Ailen Hotel

The room itself was good enough, but the reception experience wasn’t great. We asked to see a room and were quoted twice the Booking.com price. The receptionist wouldn’t offer early check-in if we booked online, and I had to negotiate hard to pay the same rate in cash. We ended up on the fifth floor with no elevator. I can’t rate it lower because I assume things might go better if you book online and arrive in the afternoon.

The price felt fair for the hotel, and the staff were so friendly and helpful. When our door lock broke, they fixed it straight away. But the noise made it hard to sleep: the hotel is right beside Bui Vien Walking Street, and the music kept blaring until 5am. That’s not the hotel’s fault. We should have checked the reviews first.

We only spent about an hour there before asking to leave because the room was revolting. The online photos bore no resemblance to what we found: the floor, sheets, curtains, and toilet were all incredibly dirty. They still demanded payment for one night, even though we hadn’t received the service. When we refused, staff stopped us from leaving, blocked the exit, and held our suitcases. They became extremely aggressive, and we were frightened. People on the street were looking over, shocked by how the staff were behaving. We tried to explain that we’d worked in a hotel and knew this was unacceptable. We’ve included the only photo we took. In the end, we paid to avoid trouble. If you want to enjoy your time in Ho Chi Minh, stay away from this place.

We went for a foot massage at the place attached to the hotel. Before the service, we asked them to swipe our card to check whether it would work there. Their machine didn’t charge it, but the woman started the massage anyway without paying attention to what we’d asked. Afterwards she brought out an old machine with no tap-to-pay, and our card wouldn’t work. We were staying next door and it was midnight, so we asked to pay the next day and gave them our hotel name and room number. The Ailen Garden receptionist got involved because the massage manager couldn’t communicate with us. I’ve never had such rude treatment in all the countries I’ve visited. He treated us like gangsters and wouldn’t let us leave or even go to a nearby ATM. He kept talking about incidents from the Crime Patrol drama. I went back to our hotel for the remaining cash, but we were still 40000dong short. He wouldn’t let us go to an ATM or move away. We borrowed the money from our hotel reception, and he only allowed me to go next door after taking my watch. It was a horrifying experience for a tourist. I wonder how he can represent his country this way and give it such a bad name. One bad apple can make the whole country look bad.