Delica Hotel — Hotel in Hà Nội

WE WERE ALMOST SCHEMED BY THIS HOTEL

I am aware of the hotel schemes in the Old Quarter area so I made sure to do my due diligence before booking. I found this hotel thru Arshie Larga (a Filipino influencer - I would assume that his post was not sponsored). He had good reviews although he did not stay the night.

Anyway, I booked an executive room hoping that I chose a reputable hotel. We arrived from Sapa at around 6ish in the morning and we went straight to Delica. We were greeted by Jerry and he was very friendly and engaging. I understand that early checkin starts at 12nn so we had plans to roam around until lunch and just leave our luggages at the hotel. Jerry asked for my whatsapp and said he will just reach out once our room was ready. Everything was great so far.

We were in the middle of a bus tour when I received multiple messages from Jerry that there was a problem with the room we booked and they will just move us to a different hotel. This raised a red flag to me. As seen on the screenshot, they were trying to “upgrade” us to Carillon Hotel, a “4-star” hotel.

I did check it on google maps and there were lots of 5 and 4 star reviews. The pictures were promising as well. But I don’t fully trust these ratings in general so I always check the lowest ratings. And boy was I surprised! When you check the 1 star reviews, almost everyone there were told the same story - problem in the heating, water pipes, a promise of upgrades - but when they arrived, the room they were assigned to was crappy, not half as good as to what they have paid for - clearly a scam.

So I tried to message them back that we will just wait for the standard check in time and we wouldn’t want to be moved to another hotel. The message did not come through so we decided to just go back and talk to them in person.

Jerry and another person was there and that guy was still trying to convince me to move. I told them, if there’s no room, then we will just cancel the booking and find somewhere else to stay. He then grab some board with a map printout telling me that its an upgrade and its in a good location (the nerve of that guy to think I did not look it up). I straight up told him that If he will still push for it, we will still cancel the booking since after looking it up, the hotel was crappy and it seems to me that its their modus.

That’s when he stopped and told me that they will just make a guest leave to accommodate us. Way to go in gaslighting a small Filipina girl. I told him I dont like that option as well so we better start the cancellation process. He just left and said Jerry will take care of it so no need to cancel. After storming out, Jerry stood up and said he would go with us upstairs since THE ROOM IS READY. What a bull!!

So… for the tourists out there, do you research, and if ever you find yourself in the same scheme, stand your ground while keeping your cool. (Don’t be rude because even if they are doing you wrong, you are still in a foreign land with a language you don’t understand). Don’t be afraid to cancel and find another hotel.

————

It doesn’t end there though.

Our whole stay, the staff were being too friendly for my liking. They keep on trying to have small talks which felt like they have an ulterior motive. (You can’t blame me after they tried to scam us.)

And ulterior motive they had! When we checked out, the attendant was again ultra friendly. Spewing random english words over and over again like thank you, treat as family. I didnt listen for the most part because I thought thats the end of it.

Of course it isn’t!

We were borderline forced to leave a 5star review in Agoda. He even tried to get my phone because “he would teach me how to do it”. I did not let him and said “I know what to do.” He didn’t leave my side and was lowkey forcing me with good reviews. I was so pissed but had to give in just for him to leave us alone.

Don’t book this hotel unless you will get their most expensive room or you will book directly. I would assume that if you are paying more, they wouldn’t dare do what...

I had a very negative experience staying in this hotel and am honestly shocked how it can have 4.8/5* with 1.2k reviews… it just doesn‘t add up at all. If you read through some of the reviews you quickly understand that the hotel apparently is demanding 5* reviews from their guests and that‘s how this hotel can have such an incredibly high rating - but don‘t let that fool you! The reviews are not a reflection of reality.

I had originally booked 4 nights in Delica Hotel but checked out early morning after my first night because i just had a horrible experience with my room.

I must say that the staff was very friendly and nice, sometimes it might‘ve been a bit too much and felt insincere, but still they were friendly and cancelled my remaining 3 nights and i only paid for 1 night, so that‘s good.

But the reason i checked out after my first night was the room. It just had so many problems with things not working properly, the incredibly loud noise from the street which didn‘t let me sleep at all and the disgusting bathroom!

-Door: It was broken and didn‘t properly close, only when you exerted a high amount of force against the door it closed. If you didn‘t close it properly an alarm in the hall went off until you did. Not acceptable.

-Noise & sound insulation from windows: I know they can‘t control the noise from the street but it was umbearable for me. I was told that at 10:00pm it will be quiet, but that wasn‘t true. There was construction noise until almost midnight. I constantly heard traffic noise & honking. Vendors walking the street with their radio blasting. The windows were not closing firmly or properly at all, you can see it in the attached video that even though the door was closed, by pulling it, it would move several cm‘s. So no wonder i could hear everything. It was so bad i could even hear people talking or coughing on the street. Unbearable. Barely slept at all..

-AC: It wasn’t possible to change settings on the ac and the airflow was directly aimed at the bed so you either froze because the airflow was directly on you, or if you turned it off it got hot very quickly and stuffy. That was also a reason why i felt very uncomfortable. Moreover the AC had a hole on the side, the inside looked what must either be a LOT of dust buildup or mold. I highly hope it was just dust, but who knows… (video attached)

-Definitely the biggest issue was the bathroom: Bathtub curtain had black stains on it what looked like mold. It was disgusting so i called reception for them to change it. Hours later they still didn‘t replace it, was told that it wasn‘t ready yet. So i had to shower without a curtain and water just got everywhere. The floor was flooded with water, the toilet was completely wet. It wasn‘t funny. The shower head leaked water everywhere (was fixed later, but it should‘ve been fixed from the start.) The maximum height for the shower head is way too low for european avg height. The water jet was very thin and way too strong, so strong that it hurt on the skin and body while showering. Just uncomfortable.

The most disgusting thing though is when i looked around the bathtub, in the cracks between the tub and wall. Just mold everywhere.(see pics)

My nose also started to clog up and i had trouble breathing normally in this room. I just closed the bathroom door, so no mold fumes would get to the bed, but it couldn‘t have been healthy to breath the air in that room. After leaving the hotel my nose cleared up again and it was fine..

At this point i was just very uncomfortable and had made my decision to check out after 1 night. I was offered to change rooms or even to a different hotel but i just wanted to leave.

I feel a little bad for leaving a 1* review, since staff was nice and helpful, but honestly my experience with the room was just terrible and i feel tricked by the many...

Editing the review for more detail.

This hotel definitely deserves 5 stars for the facilities we received at the price we got it for (from Agoda), however the staff coerces you to place 5 star reviews on all relevant platforms and you have no other option. So I'm reducing it by 1 star now. With that out of the way I'll give a proper review now.

Booked via Agoda Stay from 6th to 9th August, 2024 4 people, 2 standard rooms, including breakfast Price: INR 12,626 (VND 3,649,809)

Hotel provides early check in from 12 PM, but if you try to check in earlier they'll charge extra per extra hour. Their card machine takes extra transaction fee so better deal in VND by withdrawing from a nearby zero fee ATM.

Staff gave us free upgrade to a family room with a balcony on floor 7 (701). This is a makeshift room and you have to climb up using the stairs from the 6th floor. But the Standard rooms don't seem to have windows, were really small and this room seemed like a definite upgrade. The phone to dial reception also did work despite repeated complaints so that was sad, however it didn't apply much for our family as we were mostly out travelling anyways and didn't need much help from the staff. The 7th floor would also get heated a lot but after using the AC for an hour or so, it's not a problem. The neighborhood was quiet as well and everyone slept peacefully. In conclusion, we're thankful for the upgrade.

As most people mention here, the rooms are a bit old and dingy but for a budget hotel it's perfectly fine as everything that's required, works appropriately.

The breakfast buffet was a big highlight for us. It had decent amount of fresh fruits like bananas, dragon fruits, melons along with western stuff like sausages and bacon. They also provide Vietnamese food on order like pho. The coffee with condensed milk was really good too. A problem for especially Indian tourists can be that the breakfast has minimal vegetarian options and non vegetarian options include pork and beef, maybe the staff can accommodate your requirements and make something that works for you guys, but for us none of this was a problem.

The hospitality of the staff was top notch, they helped us with planning the itinerary and they were very courteous (ofcourse they also tried to sell us decently overpriced tours and transport, but that's expected). They also basically provided us with free drinking water (bottled and after that filtered) throughout our stay here which was a blessing. They also changed the sheets and towels everyday and ensured cleanliness.

The location is top notch and everything is nearby, Grab taxi service is also very good here.

All in all, we're very happy with the experience here if not for the...