Parkson Hotel Hanoi

The rooms are on the small side, but they were clean and tidy, and room service was good. Breakfast was great for the price, and the staff were very friendly and helpful with getting around the city and arranging tours. There’s also a shower with a steam bath in the bathroom. The hotel offers tour packages at considerably lower prices, and I’d definitely recommend those. For airport taxis, I’d use Uber or Grab instead. Whether to book the hotel’s service depends on how reliable you find it, though I personally had no issues.

We like the Parkson for the price. It’s our regular hotel when we visit our Tigit Motorbike Hanoi office, and from our perspective it’s the cheapest “real” hotel in Hanoi. It gives you the basics of a middle-of-the-road hotel, with nothing fancy but nothing rubbish either. Go below this price range and the backpacker rubbish starts to come into play.

I can’t decide how many stars to give this place. The staff were amazing and went out of their way to look after us, carrying our bags, arranging tours and transfers, and even surprising us with a special lunch dish during our tour. I’d give them all the stars. The hotel was comfortable, but had a lot of problems. We stayed five nights and saw two mice in our attic room. It was massive, and the bed was really comfy, but the sheets and pillowcases weren’t very clean. The shower leaked water across the bathroom, and the drain was clogged, so it took ages for the water on the floor to go away. Breakfast was average, though I liked being able to choose eggs from a menu. We also spotted a lot of bugs and cockroaches around breakfast. We arrived in Vietnam with an open mind about what to expect, so if you can handle a few bugs and mice and don’t need everything to be very clean, you could stay here. The staff were so good that I’d actually consider coming back just for them.

The staff were great, but the rooms need upkeep. I booked five nights in November 2018 and left after three. I switched rooms after the first night, but the second one was worse. Bugs were crawling all over the bed and around the room, and there was a lot of black mold in the showers. I’m not especially fussy, but it was unbearable.