Why I Started Crash Course Hotels — And Why You Should Care
Most hotel review channels on YouTube exist because someone got a free stay. Mine exists because I couldn’t find the information I actually needed when I was planning my own trip.
The Problem I Was Trying to Solve
For years before I started slow traveling Southeast Asia, I was researching it. Not casually browsing — seriously planning. I wanted to know what different areas of these cities actually felt like to live in, not just visit. I wanted to know what hotels cost at different price points, what the rooms were really like beyond the carefully staged photography, and most importantly — how walkable the location was.
That last point mattered more than almost anything else. I wasn’t planning to rent a car or a moped. I use Grab regularly and it’s a great service, but relying on it for every trip adds up fast over a long stay. I needed to know: can I walk to a grocery store? Is there a coffee shop nearby? How far is the nearest transit station? How long does it actually take on foot?
I couldn’t find a resource that answered those questions consistently and honestly across a range of properties. So I decided to build one.
The Slow Travel Angle
Crash Course Hotels isn’t a travel channel in the traditional sense. I am not passing through a city for 48 hours and giving you a highlight reel. I stay long enough in each property to give you a genuine assessment — what it’s like to actually live there for a few days, not just check in and check out.
There is also a longer game at play. I eventually plan to settle somewhere in Southeast Asia for an extended period. Before I commit to any one area, I want to experience different neighborhoods across these cities firsthand. Staying in different hotels across Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and beyond gives me exactly that — a ground-level view of what each area is actually like to live in day to day.
Every review I publish is part of that research. And I share it because if I needed this information, other people do too.
No Free Stays. No Agenda.
Every hotel on this site was paid for out of my own pocket. No sponsored stays. No PR packages. No affiliate arrangements that influence the verdict. What you read here and watch on YouTube is my honest assessment — nothing more, nothing less.
I have stayed in budget properties and five star properties and everything in between. I review them all the same way.
The Format
Each hotel gets a full video review on the Crash Course Hotels YouTube channel — typically 10 to 20 minutes covering the room, amenities, location and everything you would want to see before booking. The written review on this site gives you the structured facts alongside the embedded video so you have everything in one place.
There are no final scores or ratings here. No thumbs up or thumbs down. I will tell you what the pool looks like, how far the nearest transit station is, and what the breakfast is actually like — but whether that combination works for you depends on what you are looking for. That is a call only you can make. My job is to give you the information to make it.
Short clips from each property also appear on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts for anyone who wants the highlights without the full walkthrough.
What’s Coming
The catalogue is growing. There are currently reviews live covering properties across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam — with more being added regularly. The goal is to build the most honest and useful independent hotel review resource for anyone planning a trip to Southeast Asia and beyond.
No fluff. Just the facts.
If you want to follow the journey beyond the hotel rooms, the slow travel experience itself — the cities, the streets, the food and what it actually looks like to live this way — is documented on my other channel, Crash Course Travel. The hotels are where I sleep. The travel channel is everything in between.