My wife and I stayed for 2 nights at the Orchid Hotel. There were plenty of positive things about this hotel but some drawbacks (see below) lead me to rate it "only" 3 out of 5.

On the positive side, was first of all the friendly yet professional staff. We had a few special requests (we needed a carton box, some tape, a place to park the motorbike... simple stuff like this) which were addressed very well. The room was clean, properly ordered and the bellboy took time to show us around a couple of things. Bathroom was clean as well and comfortable, just what you'd expect from a 35$ a night hotel.

We have been upgraded to a family room for some reasons. We were not too happy about that as (1) we do not care much about the space and the 'extras' (in-room computer with free Internet access for example) and (2) more importantly, we were told we would have to change room on the second day. Luckily we did not have to move after all.

As I said above, and following the title of this review, we had 1 major issue and 2 minors ones. 1 minor issue is about the breakfast, not the service or hygiene, but its content. We understand the hotel does not have a proper kitchen (there is no restaurant) and it really reflects on the breakfast proposed : mostly industrial food (cakes) and juices. Secondly, the weather was fresh and a bit of extra warmth in the bathroom would have helped.

Finally, the hotel failed to timely address the main problem we faced. In case you do not know, most of Vietnamese cities' utilities do not provide enough water pressure and/or irregular service. The answer is each household maintain a water tank on its roof. To fill this tank, a water pump pushes the water from the public pipe into it.

Water pump = noise.

We came back in our room around 9.40pm. Being in Vietnam for a while, we know what is this noise and find it normal. So we wait. Our flight being early in the morning, we tried to sleep early, but the pump noise was still on at 10.20pm. I rang the reception to see if it was possible to stop the pump, assuming the tank should be full enough for the evening. The person politely answer he will turn it off. Half an hour later, no changes. My wife rang the reception and was told the room above us is using the Jaccuzzi, the pump would stop when they are finished. Another half hour passes, noise is still there. We found some sleep thanks to our MP3 players and earplugs.

Until 3.00am when I woke up, the noise was still around. My wife also woke up perhaps 10 minutes later, rang the reception : "Oh, is it still ON ? I will have it fixed stop now." It took about 30 minutes but it stopped.... Finally... Just the time to grab 2 hours more of sleep.

Assuming one of the top priority of a hotel is to provide good sleep, the Orchid failed that night, probably we were out of luck.