Rising Dragon Legend hotel — Hotel in Hà Nội

There is pros and cons when it comes to this hotel. I will start with the pros. Excellent location in the heart old quarters, close to market, restaurants and Ho Hoa Kiem. Room is cleaned on daily basis. Price for the room is good. For the most part everything seem to function as it should.

The cons, I had issues with their high mark up on every booking. Starting with, I had to change the reservation dates. I asked them, if I should cancel online and rebook online with Agoda or book with them directly. They said it would be more beneficial to me doing directly. "It's cheaper and free breakfast". It wasn't the case, they charge us for breakfast at a discounted price, we declined because they told us it was free. The room was the same price as before and in fact slightly higher if booked directly versus online.

Got to Hanoi Their airport pickup was highly marked up 465000 when it is 300.000, even the driver told us and to contact him directly if we needed to go anywhere. First day we want exchange $200cdn. Bank rates is 1.8 plus million vnd per $100cdn, they only gave us 1.7 mil. Found out later there are places around the hotel gave us close to banks rates 1.80 mil.plus per $100cdn. I was suppose to get 3.4 million back at 1.7 million vnd for every $100cdn. He gave me 3.040 million 360.000vdn less. I asked if that right? He said yes. Then, when I got to the room thought something wasn't right. So, I recalculate. Then went down stairs to confront him he said it was a mistake.

They are eager to be helpful and book for you to make the high commission. Just like when we booked a VIP transport to Cao Bang they quoted 1.2 million per person when normally it 800.000vnd and there's 3 of us. Yes, driver told us. He ask to pay, but told him we prepaid and the amount. He laughed at us. He said, it was better service and quality. Not so, it was the worst VIP ride we ever had and I have had many other VIP rides from previous visits. The Ha Giang bus tickets they charged us 949.000vnd when found out we can get it for 700.000- 800.000 VND. We ended up booking it elsewhere and saved alot of money since after that. Did not use their booking service again because they are crooks.

Stay in this hotel if you want, but shop elsewhere for your booking. Also, with Laundry there is a place near by call Best Laundry 25.000 VND per kg. Providing it's over 3kg. I also had a problem with their SIM card they sold me. There is a lot of number I couldn't call or disconnected. There are numbers I couldn't call, said I don't have enough funds and I need to add. When I was told by the hotel, I should have 2000 minutes calling same provider and 200 minutes calling other providers. I barely made any calls. I had this problem right off the beginning. I was told by a local, there is a lot of sim card scams out there.

So, there's a lot things raises my suspicions on integrity...

My wife and I had a great experience in this hotel in 3/2012. The place is vary homey and it felt really safe. In the moment we set foot in the hotel, one of the staff members welcome us with a hot cup of tee (it was cold outside). He was interested in our trip and was more than welcome to offer one of their trips in and around Hanoi. There was no pressure to to the order via the Hotel, and we really didn't feel like someone was pushing us to do so (unlike many other places). We were more than welcome to do any thing that is not hotel related elsewhere - not feeling like a "bag of money" made the difference. Also the room we ordered was cheep and not in a best condition, we still felt like kings especially because every time we went down to the reception every one remember our names (and they are not easy to pronounce heheh...). We traveled to Ha-Long-Bay and to Sapa and left our main baggage in the hotel. It was totally safe and without extra charge (since we came back). On our way to Sapa (we ordered the train through the hotel), one of the staff accompany us to the train to make sure we are getting the correct tickets. When we came back we made a reservation to a better room (and a bit more expansive 30$ I think) and verified it via eMail. When we arrive we were told that there is actually no place in that hotel (in 61 Hang Be Street) because of overbooking , but they to us that all will be OK and that they will find us a place to sleep ( at least in the same level we ordered). After 30 min they told us that they will move us to a different hotel in 24 Hang Ga Street ( under the name of Rising Dragon). That hotel had better rooms and looks much more expensive. We had no extra charge for this and also the Taxi transfer from one hotel to the other was free of charge.

We recommend the Rising Dragon hotel chain in general and the 61 Hang Be Street hotel...

We had the most horrid experience at Rising Dragon Hotel and frankly, it was the only bad experience in our entire Vietnam trip. We arrived at the hotel at 7pm in the evening and had a booking for one night. In the morning we were supposed to leave for Halong Bay. After arriving, we were told that the hotel was fully booked and they did not have a room for us. Instead, they had booked a room for us in the hotel opposite to theirs. They made us believe that that hotel was an upgrade from this hotel, but it wasn't. We saw the room in the other hotel and decided not to stay there as it wasn't nice at all. We went back to Rising Dragon and asked them to help us book another hotel. By this time we had already wasted an hour. We weren't even offered water in all this time. Then when I checked up for availability for other hotels in the area, their sister concern, Rising Dragon Villa and Rising Dragon Palace had rooms available, but they were unwilling to accommodate us there as the rooms were slightly more expensive, even though it was their fault that they had overbooked their hotel for the night. At this point the staff turned quite rude and were acting as if it is our fault that we did not accept the room that they had booked for us. Ultimately, after 2 hours of this ordeal, we got fed up and found a hotel ourselves and went there with no help from the staff whatsoever. In summary, they did not inform us about the non-availability in advance, even though they were in touch with us, booked us in another hotel without checking with us, did not accommodate us in their sister hotels, did not offer us water or any refreshment, did not help with booking any other hotel and wasted 2 hours of our short time in Hanoi. It was the most...