it. It reappeared back on the counter the following evening with an incorrect room number on it. Poor security and the laundry came back only in acceptable condition. When I wanted to put in another laundry on January 1st, I was told "Laundry close. Go another shop". I did. I went to the laundry shop I normally use on Soi 10. Speedy service and beautiful smelling cleaning and ironing. The Winner Inn Reception chick did organise a taxi to the airport for 2am without any stuff ups.

 

Winner Inn was only $353.34 for 14 nights of high season. You get what you pay for and I shouldn't have expected it to be better. It was my mistake - I tried to save money, and the air con, the mildew smell, the lack of wi-fi, spoiled my trip somewhat. I've learned my lesson - for my March trip, I've booked into a much more pricey place.

Crap then?

:Think1:

[THAJEC]

In my country some people say : " I do not want discount gratis"! Sometimes is not good be thrifty so much. I can say "gold medium way"!

[benny31]

Good loom