The Elephant Crossing Hotel
Small hotel. All the rooms have a view of the river, with a restaurant right next to the river. Good selection of food and beer, free wifi.
Tony Guesthouse
Friendly family-run guesthouse. Large, clean and recently renovated rooms, probably one of the best value in town. Laundry service available and free wifi.
Villa Vang Vieng Riverside
Located directly at the river, with a great view. Buildings and rooms are designed in Lao style. Fast free wifi.
Lucky Guest House
Great view over the mountains from the huts. Cheap huts on the Island. Friendly local family.
Central Backpackers
In the centre of Vang Vieng and a 2 min walk away from the tubing starting point. It has clean, cheap and safe rooms doubles, twins, triples & dorms with safety lockers. Good food available, friendly English speaking staff and big chill-out area with foosball table, games of dart, drinking related activities, water pipes shisha, hookahs, nargila and regular screening of TV shows & live sports. Free wifi. Rooms from 30.000 kip
Le Jardin Organique
Away from the party in a nice location with lovely looking rooms. Hot water doesn't get hot and some find the owners are difficult to deal with.
Island bar
Great view over the mountains from the restaurant. Midrange. Grumpy owner.
There are now a couple of halfway-decent midrange "hotels" and attempts at boutique style residences.
Generally though, double rooms go for US$6-15, make sure you see the room and bathroom! before paying. More local, low-key which is pretty low-key in Vang Vieng to start with places are by the market and more shiny set ups are on the main road. The party crowd tend to advocate choosing a bungalow on the island, but expect it to be quite noisy if you want to sleep during the night.
Most guesthouses have large TV-viewing areas, practically coated in the Southeast Asia signature triangular cushions, where they serve food. But be forewarned - you'll be hard pressed to find a place screening something other than the US sitcoms "Friends" and "Family Guy".
The Famous Spicy Laos Hostels is no more. Due to problems with ownership and corruption backpackers are advised to stay away from Spicy Laos VV and LPB Hostels. Spicy Thai is still ultra successful and legendary as always
Sengdeuan Guest House
All rooms come with towels, soap, bottled water & toilet paper included. The private pool in the garden has water in it from Feb-Nov. A great place to learn about the history of the area and the Hmong people.