Hanoi Lake View Hotel and Spa — Hotel in Hà Nội

Our stay at the Hanoi Lake View Hotel and Spa didn’t go as we hoped for. First off, the ”Lake View” -hotel has no sign of a lake in sight.

We stayed 2+2 nights. The first rooms shower wasn’t working properly and we had problems with aircon. The machine was leaking a lot of water onto a bed and the room was freezing because we couldn’t change the temperature correctly. The second room we got was better and clean.

We booked 2 different tours from the hotel, the lady in the reception, Rosa sold and arranged them for us.

We reserved a 2 day, 1 night tour to Ha Long bay. The lady showed us advertisement books of different cruises, we chose the 3-star one. The cruise boat was not the one showed in the booklet. It wasn’t nearly as clean and the room was different. The lady also told that our room would be on the 2nd floor of the boat, it wasnt. We tried to explain this to the staff but got no room on the 2nd floor and the staff were rude. We got two rooms on the 1st floor and they were right next to the kirchen where people started listening to loud music and yelling and cooking at 5:30 AM. Also the program was different, no sign of a BBQ-dinner for example.

We also reserved a Ha Giang tour for 4 days. The trip to Ha Giang was great, but again, what we were sold differed from what we got. We payed extra for private rooms, but we were put into big rooms with a lot of other people. We were also sold a better sleeping bus with private cabins, but our way back was in the cheapest kind of a bus.

Before we left to Ha Giang we left our big backpacks at the hotel. I asked three or four times that: ”are the bags going to be put in a locked room” I got the answer that the lobby will be just a ”temporary location”. When we came back from Ha Giang after 5 days, the backpacks were still in the hotel lobby, no sight of a locked room.

The hotel was okay with some problems and all other staff were great, but beware of Rosa. Don’t believe the things she sells to you. She was also rude in...

The hotel was sending us a taxi to get us from the airport and from there everything went downhill. The taxi was not big enough for four people with four suitcases. Like... what did they expect when two rooms for 4 people were booked.

When we arrived at the hotel, there weren't "good" rooms for us anymore so we received rooms at the hotel next door. Those rooms were quite good but we only spent one night there. The day after we should return to the booked hotel. Well, they had other plans with us and gave us rooms in another hotel which was in a back street. There we noticed that two suitcases were missing. They were standing in the lobby with suitcases from other guests. The hotel in the back street smelled mouldy and was dirty with full of insects, so we asked for other rooms in the original hotel. We then received two rooms but they were... not good. It was noisy, dirty, and outdated. But in the end, we told ourselves we only had to sleep there, so it was bearable.

The story is not over yet. They booked us transport to the next city and of course there was not enough space for the suitcases. I even asked the evening before that they should consider this and tada~

To summarise, I feel sad that we were the ones who had a bad experience with this hotel because it seemed that there were also guests who liked the hotel very much. But unfortunately, that...

Overall decent location and kind staff, but shady management—beware.

The location is great and the frontline staff are friendly and helpful. That’s where the good ends.

I lost my room key, and instead of reissuing one, the front desk handed me the master key to my room (seriously?). I retraced my steps, contacted the restaurant I’d been to—no luck. I came back, explained the situation like an adult, and offered to pay for the lost key. I was charged 200,000 VND. Fine.

The next morning? They charged me again, claiming it was because of a refunded transportation charge. Completely unrelated. When I tried to clarify, the male manager sat there avoiding eye contact, lying through his teeth while the staff looked uncomfortable.

It’s not about the 7 USD. I genuinely don’t care about the money. But being treated like a liar by someone who can’t even face you while talking? That’s a line for me.

The staff were lovely. The management is a joke. If they’ll double-charge over a key, what else will they do? Keep your receipts, check your charges, and don’t expect honesty...