Alagon Saigon Hotel & Spa

This hotel has a nice location, with plenty of restaurants nearby, and the breakfast options in the dining room were fine, though the voucher system seemed unnecessary. The rooftop bar was comfortable, but the layout was confusing, with several entrances and people wandering around trying to work out where they were or how to get back out. The whole place felt oddly combined, perhaps from two or three separate hotels, and the layout is poor. The service charge applied to everything we ordered, although the bar and restaurant staff were very good and extremely helpful. At check-in we were handed a list of rules. No cooking, durians, or smoking seemed standard, but the rules about bed linen were unlike anything I’d encountered elsewhere. It wasn’t clear when booking that standard rooms had no windows. After some fuss we were offered very expensive upgrades, and eventually one of our three rooms was upgraded for free. The receptionist took our phone while Booking.com was open and cancelled the room without our knowledge or approval. I found that highly unprofessional. Getting to our room meant passing several lifts, going into the dining room, and waiting for a lift there while people ate. The stairs from the room also led into the dining room, with curtains on them for some reason. At the bottom was a door with a sign asking people to open it slowly, presumably so it wouldn’t hit staff or guests. Our toilet had a sign saying not to flush paper, but to put it in the bin, which was at least six feet away and had no lid. That left us either throwing dirty paper across the room like an origami basketball player or walking over with our pants around our ankles. The bath worked poorly as both a shower and a bath. The curtain didn’t keep the water in when showering, and it was too short to enjoy as a bath. They’d be better off replacing it with a proper shower. The room itself was nice, but small, as you’d expect in a city hotel. The double bed was pushed against a wall, so I’d disturb my partner if I got up at night. The socket beside the bed didn’t work, which meant the phone charger was across the room and I had to get up in the night to check the time. I’d call this a 3.5-star hotel and wouldn’t recommend staying here.