Đà Lạt Homestays with a Fireplace: Wood, Gas or Electric

Yes, some Đà Lạt homestays have a fireplace in the room, but “fireplace” on a listing can mean a real wood stove behind glass, a gas fire, or an electric heater with a picture of flames. Before you pay a deposit, ask six things: what kind it is, who lights it and until when, what happens with smoke and smell, whether the wood costs extra, how close children and pets may sit, and whether it heats the room or the whole house. At Nhà Sương three rooms have a wood stove behind glass, Lò Sưởi (Fireside), Phòng Sương (Mist Suite) and Nhà Vườn (Garden House), and there is one more in the lounge. I light them from 18:00 to 22:00, one basket of wood a night, included in the rate.

Updated 6 October 2026.

I am Vinh, and lighting the stoves is my job. Every evening at 18:00 I do a round: the lounge first, then the three stove rooms. These are the questions guests ask me at the door.

How cold it actually gets

December and January nights in Đà Lạt drop to 10°C to 12°C, and the monthly average stays below 23°C all year, so even outside winter the nights are cool enough for an extra blanket. If you live in Ho Chi Minh City, that is a bigger change than it sounds. A timber house also holds heat less well than a sealed concrete one, so “how is the room heated” is a fair question before you book, especially if you travel with someone who feels the cold or with small children.

1. What kind of fire

An electric unit has no smoke and you control it yourself, which suits people who dislike wood smoke. A wood stove needs someone to look after it. Neither is better in every way; what matters is that the listing says which one you get. Ask the host for a photo of the stove burning, taken in the room you are booking, not in the lobby.

We only have wood stoves, behind glass doors, in three rooms: Lò Sưởi (Fireside), Phòng Sương (Mist Suite) and Nhà Vườn (Garden House), plus the one in the lounge.

2. Who lights it, and until when

Some hosts light the fire themselves at dusk (a Mytour article describes Dechiu homestay, where the host lights a small fireplace as it gets dark). Some leave it to you. Ask, because a stove nobody lights is just furniture.

At our house:

• Only staff light the stoves. Guests do not add wood.
• I light them at 18:00 and keep them going until 22:00. After 22:00 I add nothing more; the fire dies down and the stove body stays warm for a while.
• Why 22:00: it is the start of our quiet hours (22:00 to 07:00), and after that nobody is at the front desk. We do not leave a fire that nobody is watching.
• A fire before 18:00 on a rainy afternoon is something we do not offer yet. The lounge is open 07:00 to 22:00 if you want to sit there until it is lit.

3. Smoke, smell and wood

Behind glass means the stove door stays shut while it burns and the smoke goes out through the flue. You notice a smell of wood for a few minutes when I open the door to add more. The wood is dry, split small and stacked under the eaves; wet wood is what fills a room with smoke.

One basket of wood a night is included in the room rate. If you are sensitive to smoke or have asthma, choose a room without a stove; point 6 covers how those rooms stay warm.

4. Children and pets

The glass gets hot. We could not find official fire-safety guidance on wood stoves in bedrooms to cite here, so what follows is our own house rule, not a regulation:

• Small children do not sit or play within an adult’s arm span (about 1 m) of the glass while the fire is burning.
• Nothing is dried on the stove or against the glass: no socks, no towels.
• Pets (only the Garden House takes them, under 10 kg) are not left alone in the room while the fire is lit.
• If you bring small children, tell us, and I will show the whole family what not to touch.

For families, the Garden House is the easiest: the stove is in the living room, the two bedrooms are separate, and the children sleep away from it.

5. It warms the room, not the house

This is what I repeat most. A wood stove warms the room it stands in. The bathroom, the corridor and the steps down to the lounge are at Đà Lạt night temperature. In the Garden House the stove is in the living room, so the bedrooms warm up more slowly and less. Bring a jacket for the walk to breakfast at 07:30: by then the stove has been out since the night before.

6. Rooms without a stove

Our other five rooms have no stove. Thông Đôi (Twin Pine) has electric blankets on both beds. Lan, who does housekeeping, washes and warms the bedding before guests come back to their room. Thông Nhỏ (Little Pine) is on the ground floor beside the lounge, 12 steps away, and the lounge stove is lit 18:00 to 22:00, so you can spend the evening there. If the cold worries you but a stove room is over budget, ask any host whether they have electric blankets and whether anyone warms the bed.

Rates for the three stove rooms

Nhà Sương is a homestay that sells rooms, so these are our own rates, and we are biased towards the stove rooms; read with that in mind. Per night, including VAT, service charge and breakfast for two:

Peak means nights from 20 December to 28 February, except public holidays and Tết (Lunar New Year), which is also when the coldest nights fall. Every season is on the rates page. Steps from the lounge: Fireside 20, Garden House 16, Mist Suite 30, plus 46 stone steps from the gate to the lounge.

An example

Mai Anh feels the cold, so Bảo booked the Fireside room for their first wedding anniversary: Friday 13 March to Sunday 15 March 2026, two regular-season nights. His first question to Ngân at the front desk was whether the fire was real, who lit it and until when. The room came to 1,940,000 VND x 2 nights = 3,880,000 VND; a 30% deposit of 1,164,000 VND once we confirmed, and 2,716,000 VND paid on arrival.

An illustrative story for a demo site; figures are made up.

To try your own dates, pick dates for the Fireside room: the page shows the total, the deposit and the minimum nights before you send a request.

The other five questions

A fire is one of six questions worth asking any homestay before you pay a deposit: the real view, the kitchen, the fire, the steps, the deposit and cancellation, and getting there. Choosing a Đà Lạt homestay goes through all six, and the rest of the series is under where to stay.

Sources

• Mytour (EN), Discover cozy and charming wooden homestays in Đà Lạt, read 4 October 2026: Dechiu homestay has a small fireplace that the host lights at dusk.
• Wikipedia (Vietnamese), Đà Lạt, read 4 October 2026 (secondary source): monthly average below 23°C, December and January nights at 10°C to 12°C.