Sapa Aroma Hotel

I want to share an honest account of my stay booking. This is a small boutique place with enough amenities and a central location, but the way they handled my reservation felt dishonest. I booked two nights for the VMM marathon 2024 and paid in full through Agoda. When the Yagi typhoon came, everything had to be cancelled and replanned. I immediately contacted the hotel through its official phone number and Zalo account to ask whether my booking could be moved to the new dates. They messaged back saying YES, it was OK. On the new date, the young guy at the front desk told me I had to pay another 1 million VND for the two nights, claiming Agoda had cancelled the old booking. I don't believe that was true: I still have the Agoda email asking me to review the property after checkout on the original date, so I think the hotel had already received that payment from the official Agoda booking. If they'd clearly said from the start that the Agoda booking was nonrefundable, that wouldn't have been a problem. Instead they promised to rearrange the full reservation and then asked me to pay again on arrival. That was a lie. BE AWARE AND AVOID THIS PLACE!

The hotel is centrally located, close to the main market, with food and important city spots easy to reach. There's also a bus in front each day for trips to Laocai city. You can rent motorbikes there and buy tickets for Fansipan Mountain, and the staff are ready to help guests. Service was very good, and the price wasn't high. The room was comfortable and had the necessary equipment, with laundry service available too. I stayed seven days and seven nights and felt comfortable and very good about the stay.

The hotel is right in the town center, but there's no disabled-friendly entrance, just a flight of stairs from the main road. It's five floors and has no lift. In the deluxe room, there were three windows but only one opened, and the view was lousy. The beds were hard and uncomfortable. There was hot water for showers, but breakfast was two pieces of toast, two eggs, and horrible coffee. They only accept cash.

We booked one night, and the next day the receptionist offered suggestions for things to do and a motorbike rental. When we got back in the late afternoon, our belongings were all at reception, some in bags and some thrown around, and our toothbrushes were covered in soap. Nobody had told us we needed to check out, either when we spoke to them that morning or by calling us, even though they had our number. If they had let us know, we would have understood. When we asked why they hadn't told us, they didn't apologize or try to help. We had to spend a lot of time finding another hotel. It was a terrible experience with very poor customer service, and I don't recommend this place.