Cheap Hotels in Asia, Problems to Expect and Avoid!

For cheap hotels in Asia it seems to be a standard practice that they will take you to the worst room they have first. This is not as dumb as it may sound as when the day gets longer if someone has taken the bad rooms, and then the hotels have a better chance of renting the good rooms at the last minute. Almost guaranteed, that if you reserve a room over the internet you are not going to get the best rooms, unless you are very specific with your room reservation. Most times you are not familiar with the hotel, so you need to do some research and see if previous guests have complained about a problem, then reserve accordingly.

Look for bugs, some cheap hotels don't do a good job of controlling pests like mosquitoes which at best will give you a bad night tossing and turning, a nightmare night would be contracting a tropical disease like dengue fever. When you are doing a walk through of the room check in the bathroom move the shower curtain, or the towels if they are hanging, if you get an airborne squadron of mosquitoes, it is not a good sign. If one room has them a good bet is they all will have them. You still might take the room and burn a mossy coil or get the hotel to spray the room then turn the air on, or have a fan blowing over you at night when you sleep in case any were missed. Make sure that they spray under the bed!

Check the windows that they are locked and that you can lock them. Look to see if there is access to the window from outside. I have seen it a few times where they hook your pants or small bags through the windows which can cause a pretty good hit if you have a wad in your pocket or they get your camera bag! Try to remember to keep things away from windows and out of sight, either in a closet or under the bed.

Turn on the air and check the lights & TV that there is not a problem; the cheap hotels & guesthouses often don't manage their maintenance well and the staff does the absolute minimum which means they are not telling the management what is not working correctly. Broken things might stay that way for a long time as many problems will not show up until after the guest is settled in and then is stuck with the decision to move to a different room or accommodation or to stay and put up with the inconvenience. It is always better to catch problems early rather than to be aggravated later.

By doing these simple things I have had many more good experiences in Asia than bad. I also find that a sense of humor and some patience will a long way. A cheap 2 star hotel should not be compared against a 5 star hotel, so lower your expectations laugh a little and you will travel longer and further for less money.