Homestay Song Ngư — Hotel in Cần Thơ

From our 3 weeks fabulous stay in Vietnam, our stay there was the only negative part of our trip:

1. dirty, improper room,
2. terrible floating market tour,
3. food poisoning and
4. arrogant and rude manager!
5. When we entered our room we were shocked! It was in front of the scooters' parking, with no garden view (as the other rooms), very dirty with spider webs, rust at all metal parts in the bathroom, dirt on the fan and the most dirty toilet cover I had ever seen in an accommodation (actually it was clean on top, but had all kinds of remains (...) at the bottom part of the plastic cover and the porselain). The rooms intended for guests had nothing to do with our room. Obviously they were overbooked and instead of declining our reservation they gave us a room not intended for guests. They didn't even bother setting the mosquito net right. Even the glass (!) door didn't close properly with a key, but only with a lock, which left a big gap at the door frame, allowing for insects to penetrate.
6. We made the mistake to trust the reviews and book the floating market tour with them. Although we had prebooked a private tour with English-speaking guide, they gave us a facilitator (cause he cannot be called a guide) that could not articulate proper phrases in English (he couldn't even understand the question "how far is the market?") and could explain nothing during the "tour". I was obliged to follow the homestay's shared group's guide, in order to receive some information during our visits. But during the boat ride this inexperienced facilitator with limited knowledge of English could not offer any assistance whatsoever. Although they admitted at the honemstay that they had never collaborated before with this inadequate person, they just offered a ridiculous discount, instead of admitting their mistake and not accepting money for the worst tour I've had in my life!
7. We were very thrilled with a delicious homestay dinner we had at our first night, but we both paid the price the next day (the same as two more guests of the homestay who were also sick the next day) with food poisoning. My husband was vomiting, had diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps during the whole day (despite the pills we had for food poisoning) and I was inquiring about the hospital and health facilities at the area, getting ready to take him there. I was also sick, but my sumproms were less alarming. When we openly accused them of food poisoning, the Belgian man was ironic saying that if we had food poisoning we would be at the hospital!! Mind that 4 people in total fell really sick after having had dinner there the previous night... As we sat at the breakfast area the next morning (without eating of course), we witnessed the food (bread, cake and fruits) being left unattended and without any cover for all the time that breakfast was offered at an open air veranda, showing their hygiene standards...
8. When we complained about the room the Belgian manager was ironic, saying we should have booked in a resort instead. From all my travels all around the world, NEVER have I had such a negative experience on all aspects! We were so mislead by the reviews and we literally lost 2 days of our otherwise amazing...

Choose here following recommendation. Stayed three nights in total as part of our holiday in Vietnam.

Positives: Location was magical. Felt like an oasis. Well considered and thoughtful design for a home stay. Food was very good and slightly more pricey than outside there, but not many places to eat outside of there. Staff were very friendly and helpful except for Mathias. Cookery class was good, and I got recipes afterwards from Cindy.

Negatives: Cleaning was random. It made me think of Fawlty Towers. Our room was not cleaned one day at all. Despite leaving a sign on the door, asking Mathias twice, no success. Mathias told us he asked his wife and she told him the 'cleaning team' finished at 4pm. This was despite the sign on the door to clean the room from 2pm. So it was too late to clean our room. I tried to request the bin to be emptied due to the contents of it but Mathias offered for the room to be cleaned the following day when we were leaving. Not much help to us. My concern is the nature of the contents of it and the outside temperatures. There were a number of areas of mould in the room which concerned me in terms of sleeping in a room with this level of damp overnight. There were also trailing cables in the room which concerned me in terms of safety. The breakfast was poor with limited variety (see photo). Our guide book commented how good the breakfast was but this was not what we found. Mathias seemed only interested in promoting the tours, or doing check in or checking out which he diligently did. For his part he had limited attention to anything else. It is a shame because this could be a gem. Unfortunately, he let's the team down. From what I could see he thought he was above the team hence my comparison to...

The Homestay is situated at a great location overlooking the river. We were going to stay for three night but left a day earlier because of severe mould in the room and a smell from it. The first day we were giving room number one which had a lot of mould in one of the corners. Cindy was really nice and did what she could to change our room and we got room number 5 where we couldn’t see or smell any mould, however it was right next to the restaurant where there was talk and music til midnight and at 5am people gathered there again. Since we didn’t get much sleep we changed room again this time to the family room number 13. This room however, was affected by mould as well and we could smell it, and feel it in our throats the next morning. We therefore left a day before planned which was a shame, since we had really looked forward to our stay. The food was good, but double the price of what we have paid other places in Vietnam and it took an hour to prepare a simple dish the first day and an hour and a half the next day. The Homestay is placed beautifully and Cindy was really nice and helpful, however, I wouldn’t stay there again, before they have solved their...