Mr Kai and Mr Katai - Office & Restaurant Managers

Sala Don Khone is efficiently managed by Mr Kai and Mr Katai who aim to make your stay as comfortable and as hassle free as possible. Both have excellent spoken English and share the management of both the hotel and the restaurant. Both their families and the family of Mr Luesak, the owner, live at Sala Don Khone giving the business a family-feel.

Both gentlemen have strived for success, teaching themselves English over a number of years, working their way up through the hotel business. The challenges they have both faced over the years have not been forgotten and now they ensure that staff receive a high level of training and professional development. New staff members are sent for training at a sister hotel, Sala Prabang, in Luang Prabang. The transfer of skills empowers the staff giving them more employment opportunities so that some will go on to repeat Kai and Katai’s successes in the future.

The owners and management pride themselves on fair treatment of their local staff. Living in a rural community, many staff members have family responsibilities and are needed to assist with the annual rice harvesting season. By providing flexible working conditions, Sala Don Khone has ensured that traditional village life can go on whilst enabling local people to gain new skills. 

Sala Don Khone: Caring for the Destination

The owners of Sala Don Khone are fair employers by ensuring staff is trained and ongoing employment is enhanced, enjoyable and flexible. Key staff is initially sent to Luang Prabang to receive training as they shadow experienced staff at the sister hotel Sala Prabang. This effective means of skills transfer and training means staff have more employment opportunity and the standards are the same throughout these properties.

Owners and management are flexible and accommodating with all staff in understanding village life on Don Khone Island and the responsibilities that come with living in a rural community and having strong family ties. Many members of staff are required to return to their homes throughout the rice harvesting season to help with family work and the harvest itself. This is an important tradition and way of live in Si Pan Don. Management of Sala Don Khone understand this and allow staff to return home during these months ensuring their jobs will still be available after the harvesting season.

Sala Don Khone, together with other businesses on Don Khone have helped to rebuild the local primary school which was in a state of disrepair. Donations have also been given to the local temples and villages on a yearly basis. Sala Don Khone has also previously hosted local festivals which in previous years, these traditional Lao ceremonies have gone unaccounted for due to lack of funds and knowledge. For example, after many distressful complaints about the lack of rain in the area, Sala Don Khone organised a ‘Rocket Festival'. These festivals have been used throughout Laos at the end of the dry season where people fire rockets into the clouds to induce much needed rain. This festival, the first of many on Don Khone, not only brought the community together, but also brought rain!

Sala Don Khone is also home to a gibbon. The owner of Sala Don Khone, Mr Luesak was working on an outlying Island in Si Pan Don when he noticed some young children with a baby gibbon. Curious as to their intentions, Mr Luesak found out the fate of the gibbon was to be a meal for the children's family. Instead, Mr Luesak bought the gibbon from the children and hand raised it at Sala Don Khone. So young, the gibbon needed constant care and was fed through a bottle for the first few weeks. The two are now inseparable and although the cheeky primate spends her time in a spacious cage showing off to guests, she used to have the pleasure of living freely on the property. Her cheeky nature, however, saw her break into staff quarters and guest rooms and steal all the toothbrushes she could find! From this point in time, the gibbon was built a cage to stay, but still today, spends her nights asleep in Mr Luesak's room.

This website is operated by www.champasak-hotels.com - an official booking partner of Sala Done Khone.