On a Visa run from Chiang Mai. I stayed the first night at the Sousaly GH. They must have had some shills writing favorable reviews. They will answer your e-mails, but the person who writes the e-mails is not the manager. He showed me a room upstairs for $15 which was pretty nice, but after I paid the rent I discovered that he had rented me a room downstairs, bait and switch.The bed was so saggy I could hardly sleep in it. The room faces the street and the door is not secure. He was in my room 15min after I left and went through my stuff. Fortuneately I didn't leave anything in the room worth taking, just clothes. He was a total a$$whole. They lock the doors at 11pm and don't open them until 7am. I'm an early riser, so had to climb over the gate at 6am to get coffee. I walked around and found another guest house, the Lao Youth Inn for $11 a night. It was clean, quiet, and the bed was great...but the only thing in the room was a bed. Plus factor was a nice view and a hot shower. The GH is fairly new. The lady that owns the place has another place on the same block, old and run down.
The manager, Niki is her sister and she is very nice. I had some laughs with the staff women who gather in the lounge every night to watch soaps on TV. The girls were three very young ones and three about in their 30's. My Thai-Lao is not that good but they were commenting on the program during the show. It was the nightly comedy show it seems.
If they put some furniture in the rooms, it would be a good deal as it was only 1/2 block to the river. We found a great place to eat in a hotel on Lane Zang about 3 blocks from the monument. $6 for all you can eat at lunch, great food.