Max Boutique Hotel — Hotel in Cao Bằng City

Booked on Agoda and the pictures from the website differed from the actual rooms we checked in. I immediately went to the front desk and they told me that it was not their responsibility that online photos differed from the room. They insisted that it was Agoda's responsibility (but the hotel is responsible for their content listing). I asked them for a refund and cancellation on the spot and they said no. For the price I paid, the current room was not worth it. To upgrade to the actual room in the photos, I needed to pay more so I left the hotel and booked a different spot with a better rate and customer service. I left a negative review on Agoda and they proceeded to finally "cancel" my booking a month later to get rid of the negative review. Poor customer service and staff was extremely unhelpful in resolving this issue. Please do not book with Max Boutique on Agoda due to their strict cancellation policy (100% no refund/cancellation) depending on the option, this hotel will not accommodate if the photos and actual room are mismatched. Whatever room you walk in/check into is the room you get. Hopefully my bank will investigate further and approve of my chargeback dispute as it looks like the hotel denied any mention of my cancellation request and only once after they reported the no cancellation to the bank, they then proceeded to cancel my booking to remove the negative review. Very poorly run hotel, please book elsewhere during your stay in Cao Bang, thank you.

Photos #1-4: shows "superior room" the one I booked. Photo #5: the room I received with 100% no...

The bus dropped me off in Cao Bao early in the morning, it was probably 5am. Bye the time I got to max it was probably 5:30. I knew check in wasn’t til 2pm. I went in and asked the gentleman if I could leave my bag until I could check in. They said no problem. I knew I had some time to kill so I went for a walk around Cao Bao. I walked around for about 4-5 hours. I got back to the hotel like 10:30 ish. I couldn’t walk anymore it was so hot and humid out. They checked me in at 11 am. 3 hours early! Which was awesome. The staff was fantastic, the room was good as well, there was 2 things that was an issue in the room. First there was a gap between the windows like 1 inch that you couldn’t close. It wasn’t a huge deal, there’s a shade there which I just kept close. Plus the AC u can just turn on and it got comfortable in there. The other was the fridge in the room. It did not work, i thought maybe since it was turned all they way to zero setting, and the humidity in the air it just didn’t feel cold. So I cranked that baby to 7. Took a nap, opened it. And it was still warm. I pulled the fridge, it was plugged in. I didn’t bother telling the front desk. They were already so nice checking me in 3...

Located on the edge of the old quarters, Max is right next to where it's all happening. Restaurants, coffee cafes, fruit stalls, high end eateries are all within easy reach and never more than 5 minutes walking away.||||Rooms are of a reasonable size, clean and reasonably well equipped. There is some form of rudimentary cleaning service daily during our 3-night stay, but then this isn't a 5* luxury hotel, nor does it pretend that it is.||||Check-in staff were friendly, but we found out to our peril that only one spoke sufficiently good English to help us out without being misled. We were told by the check-in staff that buffet breakfast was served from 630am to 8am so we decided not to bother as we wanted to have a little of a lie in. In fact, times were from 6am to 10am, so we out out on 3 mornings of breakfast and coffee.||||Overall, we did enjoy our stay. Max is currently the top hotel in Cao Bang city, but their lead is not going to...