The Saigon Halong Hotel is luxurious by Vietnamese standards. It is near Halong bay, which is absolutely beautiful. The hotel has a friendly and professional staff, and the rooms have nice amenities.

A problem that I had with the place is that the air conditioning barely worked. I was there in July, and found myself sweaty even after taking a shower. Calling the front desk did not help. They sent somebody up who did nothing about it. I had them send somebody else up. He felt the vent with his hand, decided it was cool, and had no idea what to do. I told him to go get a thermometer so he can check for himself and measure how hot the room was. But that was asking too much. They eventually admitted that half the air conditioning system was turned off, supposedly due to low occupancy, but they assured me that they turned it on and the room would cool down. It never did. Perhaps the place would be nice in December, but I would not recommend it in July.

Another issue was with the hot water. At one point, somebody came to the room to apologize for the lack of hot water and to fix the problem. But there had not been a problem. At a later point, there was a problem with no hot water. The water was also very hard.

This hotel has no non-smoking facilities. The room itself was quite pleasant and not at all smoky, but they did not offer non-smoking rooms. They also had huge dining facilities, and although the main room in one of the facilities was smoky and stuffy, I was able to find another room that was comfortable and smoke free. But since there was no policy, it was a matter of luck. It would be easy for them to change their standard without inconveniencing anybody, but for now, its dining halls are potentially stuffy. Aside from that, the dining facilities were nice, and they offered a nice complimentary buffet for breakfast.

The rest of the staff was professional and courteous. I needed an English speaking tour guide, and the hotel provided me with one, who was actually one of the staff members there. She normally greeted people, but they were willing to change her position for a steep (by Vietnamese standards) $40 per day. She was very professional and was good to have along on my tour of the bay.