Exactly, after originally booking ten rooms, then changing the booking to four rooms for three nights and the exchange of 15 different emails constantly changing the itinerary, all of which I happily and politely did, you arrived in the afternoon and left the next morning. Still, I was polite and nice and didn't charge you for the four rooms or the three nights, as the vast majority of guesthouses and hotels would have done, just the three rooms for the one night you stayed.

Yes, there are insects and other creatures in the SE Asian rainforest and I am unfortunately unable to control forest creatures just yet. How do you know it was a rat? Were you awake watching in the middle of the night? It was more likely a gecko...

All fans do work, they are free-standing floor fans and you just need to plug them in.

Yes, the WiFi was down due to a power surge blowing our wireless router a few days before you arrived and the local shops here do not sell wireless routers. The Internet was freely available in the office.

I don't recall you asking for a massage but, yes, the local woman who comes from the village next door to do the massage is sometimes unable to come at short notice since she needs a bit of warning. She is nearly always able to rearrange her daily duties to come the next day since it is a good source of income for her.

I have no idea what you expect me to do about the cleanliness of a 100-metre wide swollen river in the middle of the wet season, filter it? It is only mud anyway and we swim in it almost every day with no problems.

Considering you were here for a total of about 15 hours from the afternoon to the following morning, I have no idea how you can make such a judgement about me as "drinking night and day". Yes, I had a few beers in the evening, I do apologise.

Standard practice in Lao restaurants is that you call the waiter if you want something and the last thing I want is for guests to feel like they are being hassled into buying something, as they often are elsewhere in SE Asia, that's not the way we do things here. Whenever guests sit down, they get taken the menu and then left alone for 5-10 minutes to have a look through and then we come back and ask if they would like to order. I'm sorry I didn't come and serve you myself, I didn't think that was the manager's job.

As for the money you claim to have been stolen... A) If it definitely disappeared here, why did it take him three days to email me about it? I think it just as likely it was lost/stolen between here and Bangkok, in Bangkok itself or maybe before he even came here. B) Why was he carrying $1,000 in fresh dollar bills and C) why would anyone leave $1,000 in cash in their room anywhere in the world? Why not carry it on you, it's not exactly heavy. We also have a locked drawer where I can store valuables for guests as is explained in the Information Book in all the rooms.

We have NEVER had a problem with theft from inside people's rooms before and I have complete confidence in the honesty of my staff, it's one of the things I focus on most since I realise it is of utmost importance to guests as it is to myself when I go travelling. Yes, we have lost flip-flops from people's balconies before but I think that's a minor problem overall.

Overall, I just don't think this was the place for you. We are not an upmarket, 5-star gleaming-tap resort, we are an ecolodge in rural Laos which offers an insight into real rural Lao life and culture and that's exactly what most of our guests are looking for as you can see from the other reviews here. I'm sorry you did not like it, it's not for everyone.