Awaken Danang Hotel — Hotel in Đà Nẵng

I have thought long and hard about how harshly I ought to judge the Awaken Hotel Danang. It’s obviously not a Four Seasons or a Mandarin Oriental. But because this hotel expressly markets and advertises itself as a 5-star hotel, I believe it is only fair to judge it against other 5-star hotels. This is the starting point for my following comments.

Let’s start with what’s good. The location is very convenient and just across the road from the beach. The design and layout of the hotel is modern, easy to navigate, and efficient. The rooms are well designed, bright, clean, and spacious. Housekeeping did very good work. The check-in process went smoothly. The lobby staff (doormen and bellboys) were attentive, friendly, and helpful; they were quick to assist with luggage and help dispose of trash when I couldn’t find the rubbish bin. All in all, you do get a lot of “hotel” for your money.

Next, the painfully mediocre. The hotel breakfast had a very limited in selection and, whilst still edible, was far from enjoyable. The bathroom in the lobby smelled faintly of urine and could have been better maintained. The lobby was loud, rowdy, and uncomfortably hot – the air conditioning was not always turned on even when the temperatures outside reached 30+ degrees Celsius. The shower amenities were frustrating to use – the shampoo and body wash dispensers required dozens of pumps, there was no towel rack beside sink, water from the shower got everywhere due to the lack of shower curtain or any kind of screen, and the hairdryer broke on the first use. These issues caused frustration and annoyance, but it definitely wasn’t the end of the world.

And that finally leads me to those issues which are, in hotel terms, unacceptably bad. First, the soundproofing is atrocious. There is no carpet or noise screening whatsoever in the entire hotel, and any echo of footsteps or whisper of conversation in the corridor could be heard in all the rooms (which made for a very frustrating sleeping experience). The windows are not double-glazed, and the thumping bass of beach club music could be heard even up on the 18th floor (although admittedly it was quite faint). Second, interactions with the staff proved extremely disappointing. On one occasion, the staff / chef in charge of the pho bar at breakfast seemed not to care that an orderly line had formed and, instead, catered and served pho to multiple people who had blatantly cut the line. On another occasion, again at breakfast, a staff had knocked another guest’s chopsticks onto the floor … and then simply picked them up and put them back on the table as if nothing happened. On a third occasion, during checkout, I was accused of having smoked in the room and threated with a VND 3,000,000 fine when, in reality, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. As a result, the checkout process dragged on for 30+ minutes and required a visit back up to the room, together with the reception staff, to argue my case that nobody had smoked in the room.

Truth be told, this isn’t a bad hotel by any means. It was actually quite a comfortable stay. If only it had advertised itself as a 3-star or 4-star hotel, I would be willing to overlook many of these issues (except, perhaps, the more egregious ones) and rate them more positively. But, in this current state, it’s a terrible...

First of all, I would like to tell you that this is my first review of a hotel, as I stayed there for four nights. I did not want to write this comment, but they forced me to do so based on their poor treatment of me. I faced many problems with them, starting with checking in to the hotel, which took a long time. They also told me that they only had two rooms available, and I was surprised after that that there were many rooms available on many floors, because they changed my room from the 12th floor to the 14th floor, and then finally to the 16th floor, which is fine, and I had no problem with that. I also told them twice to put my bags inside the room because I went to have lunch since the room was not ready and when I returned I was surprised that the bags were still at the reception. The situation was okay until here. But on the third day my daughter got sick and vomited on the bed and I told them directly to clean before it became difficult to clean, but they did not come until about 3 or 4 hours later. In addition, after cleaning the room, they asked me for the cleaning fee, which is more than twice the price of the room, knowing that I told them that my daughter was sick and that this was not misuse or tampering with the room, and they were aware of that, but unfortunately they did not respond to me, knowing that I sat with the hotel manager and explained the situation completely to him. I know very well that any other hotel in the world will not ask the guest for cleaning fees for such circumstances beyond their control. I will attach a picture of the amount I paid for cleaning, which is completely illogical. In addition, before I checked out of the hotel, they sent one of the workers to check the room and its contents as if I was there, and this is a very bad treatment. Frankly, the hotel is beautiful, its facilities are beautiful, and its location is excellent, but it is a very bad experience and I do not advise anyone to deal with them at all because it seems that they lack professionalism and the ability to deal with visitors in a proper manner.

Here below I will respond to your comment on my comment The response they wrote to my comment is incorrect and unfair. I hope that the person who responds to the comments will be fair and have high morals and not resort to these devious methods Please be accurate and honest. I went directly to the hotel receptionist and told her that we needed to clean the room immediately and that it was not delayed as you claim in your response. This was at 11 am and I am sure of what I said. The cleaning workers cleaned the room hours later.

I am absolutely sure of what I am saying and I have no motives for writing this comment other than to show the injustice that...

A newly built hotel, modern amenities but with a lot of misses. We were in an ocean view family suite, which comprises of two connecting rooms. They seem to have a known problem with their air conditioning in one out of the two rooms. The AC would take more than 15 mins to cool down. The AC wasn’t configured to maintain a minimum temperature. When we entered the room it was 29 degrees c, we had to wait more than 20 mins in the hot room for it to cool down. I complained re the same - reply received was yes there is an issue, room will take time to cool, but all the family rooms are like this only, so no use changing the room. God forbid if you remove the curtrains during the day time when the sun is shining, your room will heat up so much that it will take hours to recover. To make matters worse house keeping takes out the key and switches of the AC when they clean the room, so once you come back from a day long tour in the hot weather, you are yet again greeted by a hot room.

The AC in the lobby seems to be always in energy saver mode, hardly works. The area where the bar is, AC works, however the lobby area where guest can sit, is without AC. Probably they don’t want people to hang around in their lobby! I don’t understand how is this cost cutting helping them, if anything it is damaging the repute in the long run. No hooks in one of the bathroom, the second bathroom had just one hook. The pool bar menu barely has any snack options, very limited. The check out process is really slow, they make you sit for 15-20mins while they thoroughly check the rooom. Be careful, they will charge if you take away the laundry bag kept in the room. I was charged 50,000 VND for a missing laundry bag!!! It is not the amount but the attitude towards hospitality. I have been using multiple brands of hotel across different star levels for leisure and business travel, however I have never been charged for a Lundry bag. I am so used to packing away my wet swimming trunks or shoes in the laundry bag, but I have never paid for it.

The positives Big spacious rooms with a huge smart tv, very neat and clean, great views of the ocean. The staff are mostly very efficient, attentive and courteous. The swimming pool is great, covered, so the water is always cold, lots of of fun for kids and adults. Spa services utilised...