Sherwood Residence — Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City

I have mixed feelings about The Sherwood. We stayed their twice for 6 days each during our 3 week visit to Vietnam while visiting family and doing some sightseeing. We were a family of 4 and stayed in a 3-bedroom apartment both times. 2 full bathrooms, including one in the master suite was convenient. The full kitchen was also convenient, although there's no oven and a limited supply of pots and pans, but the basics are provided. Having a small washer and dryer is also convenient. The layout's a little weird with some internal windows that open to the buildings pipes and utility areas and some weird empty rooms. A grocery store through the pool area and out the back gate is also convenient. There are some 24/7 convenience stores within walking distance and it's easy enough to get a Grab (most of the time) or call a taxi. However, there a number of "little" problems that kept coming up. One or the other toilet would clog up and start to overflow after going #1 and flushing a small amount of toilet paper. We had to call maintenance for that more than once. They came within 10 minutes. Upon our first stay, we had No Hot Water, because apparently, there's a switch for the water heater that must be turned on. However, the water heater was turned off when we checked in, but we weren't given a tour and no one told us about turning on the water heater. We were on the 14th floor in 14G for our first 6 day stay. It was clearly a bit old and dated, but appeared clean and well-maintained. We were given 11G for our second stay, which was underwhelming. It was more dated and less maintained. The linoleum was visibly worn and needed replaced. Similar signs of wear were visible throughout the apartment on the walls and the door frames. We had to call maintenance more than once for lack of hot water (even after making sure that the water heater was turned on) and light switches that did not work in the master bedroom and in the kitchen. Such things should be in good working order before checking guests in. We also had problems with the toilets getting clogged in 11G after going #1 and flushing a small amount of toilet paper. Based on some recent reviews, it's clear that a few apartments have been renovated, but most, like 14G and 11G, are still in need of renovation. For most of our 2 stays, the staff was friendly and helpful when we had questions, needed a taxi, or needed maintenance in our room. Upon checkout after our second stay, we were asked to wait while they inspected the room, as is apparently the custom in Vietnam. They found a pillow case with some makeup on it and charged us 150,000VND for a new pillowcase. We were quite put off by this, but as we were leaving, the taxi was waiting, and we had a plane to catch, we just paid for the pillowcase. Ladies, beware if you get any makeup on the bedding. You will be expected to pay for the bedding. Due to the need for renovations, repeated maintenance problems, and the 150,000VND charge for a pillowcase, we won't stay at the Sherwood again when we return. There are many other places to...

We stayed in this hotel for 4 nights back in June, 2017. Everything was good, everyone was friendly. But everything changed unpon our checkout.

They first told us they need to ticket us because we smoke in the room. For 1,000,000VND. We were confused because we never did. We only smoke on the balcony and we always keep the door/ windows close whenever we do. We even cleaned the ashtray by ourselves.

They then sent their staff to the room for some check ups while we were arguing about this. The staff came back and suddenly said found a burnt hold on the sofa. Really? What a coincidence? And this happened few hours after we tipped their doorman about 400,000vnd. (About 18USD. Usually people recommend to pay about only 1-2USD. But we have no smaller notes and thought it was ok since our stay was nice. This need to be mentioned because everything seems to go down from here)

So when they found this magic burnt hole on their couch (which we never seen) they told us they can actually reduced the price to 800,000vnd. Really? Why so nice when you actually have a hole but you decided to charge us less?

Ok, so there was zero understanding from them since they were 100% sure we did it for some reason. And this is not reasonable because obviously they only check the room after we left but not before... We ended up letting them take away our deposit (800,000vnd) because we were going to miss our flights.

We went back home to Taiwan and called them. But conversations still went no where. And this Manager- Vu never told me it's not allow to smoke anyway. To they were going have to charge us anyway. With it without the burnt hole.

Then I wrote them. Another manager- Janet replied and said they are willing to give us coupons worth of 800,000vnd which valid for one year...

It just seems odd if they are willing to offer coupon if they are sure it was our fault.

Anyway, I told them We don't want any coupon, we don't want any compensation. We didn't do anything wrong, we just simply want our wrongly-charged money back. And want all this drama to be over...

They replied and said no. Because they believe in their staff. And this manager told me that I could've give this coupon to our friends (like if I'm going to put any friends of mine to their rip-off hotel and let them find some other poor tourists) She told me "you can smoke in our hotel on the balcony. Just not in the room."

And wow, I mean that was the first time I've ever heard that. The Vu manager the whole time with me on phone was saying you can't smoke in our hotels anyway. Then, I finally realized why I was so confused the whole time because we were never told, nor seen any sign of non-smoking during the 4 nights.

If you have the patience to read all this. I just hope you don't try to go there. Otherwise you'll have to check all the facilities by yourself before they do. Otherwise they blame and take your money. Really disgusting...

Always got greeted by most friendly and polite staffs. Room was spacious and super clean. Noise isolation is great, because I could not hear any thing from outside. The beds and pillows are comfortable. Full kitchen is very useful. Broken appliances got immediate attention and replaced if needed. House cleaning staff is trust worthy, I once forgot my money on the table, and they asked me to take my money before they started cleaning. House cleaning team did a great job and fast. AC in all the rooms worked well. Once the hallway got some paint chemical smell, I notified the front desk and it got resolved within 10 minutes. I was very impressed. Wifi and water were never an issue. The location is convenient. I could walk to every where. Love those coffee shops across the street. Needless to say, I extended my stay from 1 week to almost 4 weeks. Definitely will stay again in the future.

December Stay update: I came back and stayed here since I love the location. Some unpleasant experiences I want to mention. The front desk girl seemed over concerned when my guests came to visit. Once I had to told them not to stare because it made my friends uncomfortable. Once before time to check out, I asked them to bring some bottles of water for my guests but she refused and claimed company policy not allow her to since I will be checked out soon. Water pressure in the room are not strong making showering unpleasant. The bed are old, my wife can feel the coils. They tried to help by putting the topper but, it's not that great. I finally changed my hotel to Sedona Suites to get better sleep. Breakfast is not great. There was no varieties. The quality of the food is not 5 stars. I am not sure what happened. Also, why the front desk staffs keep asking me what time I will check out on the day before the last day of my stay? No other hotels does that. Getting...