Bel Marina Hoi An Resort — Hotel in Hội An

Scam alert!

I had the misfortune of staying here during me recent trip to Vietnam. In the lobby, they had a couple of posters up all in English advertising 30% off services that were 60 minutes or more.

I made an appointment for a 60 minute shampoo service and a nail service. When I got there, I asked if i could just get a pedicure only and I was told no that the prices were already including a manicure as well and they would not accommodate just charging for a pedicure. Against my better judgement I just said ok even though I did not need a manicure so I signed up for the 45 minute gel mani/pedi which was the only option that had gel polish. At the time she did mention that I’d be getting 30% off my shampoo service.

They assigned me to someone and she started by doing my shampooing service which also included a mini facial. I don’t know what garbage products they use but I started getting mild stinging around the eyes. I didn’t say anything because even though they market specifically to English speaking westerners, the lady hardly spoke English. Luckily after some time it went away.

After she finished drying my hair, which looked terrible by the way especially since they had no products to put in your hair afterwards, I told the lady via google translator to get the lady in the front. I asked her what the difference was between the one I signed up and the 60 minute one. She said there was an extra 15 minute massage. So I asked her if I could switch and have gel only on my hands and reg polish on my feet. She said ok and that she would just leave it at the price of the 45 minute service I had originally.

I was well aware of why she was supposedly doing me this “favor”. It was to prevent me from qualifying for the 30% discount since that service was 60 minutes vs my original service of 45 mins. The difference was only about 20k and but with the discount I was going to save over 150k vnd on the nail service.

I knew she was cheating me but I was already there half naked and just wanted to get through the service so I let it go.

The lady put a remover on my gel nails and then began to do my feet. Then she started to do my hands and that’s when there was a big problem. She was literally scraping the gel off of my nails so much so that she took layers off my natural nails and broke them. 3 hours later, she finally finished painting them but did not follow through with the deluxe pedicure. I did not receive any massage on my hands or feet.

I had been there for so long and I had people waiting for me to go to dinner so I just wanted to leave. Also, this lady clearly was poorly trained and had no clue what she was doing that I doubt the massage would even be worth it.

So when I went to pay, the front desk lady came and she of course scammed me again. She put the pedicure and a buy one get one free with the shampoo service to prevent me from getting the 30% off of the shampoo service and listed the 45 manicure separately at full price that already included a pedicure. Remember how I mentioned that she said I could not do a pedicure separately?

So she basically scammed me twice. I tried to question her about it but she acted like she told me already which she did not. I just paid and left. So not only did they provide terrible untrained service but also scammed me.

I did talk to a few other people that received services from them and I heard bad things from them too. One woman got a facial and her whole face started burning and getting spots. She had to go to her room and wash it off. Other people that got massages also told me that the masseuses had zero skill.

I would definitely avoid this place at all costs. They specifically target and prey on English speaking westerners. They heavily overcharge you and the people have no clue what they are doing. They know that it’s hard for us to fight it and because our dollars go much further than theirs they know that chances are that we just won’t say anything and leave. There is a reason why they were pretty empty and the spas right across the...

Upon allocation of our room, we noticed it only had a bathtub with shower heads, no walk-in shower like the pictures of the room booked. The bathtub was not practical as it’s a very high step to get in it, thus making it difficult for shorter/elder/disabled guests. Once we showered it was evident that the shower head could not contain the water from spilling onto the floor, even though we were careful there was water all over the floor of the bathroom. With the floor wet and the mats being insufficient for the water in the bathroom, this created a serious slip hazard within the bathroom and walkway. We called the reception to explain the issue, the receptionist was dismissive and rude. She explained that nothing could be done until the next day as the hotel is fully booked. We were not happy with this as this is a serious hazard if we were going to use the bathroom at night as the floors were slippery and wet. We then proceeded to the lobby to speak with the duty manager whom we were told was not on shift, this seemed odd for such a big property that was supposedly at capacity. The young male staff member was extremely helpful, he noticed his duty manager and informed him of our situation (the duty manager was out of uniform and on his way home, we were thankful he took the time to speak with us) The Duty Manager understood our situation that the slip hazard was not favourable for us and had the potential to cause injury. He informed us that some of the rooms have walk in showers and some have bathtub showers, we would not have booked this type of room if the pictures were an accurate description of the room. The Manager offered to put us in a villa room (apparently this was the only room available) for the remainder of our stay. Although we appreciated it, we were happy to have a room that we booked and paid for and did not ask for an upgrade of any sort. Upon check out the duty manager was on shift and approached me to see if everything was satisfactory, I explained it was, and we thanked him for the assistance. He then asked if we could amend our initial review or add in further information. We thought this was a reasonable request and we explained that we were flying and continuing our travels we will do this the moment we get the chance, this on face value was an understanding that we will do what we say we would. After a day or so we received a personal message on WhatsApp from the duty manager to request the amendment to the review. This was unacceptable and sort of scary that they use the information provided to contact us on their personal device. Our information should not be used in this way at all. To me, this is a breach of privacy and should not be part of their standard practice. It almost felt like that this property is unwilling to receive feedback that is critical to its operation. Although our issue was fixed within hours, we still feel it’s a right of the customer to explain issues that could affect visitors to this property...

Mixed Experience at Bel Marina Resort Hoi An

I recently stayed at Bel Marina Resort Hoi An for five nights, and overall, I had quite a mixed experience.

The first two nights were excellent, we were given a beautiful, modern "Premier" room on the 7th floor, right next to the pool, with a fantastic view overlooking the river and city. The room matched the photos online perfectly and felt clean, well designed, and comfortable.

However, things took a downturn on the third day when we were asked to switch rooms due to maintenance work. We were moved to an older part of the hotel on the 4th floor. While the new room was larger, it was clearly outdated, with far less storage space, fewer plug sockets, and very basic furnishings. The "river view" promised was barely visible, and the bathroom was a major letdown, the bath had a handheld showerhead that only reached chest height (I'm 5'9"), and water would go everywhere when using it. The room also had very poor soundproofing; we could hear everything from neighboring rooms, including toilets flushing, showers running, snoring, and even someone being sick.

That said, there were some positives. The location is fantastic, just a short walk to the night market, Old Town, and lots of great restaurants and bars. The staff were friendly and did their best to be helpful throughout our stay. The rooftop pool (located in another building) was lovely, though a bit of a walk to get to. The main pool had a swim up bar which was a nice touch, but the pool floor was covered in small bits of debris or broken material, suggesting some maintenance is needed.

The resort also offers bicycles for guest use, which is a great idea in theory, but many of them were rusty and had faulty brakes, making them feel unsafe and in need of an upgrade

In summary, the resort has potential and some great features, especially when staying in the newer rooms. But the inconsistency in room quality and maintenance issues really affected the...