101 Star Hotel

The Wi-Fi was really weak, and the door was awkward and noisy. I couldn't open it without help from the staff.

Great.

The hotel was among the cheapest places to stay, and what we got matched the description. Our room was cleaned regularly, the towels were changed, and bottled water was topped up. The staff were helpful and cheerful, mostly young women, though their English could be hard to understand. We managed to communicate anyway. We were fortunate with the noise: the Chinese guests were three floors below us, and the double-glazed windows kept much of the construction sound outside from bothering us. The food was just passable and takes some getting used to. I always found something, but my son stuck to fruit and the occasional pasta. We didn't come away with a bad impression. I'd recommend it to undemanding travelers who spend little time at the hotel and mainly need somewhere to sleep and have breakfast.

The room was cleaned on their own schedule. They made the bed and refilled the water, but didn't mop the floor. At checkout, we were also charged for five one-liter bottles of water that had already been in the fridge when we arrived, on top of the complimentary 200 grams. They added three more one-liter bottles from the sea-view room, although there certainly weren't eight bottles in total. We paid 80,000 dong. It's not a huge amount, but it left a bad feeling. Be ready for the friendly Vietnamese staff to ask for extra money at checkout, especially since the hotel keeps your passport as collateral, as required at check-in. At first they welcomed us warmly and offered a sea-view room for one free night. We would have had to pay another $50 to stay in it after that, so we said no, particularly as the hotel is on the second line. Breakfast was decent, but the Chinese guests were a real downside: there were so many of them, and they behaved as if it were their last meal. By day five, we were eating at the cafe across the street instead. Good luck.