I reserved rooms from this hotel twice during my trip to north Vietnam - at the beginning and the end of it. I reserved deluxe quiet rooms.
I work at luxury brand hotels for a major hotel management company on the West Coast of the U.S. Front desk service here is comparable to what we expect our front desk attendants at my hotels to provide. For me, at least, the Art Hotel gave me Ritz-Carlton service at Best Western prices for rooms/amenities that are somewhere between a Comfort Inn and a Super 8 Motel. For Vietnam, this is very, very good. The included breakfast was also good, but like the rest of Vietnam, they do not keep their yogurt (the sour milk cups) at properly chilled temperatures. The yogurt is usually soupy, but if chilled properly, it becomes the texture of flan. A minor thing for you, probably.
In Vietnam as a tourist, you have to be on your toes, or you get conned or, at least, inconvenienced. That's the truth of it. I am of Vietnamese descent and speak the language enough to have an okay conversation/barter on the street. But it was still difficult as an independent traveler. Throughout the entire time I was in that country - wherever I was in that country, I found myself contacting the Art Hotel for assistance such as: last minute train tickets because our current hotel was trying to screw us...I reserved rooms from this hotel twice during my trip to north Vietnam - at the beginning and the end of it. I reserved deluxe quiet rooms.
I work at luxury brand hotels for a major hotel management company on the West Coast of the U.S. Front desk service here is comparable to what we expect our front desk attendants at my hotels to provide. For me, at least, the Art Hotel gave me Ritz-Carlton service at Best Western prices for rooms/amenities that are somewhere between a Comfort Inn and a Super 8 Motel. For Vietnam, this is very, very good. The included breakfast was also good, but like the rest of Vietnam, they do not keep their yogurt (the sour milk cups) at properly chilled temperatures. The yogurt is usually soupy, but if chilled properly, it becomes the texture of flan. A minor thing for you, probably.
In Vietnam as a tourist, you have to be on your toes, or you get conned or, at least, inconvenienced. That's the truth of it. I am of Vietnamese descent and speak the language enough to have an okay conversation/barter on the street. But it was still difficult as an independent traveler. Throughout the entire time I was in that country - wherever I was in that country, I found myself contacting the Art Hotel for assistance such as: last minute train tickets because our current hotel was trying to screw us over with prices that were clearly inflated and they wanted us to pay now and pick up the tickets in some remote travel agency later. The Art Hotel was very responsive.
From the moment we made a reservation with the Art Hotel a month before arriving to the moment we left Hanoi, the staff at this hotel tried their best to help us avoid the pitfalls and con jobs that run rampant. Their car service from the airport is a very good solution to avoid many headaches that you read about regarding the taxis from the airport. In fact, we met another couple at the Art who decided to save the extra $3 ($18 was cost of hotel car, $15 was the expected cost of taxi). They told us they were taken for a very expensive ride around the city before finally arriving at the hotel from the airport - $50, in fact.
The hotel lets you use their public shower before getting on a long-haul train/plane ride, even if you did not stay there the night before but were a prior guest or future one. That was appreciated, but be warned: It's awkward - the showerhead is above the hand dryer (yikes!) and not separate from the rest of the bathroom so everything gets soaked. So maybe the bathrooms would be an area to improve on because the shape of the separate shower in our first room's bathroom was also very awkward.
Final thing, it is very easy to walk from the train station to the hotel. You just need to be able to stand the heat (pack light) and brave the traffic.More
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