Northern Charm Hotel — Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City

Do not book this hotel - I promise you will find better options for cheaper, and hotel policies that do not blatantly extort guests.

When you first check in, the hotel will take an extra 800,000 from you for each night if you are in a couple as a 'double-rate.' This is despite the double rate for a room being listed as an extra 500,000 on a sign showing prices at the front desk. The young woman on the front desk is incredibly rude about this as well. According to her the extra costs was due to it being "last-minute." This is clearly just an anti-consumer policy to extract more money from anyone who's staying. If you book through an agent such as booking.com like I did you will be absolutely blindsided by this as you are not told about it anywhere. I have stayed at hotels all around the world and never experienced anything like this before. Initially I refused to pay this as it was clearly an extortion attempt, and brought my guest up to my room who would not be staying the night as she wanted to get dressed and showered. The security guard followed us up to my room and I could hear him racking up the courage outside my door to tell me to go down and pay. He knocked on my door with a random guests passport and asked if it was mine - I had opened the door a crack so he could not see my guest and he was trying to peer over my shoulder. I said no and he hovered in silence for a few seconds trying to see past me before I finally shut the door on him. 2 minutes later he knocked again and asked me the same question about the same passport 😂 I have never in my life had such a ridiculous experience at a hotel (a supposedly 4-star hotel mind you). This time he told me I would need to pay for my guest even if she was not staying the night, and made us both go down to the front desk to pay. One of the hotel 'rules' is to entertain your guests in the lobby. I am paying for my room, so I will should be free to entertain them there.

Keycard for my door did not work, sometimes I spent 5 minutes trying to swipe it, one time I had to let the room service team open my door for me.

The food at the restaurant is incredibly mediocre and very expensive, especially considering the brilliant food options round the corner in Japan town and across the street at Sushi Tei. The breakfast buffet was okay, and was included in the price, which would be good but it is absolutely not worth 800,000.

I was quietly enjoying a book and a drink on the rooftop pool but I was told I had to leave and go to finish drinking in the room or the lobby, rather than letting me finish on my own.

The rooms have smart TVs with Netflix and Youtube, and the doorman is very nice. All the snacks and drinks are overpriced.

To conclude, please do not stay here, anti-consumer practices like these should not be rewarded, and you will find superior hotels all around Saigon. Hotel Indigo across the street...

How is this a "polished, 4 star" hotel? A flashy lobby with AC set to freezing 18°C and a doorman is all that holds up that appearance. There's a shoe polish machine by the entrance, but the actual polish is missing. No shoeshine for you, only dusting off. The elevators have no AC so the air there is choking. On the other hand, AC vent in the room has fixed grilles, so there's no way to direct the flow away from the bed; your legs get most of it.

You can't pay the stay on checking out, was called on the internal phone and asked a bit forcefully to "Pay today", and "What time will you come down and pay?". The pizza I ordered to the room was a small, frozen, oven thawed version. TV is good with some movie channels too, bed is firm but good. The shower is very nice with good water flow, but no working venting out over the toilet.

Nobody has English pronunciation or language knowledge that makes communication less than very difficult. Mostly you just give up. There's one young guy taking care of luggage and showing you to your room, he was great. Cleaning staff understand nothing, most are very kind, but that's it, and they love to talk loudly between rooms across the hall when cleaning. They knock on your door every day despite the "Do not disturb" sign turned on. Cleaning is very bad, leaving dust on the floor under tables, hallway was littered with small pieces of paper for days. Room is worn down and dusty in hidden places.

"Serene" (as written in their webpage) pool vibe = loud house music pumping that can be heard at ground level in the elevator. Towels run out, refill took an hour after being asked for. Took a dip once in the pool during 5 days...

Breakfast is not good, few and low quality options. At least the omelette is made to order. Staff mostly randomly walking around, food wasn't refilled after 9, not even water, while one girl did pointless, meticulous folding of napkins instead. Spilled cereal left on the floor during the hour we were there, staff is oblivious. Coffee machine is a joke, instant Nescafé.

We've rarely experienced such difference between expectation...

Disappointing Experience – Overpriced and Overrated

I initially planned to rate this hotel 3 stars, but after my final 24 hours here, I can only give it 1 star.

Positives: • Great location – very convenient. • Some staff are friendly and helpful – but not all.

Negatives:

Rooms & Comfort: • Ripped bed sheets – completely unacceptable for a hotel at this price point. • Noisy rooms – despite being on the 6th floor, I was kept awake by traffic noise and staff loudly using walkie-talkies at all hours.

Food & Dining: • Avoid eating here. The food is terrible. • Ordered spring rolls – received a deep-fried, pre-packaged frozen roll, which was disgusting and cost the same as a meal at a nearby restaurant. • Breakfast was disappointing – half the food was clearly frozen and reheated. I’ve had better pastries at service stations. • The yogurt ran out by 9 AM (despite breakfast being served until 9:30 AM), and staff refused to restock it.

Facilities & Service: • Pool and rooftop area closed – this was not communicated at booking or check-in, only displayed on a small sign near the elevator. Staff had no answers about alternative arrangements.

Verdict: This hotel is expensive and misleading. It presents itself as high-end but in reality it’s a budget experience at best whilst being charged a 5* price.

Avoid this hotel. Far better options available.

Update: Upon bringing our concerns to the hotel we were told no management were in to discuss the ripped and dirty bed sheets.

Standard Vietnam hospitality. See tourists as...