Golden Sun Hotel Apartments

We had a really good family stay. The room was large, it was pretty quiet, and coffee was available 24/7.

A clean, tidy room in a good location, and the price was very affordable. There was one big cockroach in the room, though. The kitchen had the essentials, including a microwave, oven, teapot, sink, fridge, and more. You can also get a modest breakfast here and rent a motorbike for 150K a day.

I left four days early because I couldn’t stay there any longer. The receptionist did return the money for the nights I didn’t stay, and the whole place still felt like a bad movie. I spent two months in Vietnam, visited the whole country, and stayed in many cities, but this was my worst accommodation there. I’d asked about an airport transfer, then ended up waiting at the airport for two hours after landing while my luggage arrived. The taxi driver called three times, but didn’t speak English, so we couldn’t understand each other. Someone from the hotel called to say the taxi was waiting somewhere. Seriously? In Vietnam, drivers at all my other airport transfers had waited with a sign bearing my name. It was my first time in Ho Chi Minh, and being expected to chase down a driver at an airport I’d never been to before was absurd. The first taxi eventually left, so I took another one to the hotel. The receptionist said she had paid for the first taxi, but that wasn’t my problem. Why pay for a service that wasn’t provided? I’d booked a balcony room, but they tried to put me in a basic room, maybe to make up for the airport transfer loss. I only got the room I’d paid for after refusing the other one. I also asked a young woman at reception about a travel agency for trips around Ho Chi Minh. She didn’t speak English, so we used Google Translate, and she asked whether I was sure I wanted to go on a trip. When I asked about laundry, I got no answer and she left the lobby. Breakfast was another bad joke: just pho bo, and the worst I tasted in Vietnam. There was nothing else to choose from, no coffee or juice. I had to pay separately when I asked for coffee. On my first day, a receptionist asked if I wanted the room cleaned, and of course I did. The next day I left early for the Mekong Delta, but nobody was at reception, despite it supposedly being open all the time. The room wasn’t cleaned that day, and the trash wasn’t emptied.

I booked a large, spacious room weeks ahead, only to be told it wasn’t available and belonged to their other property. They wouldn’t refund me and offered a tiny room instead, nothing like the one shown online. A total waste of money. The Wi-Fi was very slow, and the TV had no remote. Management’s kids were always playing and jumping on the lobby chairs, even late at night.