Hop Inn Phetchabun — Clean Rooms and Free Parking in Town, a Walk from Wat Mahathat
If you're driving north toward Khao Kho or Phu Thap Boek and want a clean, cheap place to stop for the night in Phetchabun town — soft beds, free parking, and no charge for a pool or breakfast buffet you won't use — Hop Inn Phetchabun is the name budget travellers keep coming back to. Hop Inn is the budget chain run by Thailand's Erawan Group, with dozens of branches across the country: new, simple rooms, flat pricing, and the basics done well. The Phetchabun branch is a blue-and-white block on Samakkhichai Road in the Nai Mueang sub-district, a few minutes' walk from Wat Mahathat and the City Pillar Shrine, and a short drive from Big C and Lotus's. Worth saying up front: there's no pool, no gym, and no breakfast buffet here — accept that, and the value is very high.
Hop Inn is the budget brand under Thailand's Erawan Group, running since 2014 with dozens of branches nationwide. The chain concept is identical everywhere: new, simple, clean rooms at flat rates, with the things many travellers pay for and never use stripped out — no pool, no gym, no breakfast buffet. The Phetchabun branch sits on Samakkhichai Road in Nai Mueang, Mueang Phetchabun, a blue-and-white block with the HOP INN sign and the Erawan elephant logo visible from a distance. There are 61 rooms in total, all Standard, in both large-bed (Standard Double) and twin-bed (Standard Twin) layouts. Every room has air-conditioning, a flat-screen TV, a long window desk, and an en-suite bathroom, and some rooms include a small fridge.
What guests mention again and again isn't anything luxurious — it's how clean the rooms are and how comfortable the beds feel. Floors are glossy tile, walls are white, the linens are crisp and white, the headboard carries the brand's curved blue graphic, and a bright red plastic chair is the standing detail in every room, with blue-painted doors against the white. Plenty of reviewers say the room is newer and the bed softer than the price suggests, and the room is quiet enough for a full night's sleep. The long desk by the window makes it work for both holidaymakers and people in town for work, and some upper-floor rooms catch a distant line of the Phetchabun hills. Guests consistently say they got a cleaner room than the rate led them to expect — and cleanliness scores almost full marks on Trip.com to match.
A few hundred baht and the room was as clean as somewhere charging much more — soft bed, cold air-con that ran all night, generous free parking on-site so there was no hunting for a space, an easy walk out the door to Wat Mahathat, a neighbourhood full of places to eat without needing the car, and free hot coffee at the lobby machine in the morning before the drive up to Khao Kho while the road was still quiet and the mist was still sitting on the hills. What guests at Hop Inn Phetchabun keep saying on Trip.com and Agoda, again and again, is that the room is newer and cleaner than the price led them to expect, the staff are friendly and helpful with local directions, and the central location means everything they actually needed was on foot.
Location is the main reason people pick this one. The hotel is in central Phetchabun, about 330 metres on foot from Wat Mahathat, the town's old riverside temple, and close to the City Pillar Shrine, the old city wall line, Mueang Phetchabun Park, and the Nakhonban Phetchabun Cultural Hall — an easy old-town wander in the evening. Restaurants, cafés, and convenience stores ring the area, while the bigger stores — Big C, Lotus's, Makro, and Topland — are a few minutes by car. The thing that gives this branch its edge is that it works as a town-centre base before heading up to Khao Kho, Phu Thap Boek, or Wat Pha Sorn Kaew. The drive up to Khao Kho is around an hour, and mountain-bound travellers often sleep in town the first night and make the climb early the next morning.
Service is another area guests praise. The front desk is open 24 hours, and the lobby is a bright room with the blue HOP INN logo wall and a plain white check-in counter. Several reviewers describe the staff as friendly and helpful, especially with local food tips and directions up the mountain. There's complimentary hot coffee and tea from the lobby machine in the morning to grab before you set off. One thing to know: Hop Inn is strict about asking for ID at check-in, so have your passport or ID card ready to keep things quick at the desk. The chain also has a policy of accepting guests aged 18 and over only, so families travelling with children should check the terms before booking.
The honest caveats before you book — Hop Inn has no breakfast buffet; the only morning offering is the free hot drinks. If a proper breakfast matters to you, this isn't it, though the town-centre setting means a morning meal or a café is an easy walk away. There's also no pool and no gym, as the budget format goes. One more thing to know: the hotel is on a main road and near a nightlife venue, so street-facing rooms can catch some traffic or outside noise on weekend nights — ask for a higher floor or an inner-facing room for a quieter stay. Anyone after smart shared facilities should look at other hotels in town alongside this one.
The overall score sits at 9.6/10 from 68 reviews on Trip.com, which is very high for a budget hotel. The standout category scores are cleanliness (around 9.9), location (around 9.7), and service (around 9.6), and TripAdvisor rates it around 4.5/5. Guests agree on the strengths: new, clean rooms, soft beds, good staff, generous parking, and value for money. The complaints that come up are the lack of a real breakfast and rooms that are plain with no frills. Most reviewers conclude that for the price there's very little to fault.
On price, Hop Inn Phetchabun starts at about ฿552/night in normal periods for a Standard room — very cheap given how clean and new the rooms are. Real booked rates mostly land in the ฿552–820 range depending on the date. The chain's selling point is that pricing stays fairly flat rather than swinging hard like other hotels. The bottom line: this works best for mountain-bound road trippers who want a town-centre night before Khao Kho and Phu Thap Boek, people in town for work, and budget travellers who want a light price. Rooms in town fill fast over the cool-season peak (November–January) when crowds head up the mountains, so book ahead and compare a few platforms before you commit.
Summary from Booking & Agoda
- ✓ Rooms very clean, beds more comfortable than the price
- ✓ Central location, walk to Wat Mahathat and the old town
- ✓ Generous free on-site parking, handy for self-drivers
- ✓ Friendly front-desk staff, check-in open 24 hours
- ! No breakfast buffet (only free coffee and tea)
- ! No pool and no gym
- ! On a main road — street-facing rooms can be noisy
- ✓ Cheap, new rooms, very good value
- ✓ Quiet rooms, easy to sleep, cold air-con
- ✓ A good town base before the climb to Khao Kho and Phu Thap Boek
- ✓ Free morning coffee to grab before setting off
- ! Few shared facilities, in line with the budget format
- ! Rooms fill fast in the cool season — book ahead
- ! Guests aged 18+ only — check before bringing children
- 💡If you're heading up to Khao Kho or Phu Thap Boek — this hotel is in Phetchabun town, about an hour's drive below Khao Kho → great as a first-night base in town before an early climb, but for a night on the mountain itself look at properties in the Khao Kho area instead
- 💡If breakfast matters — there's only free morning coffee and tea here, no buffet → the central setting means a morning meal or a café is an easy walk away
- 💡If you want the quietest room — the hotel is on a main road and near a nightlife venue → request a higher floor or an inner-facing room when booking for a quieter night, especially on weekends