Mai Home Hostel

We booked this hostel at the last minute because it was so cheap, and I wasn’t expecting much. The service turned out to be the best I’ve had in years of travelling. Staff got us checked in quickly and gave us a large, clean room with its own bathroom. They also marked places to eat and exchange money on a map, booked our Cu Chi tunnel tour without the extra hassle, and arranged taxis, including an airport ride for a quarter of what we paid on arrival. Usually I don’t leave a review when a hostel doesn’t make much effort to help, as plenty of travelers feel the same way. Here, everyone was friendly and went out of their way for us. It made Ho Chi Minh one of my best trips. Thank you so much.

Getting a room at 6:30 in the morning after arriving by train from Danang was much appreciated. The location is good too, just a short walk from backpacker Street and all its food options. Rooms are upstairs from the family home, and the lobby doubles as their boutique and workshop, so it’s busy with relatives and staff. Most don’t speak English, but a young woman was able to help us. We stayed in room #6, which was extremely cramped, almost claustrophobic. We saw that the room next door, number 5, was much more spacious, so it seems to depend on which one you get. The bathroom was decent, though it had a persistent odd smell, probably from the heat drying out the drains. Leaving the exhaust fan on cleared it up. The shower worked well. Tip: there’s a public pool about a 20-minute walk away, and it’s pretty decent for VND 30000 per person.

The hosts are welcoming, and the rooms are roomy with air conditioning, a firm mattress, and a clean bathroom. It’s a good pick for travelers watching their budget. You can also book most HCMC tourist activities at the front desk, which saves the work of arranging them online or around the city.

The staff were friendly, but that didn’t make up for the rest. My room had almost nothing in it, the bed was hard as a rock, breakfast was poor, and the shower didn’t work. At night it was noisy, with an ineffective, loud A.C. I was glad I only stayed one night. For the same price I could have gone back to city backpackers hostel, which is 100x better. I trusted the earlier reviews when I booked, and regret it. Probably the worst place I’ve stayed in saigon.