Mia House Hanoi Central

I paid for two nights and stayed one, then saw the booking changed from confirmed to cancelled on Agoda, so I couldn't leave a review there. A month later, I'm still trying to get Agoda to correct it. I believe they did this because they knew my review would be bad. They wouldn't refund anything when I complained, and it felt like they were stopping me from reviewing them wherever I booked. The place itself was awful. The room was dirty and worn out, and the bed made so much noise it seemed ready to collapse. A much taller building blocks most of the sun, so it felt really cold even on sunny, warmer days. This was the bleakest place I've stayed in ages, and my worst experience in three months in Vietnam. Avoid it.

We had a great time on our trips to Sapa and Ninh Binh, and the people here helped us plan both. Everyone was friendly and ready to help. The rooms were comfortable, thoughtfully set up, and had what we needed, better than a lot of standard hotels. We met other guests too, and they all seemed to have a lot of affection and respect for the house and Mia's family. We'd stay at Mia's house again if we came back to Hanoi.

The people are nice, but the place is grimy and loud. The water pump kept me awake all night, and my room's Wi-Fi and TV didn't work. The bed was a hard board with a poor mattress. The washing machine is on a filthy rooftop, reached through a small opening on the fifth floor. Getting there made me think of trying to crawl through Viet Kong tunnels. Two kids seemed to be struggling to run things, and either didn't know basic expectations or didn't care. It was impossible to get hold of anyone at first. I'm moving out tomorrow morning.

After riding for four hours, we got to Mia House and found nobody there. We waited half an hour before someone showed up and told us they were fully booked, even though we'd reserved through Booking. We were really disappointed. They could have let us know sooner and saved us the trouble. I wouldn't recommend it.