The Palms Hotel Phan Thiet

The room was huge and offered excellent value once we got settled. My main booking problem was caused by Agoda, but the staff were incredibly helpful and went out of their way to fix it. My only small complaint was a slight smell from the bathroom drain. The pool is lovely, though the timing matters: it gets sun until 14:30, then remains in the shade. The location is perfect, in a quiet area right in front of the park, peaceful but still with a nice bit of life around.

The lobby is nicely set up, and the hotel is close to the city center and beach. But our Superior room with a bathtub has been a letdown. The tub drains badly, so water spills onto the bathroom floor every time we use it, and the hotel hasn't managed to fix it. The staff don't seem sure what to do, and the water smells bad. I strongly recommend avoiding a room with a bathtub here.

The safe never worked, though I let that go. The bigger issue was no hot water. Staff came to our room and said it was working, but it wasn't. The front desk insisted we should run the water longer, which I'd already tried, and it took 24 hours for them to fix it. Nobody apologized, and I felt they were trying to make me doubt what had happened. Then the same front desk staff rudely pressed me about checkout at 7 a.m. Rudeness on top of incompetence. How many stars does it take to get hot water?

The price feels high for the quality. The bathtub overflowed because it wouldn't drain properly, leaving the bathroom floor flooded. At night, the air conditioner was so noisy I couldn't sleep, so I had to ask to change rooms. There was no iron in the room either. The front desk offered ironing service, which I accepted, but they only took clothes on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday they said it wasn't available. Seriously? I can't recommend this place.