La Cascada House & Travel — Hotel in Hà Nội

Horrible experience, please avoid at all costs!

Firstly, regarding the room, the air-conditioner is very weak, and when talking to other customers staying there, I realised that this is not the condition of only my room but of many other rooms as well. I had to put it at 18 degrees Celcius with full fan speed, and still I sweated a lot and did not have a good sleep at all. Furthermore, the shower head is broken and the ventilator in the bathroom is too loud. In addition, the mini fridge is not functioning well at all. The only good thing is that they clean the room everyday, but they do not top up the amenities like toothpaste or soap at all. Moreover, due to the tricky location of this hotel, there is very weak or no phone signal at all, both in the lobby and in your room. Thus, you cannot receive phone calls from others and have to depend on their weak Wifi for the Internet.

In addition, regarding the lobby, there is an air-conditioner there but for some reason the hotel wants to save energy and decides not to turn it on during the morning and evening, so the whole lobby was extremely warm when I left in the morning and arrived in the evening. Moreover, it is located in an extremely small and super messy alley and both Grab car and Grab motorbike drivers are confused about where it is. Grab car cannot pick you up at the hotel and sometimes the street is too busy for Grab motorbike to enter as well, so you have to walk all the way to the main road.

Besides, I requested a VAT receipt and provided all the information beforehand on Booking.com. However, this hotel did not say a word that they are not a registered company and cannot provide a VAT receipt at all. Thus, they demanded a 8% service fee to get a VAT receipt from another hotel, which is ridiculous. Furthermore, the employees are not well-trained enough and have no idea about the VAT receipt at all.

When it comes to payment, they also demand a 3% fee if you decide to pay by card. This is against the law which states that the hotel needs to take care of all the bank fees, not the customers. There are too many hidden fees that this hotel will apply on you and this is a very dishonest behaviour.

Furthermore, I requested to check in early but the reception asked me to wait until 14:00 and offered me to upgrade to a more expensive room. They said there are only 6/16 rooms occupied, but they claimed the housekeepers were too busy and asked me to wait or upgrade to a more expensive room. After all, I had to wait from 11:00 to 14:00 and was given the worst room with broken facilities and without...

I stayed here three weeks and highly recommend. I was so lucky to pick this place. Hotel is very prompt at responding to communications - I had lots of questions.

Perfect location, just a few minutes walk from the hustle and bustle (ie craziness) of the "tourist" area, yet in a quiet area so you can get away from the madness.

Don't worry about the train tracks next door - there are hardly any trains and they are pretty quiet. Actually, this is a benefit because while you are in town it's easy to get back to the hotel - just find the railway viaduct, and follow it north, "up". When I realized that, it made Hanoi much easier to navigate. All I had to do was spot the train track and I knew exactly which way was "home".

Important - this is a few hundred meters from the "wet market" which is a cultural experience. Must see, especially if you eat meat! Go at dawn and take a camera! Best nearby coffee - I like "S-Coffee" on Hang Cheu St.

The staff are wonderful - genuinely friendly and helpful. English is very good. Room was clean, and housekeeping was just perfect. Laundry was cheap and fast.

The hotel helped me arrange an overnight trip to Ha Long area. They can arrange trips all over Vietnam. It was easy to set up, and good.

Before you arrive at HAN, be sure to book an airport pick-up using the hotel to arrange it. The hotel adds the cost to your room bill, about $18. The driver will show up with a card with your name on it, and you just collapse into the back seat and let them take you to the hotel. A person from the hotel will come out to meet you at the street. Could not be easier, especially after the long flights (it took me 24 hours). You don't need to find VND to pay the driver, or worry about getting ripped off. It just works!

Finally, if you are a runner, this hotel has easy access (100m) to Long Bien Station and from there you can get onto Long Bien Bridge which has a footpath along both sides, about 1500m long. A great run across the Red River, protected from motorcycles and cars. So much better than running the streets. Even just as a walk, it's great - really...

The hotel had the basic necessities and Netflix (thank goodness). It was spotless and the water pressure in the shower was fantastic. Although I didn’t like the musky smell of the shower gel and shampoo, it’s hardly a problem when you can find alternatives at a local Circle K. The location is perfect if you want to be walking distance to the main CBD but don’t want to be in the thick of it. Although, it was close to the train, there was hardly a noise issue when we had to sleep.

The customer service has been exceptional. I want to thank the staff for going out of their way to assist with my needs. Specifically, a lovely lady showed me the Shopee app, and advising me to set my delivery location at the hotel so that I can have my items delivered. Although I did not have time to take on the offer, I really appreciated how she accommodated me.

The staff has also assisted and spoke with our tour guides to ensure they arrived at the hotel’s location to pick us up on our day trips.

Additionally, while we were checking out, they offered us a gift as a souvenir for our stay, arranged an airport transfer and walked us to the vehicle and assisted with baggage.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and we wish we had tipped them before we left, hence why, we are leaving this great review because we received a 5-star hotel level of customer service.

We hope the owner understands they’ve got an amazing team and no doubt, their continuous service will assist you in a...