Thao Nhi Hotel

We got a cheap deal, and the air conditioning worked perfectly. We returned the room after 11:00 without realizing, but there was no problem. The service was really good, and the staff were always smiling. The receptionist was especially generous and had a lovely smile.

I liked how efficiently things were handled at Thao Nhi Hotel, especially when they adjusted my booking right away. I was traveling solo, but the room was surprisingly spacious, with drawers, a table and chair, a hair dryer, and a large bathroom. Towels and toiletries were provided too. The staff were kind. It’s in an alley with shops, close to a 7-11 and just a short walk from Highlands Coffee. I was glad I stayed there, even for only a few days in HCMC.

Dan’s Wash & Stay at 185/10 Pham Ngu Lao was a handy find: it's a clean, easy-to-use, tourist-friendly self-service laundry that's open 24/7, and a load costs only 30K. The whole area around Pham Ngu Lao works well for budget travelers, with reasonable prices and everything within walking distance.

I’ve traveled for over three decades, and I’ve never had a worse hotel experience. The room was dingy and had no window, though the bed and bathroom were clean enough. The bass from Walking Street pounded through my earplugs until 5am. Still, the worst part was how aggressive and ugly the owners were with me. I booked two separate stays at Thao Nhi because I couldn’t remember the name of a nearby hotel I’d used a year and a half earlier. I found a photo I’d taken from that hotel’s balcony, where Thao Nhi was visible. Since I’d be in HCMC twice, I figured I could stay here first, then book my longer stretch in person at the hotel up the alley, which I later identified as Saigon Hotel. I arrived at Nhi Thao in a taxi after being awake for a little over two days. The driver had driven off with my cellphone, which had been on the dashboard running Google Maps to guide him. My Agoda booking said 350k a night, but the hotel wanted 400k. I didn’t mind the small difference. I was short on cash and needed to exchange money, so I gave the older woman, who was part of a multi-generational family running the place, 500k. We both understood that I still owed 300. I went to a nearby exchange, came back, handed her a 500k note, and she returned 200k. That settled the room payment. I was very anxious about my phone and didn’t expect to get it back, given the taxi driver’s vibe. I needed to eat, though, so I gave the woman another 500k note and tried to explain that if the driver came back with my phone, she should give him that 500k as a reward. We had trouble communicating, but I tried to keep it simple. Later, she remembered only the first 500k. She had no idea about the second 300k or the 500k reward. She said none of that happened. Her family, who hadn’t been there when I handed over those two later amounts, got involved in a nasty confrontation. They called me a liar and said I was trying to scam them. I decided to leave rather than stay the second night, giving up the money I’d paid. That sparked an even worse scene. A brother who was yelling and smelled of booze held onto my luggage. Once I got him to let go, his sister jumped in and demanded they not let me leave. In the end, I lost 900K, or 1000k if you count the amount they added to the Agoda price. The ugliness of the whole thing mattered far more than the money. For a while, I wondered if the older woman had lied deliberately or was that senile. I suspected malice because she followed me up the alley to Saigon Hotel while I was booking my second stay. When I looked from reception toward the street, she was standing there, staring at me. About a week later, I came back to the neighborhood in the evening, walking with my luggage through the little alley to Saigon Hotel. The woman was sitting outside with another woman. When she saw me, she waved and smiled. The warmth of that smile was bizarrely shocking. She seemed to have no memory of treating me like Satan a week before. She may have an excuse. The rest of the family don’t. If you stay in that neighborhood, the rooms with balconies at Saigon Hotel avoid the nightclub noise better than the rooms at the back or at Nhi Thao. Needless to say, I don’t recommend Nhi Thao.