Cara Rustic Apartment

We liked this lovely apartment in Tay Ho, and the price was good.

The room was okay for the price, but I was really disappointed by how the booking was handled. I booked Urchin Apartment, number 53, alley 111, through Agoda for about 1.7 million VND including taxes and fees for three nights. On check-in day, the staff said they didn't know about it and told me to call the owner. The owner said they were just testing the place and had told Agoda to cancel my booking, but somehow it hadn't gone through. Nobody called to tell me. I was then asked to pay another 600k to move to this apartment at 51D Tay Ho Street. I'm so disappointed I don't even want to talk about it. The apartment is at the end of alley 51D, about a 100m walk away. My two-bedroom room had a washing machine, oven, bathtub, induction hob, dishes, and pots, but no spoons or chopsticks. Towels were there but smelled terrible, and the blankets were just duvet covers. Toothbrushes and razors were provided but quite worn. One of the three air conditioners was broken and only worked off and on. There were just two remotes.

The terrace was pleasant, though its view was of a rooftop and football stadium. Inside, the apartment had generous dining and living space, and the street was quiet and tucked away. It took about 20 minutes by taxi to get to the center of Hanoi. There were a few nice restaurants nearby, but they closed early, around 9 pm. The listing photos set a higher expectation. The apartment lacked most of the pictured decorations, apart from the colorful sofa. Cleaning was only average, with dust on the floor and considerable limescale in the bathroom. The bed was very hard, and there was no reception or other service. We weren't given the entrance gate code and had to get it from other tourists.

A cozy, stylish apartment that was clean and felt like home. The location made it easy to head to the Old Quarter for food and entertainment, take a walk by breezy West Lake, or go straight along the road to the airport.