SOHO Suites - BenThanh Market & SG Heart

The only thing this place has going for it is the location. The room and toilet were extremely dirty, the bed dusty, and the bathroom floor so slippery that my mother fell in there. It was frightening. There is no elevator, so we had to haul two heavy suitcases up narrow, unsafe stairs to the third floor. Anyone not lucky enough to get a first-floor room faces that exhausting climb. Before check-in, staff demanded an extra 500,000 VND without clearly explaining why. It wasn't a deposit, and we never got the money back at checkout. The room looked nothing like the online photos, and even the lobby was different. With no signboard outside, we were confused on arrival and unsure we'd found the right place. Please avoid booking here. Better, cleaner, cheaper rooms are easy to find nearby. This is my first negative review, but I really want to warn people. I consider this hotel a scam.

The staff were friendly, but that didn't make up for the poor facilities and cleanliness. My first room had nowhere to hang or store clothes, so I moved. Then I was told repairs were happening and stayed away all day despite the hot rainy season. During six days, the room wasn't cleaned at all, which is unacceptable. The large security shutter was shut at 8pm one night. On another occasion, it malfunctioned, leaving guests locked inside and staff outside. I dread to think what might happen in a fire. The location is great, but the service and facilities didn't meet a decent standard. They asked me to pay the full amount in cash at check-in, which I did, but I had to wait a couple of hours for my change. Later, I got messages from the booking service saying the property had tried to charge my debit card too.

The room we were given was on the rooftop and felt more like a storage room. Towels were extremely dirty, the bathroom hadn't been cleaned, and the sheets smelled disgusting and made us itch even while sitting at the desk. There was no staff on site to help, and no one answered our messages. At checkout, they kept an extra 500,000 VND and refused to return it. There's no elevator, so we carried our luggage up a very narrow staircase to the fourth floor. What was advertised bore no resemblance to what we actually got, and felt unsafe. This is by far the worst hotel I've stayed in. Please avoid it, and compare the booking photos with the place you receive. I hope nobody else has to go through this.

I own a hotel in Dublin, Ireland, rated 9.5 on booking . Com, so I know the system and what good customer service looks like. Some properties use card problems to get out of bookings, and I suspect that is what happened here. The product itself seems good, but poor management and a lack of communication, assistance, and customer care let it down badly. Focusing on guests would bring more customers and better occupancy and service. On check-in day, they messaged me on WhatsApp at 10am asking whether I was still coming, even though check-in wasn't until 2pm and I was around the corner. Then they declined my card, which I'd been using everywhere. They asked me to update it, so I tried a second card, then a third working card, having used both Visa and Mastercard. They declined all three. I said I could be there in five minutes to sort it out and still wanted the room, but they told me to try the card again. After the third decline, Booking.com was supposed to cancel automatically. They gave me exactly one minute after I updated the card before declining it. I called and offered to come over straight away, and they apologized and said the room was already gone. It took less than a minute. I believe the property wanted to cancel but couldn't under Booking.com policy, so they created a problem rather than admit they were overbooked or wanted to extend existing guests' stays. For transparency, I know how Booking.com works, and there's a reason our score is high while theirs is low. Luckily I was already in the country, but imagine arriving on an international flight and having to deal with this. It's unacceptable.