Hanoi Elegance Hotel 1

Reviews - Hanoi Elegance Hotel 1
- Age Group: 31 - 40
- From: Iceland
- Traveller type: Family Traveller
- Age Group: 41 - 50
- From: Canada
- Traveller type: Family Traveller
1. Kind, friendly, helpful staff. These were the most warm & genuine people we met during our entire 10-day trip thru Vietnam. And I'm not talking about just one person - the staff were all so nice. And attentive. (More below).
2. Very nice rooms. The rooms are modern and well appointed. Dark wood, beige walls. Every room has a computer with free internet access. Note: the bathroom was good but not great - so don't expect 5 stars.
3. Quiet. It really was an oasis of calm at night.
4. Breakfast. Perhaps we have lower expectations because we're comfortable doing the backpacker / guest house thing, but we loved the breakfast (included in the room rate) - you get a wide range of food and beverage choices, and a large fruit plate "dessert".
5. Personal attention. We bumped into one employee on the street, and even though she wasn't working (or in uniform), she said hello. Checking out after our first stay, several staff wished us wonderful trips to Halong and Sapa... because they were all attentive to such details. And when we returned from Sapa, arriving back into Hanoi at 5am after a night-time train journey, they welcomed us early in the morning, gave us a complementary breakfast, and apologized profusely about the fact that we wouldn't be able to check in to our room until 9am (something we thought was wonderful b/c the regular check-in time is hours later).
Note: HEH2 is not a budget hotel. We paid $40 the first night, which were told was an especially low price because of a last-minute cancellation, and we paid $50 for the second night. Both were for their 'Deluxe" rooms. The nearby Hanoi Elegance Hotel #1 has lower rates. To us it did not look quite as nice as HEH2; however other travelers told us that it was also clean, quiet and friendly.
- Age Group: 31 - 40
- From: New Zealand
- Traveller type: Adventurer
Wendy
- Age Group: 41 - 50
- From: New Zealand
- Traveller type: Family Traveller
Aside from the mattresses, which were very firm, we absolutely loved our stay and are intending to return next year to further explore this lovely country. We will definitely stay at the Elegance again and are recommending it to anyone who is considering going to Hanoi. In fairness to the hotel, every other hotel we stayed in during our 3 weeks in Vietnam also had very firm mattresses.
Thanks to all the friendly staff and we look forward to seeing you next year.
Stephanie and Lewis (Buddha) Vague, New Zealand
- Age Group: 31 - 40
- From: Canada
- Traveller type: Family Traveller
The hotel rooms were pretty spacious, your basic toiletries were provided although I didn't use them. While AC took a while to cool down the room, it made the room much more comfortable and a great escape from the searing heat outside. The 2nd hotel room they put us in had balcony facing the bustling noisy street. I thought noise would be issue at night but although its heavily congested street, at night time, the noise isn't as bad and we were able to sleep well thru the night. I highly recommend this hotel to anyone staying in Hanoi.
- Age Group: 18 - 25
- From: France
- Traveller type: Young & Single
- Age Group: 26 - 30
- From: Chile
- Traveller type: Young Couple
Read 713 additional reviews of Hanoi Elegance Hotel 1 at TripAdvisor.
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Historical Traveller Reviews of Hanoi Elegance Hotel 1
Very disappointed
from ParisPiccoloProblems from the get-go, with the staff unable to find our booking (which we made directly with the hotel manager via email). Luckily we had printed proof , however the room wasn't ready and we were asked to come back in 3 hours. With three suitcases to lug around, we weren't going far!
The one positive part of our experience was that the staff allowed us to rest in a standard room until our deluxe room was ready. I will say that if you plan to book a standard room here, expect it to be shoebox-sized...
The staff then forgot us, and after several reminder phone calls we finally we moved to our room - which was anything but 'deluxe'. The balcony was great, but that was the only positive. The bathroom was so small and dingy you had to turn sideways to walk between the sink and the bath, the towels were smelly, stained and one even had a cigarette burn. The shower rail fell on me when I attempted to open the curtain, and the shower head faces sideways instead of long ways in the bath, so water pours onto the floor. Can't believe the place is only a year old.
In the room itself, the floor was dirty and left your feet covered in dust and grit, the 'in room PC' couldn't connect to the net and I have never in my life slept on a harder, noisier bed. The mattress was on some sort of chip-board base, which creaked and groaned with the smallest movements. The curtains are so thin you may as well sleep with them open.
On booking we were promised a few little extras which were all utter rubbish, such as 'welcome drinks' (the free plastic bottles of water provided in the bathroom), 'fresh flowers' (a single wilting rose in a plastic vase) and a 'fruit basket' (a small side plate with a banana, two rambutan and some grapes).
Even the service was poor. After waking us up at 10pm to 'confirm' a wake up call for the next day, they then forgot the call in the morning (making us late for a tour). Also the phone in our room wouldn't call reception, so my husband had to go up and down 5 flights of stairs to speak to anyone.
For $50 USD a night, this was terrible. We checked out after one awful night and moved to the Sofitel Metropole - the bext move of our holiday! I understand the Elegance 2 isn't a 5 star hotel, but I was at least expecting somewhere neat, clean and friendly - and this wasn't it.
Being in this business with a strong & long term commitment, we feel hurt receiving this review. Though, never want to be in a defending position to argue with a traveler, we would like to drop a few words, in case some other readers might want to hear the story from both sides:
Our hotel check in time is at 1pm and the guests arrived at 10am. For their convenience, we let them take a rest in one spare room until the booking room was available by noon.
At 1pm when some deluxe rooms were available, the guests were shown 3 rooms (which had different bathroom sizes). And they did choose to stay in the mentioned room.
For the sayings that ‘the towels were smelly, stained and one even had a cigarette burn’ or ‘the floor was dirty and left your feet covered in dust and grit’, it surprised us as first time to hear that. Besides, the room floors are polished hardwood. So we leave you have your own judgement.
The room curtain was 2 layer type (the white sheer and the dark maroon color cloth). As that was the guests’ room, they can adjust the curtain on the way they liked. We have no comment.
Apart from ‘a few little extras’, the tenants forgot to mention about a bottle of wine, another dish of fruits (incl. grapes, bananas, mango, rambutans) and a bunch of beautiful flowers. Were they ‘utter rubbish’? We leave that for your comment.
The wake up call order at 8am made by our staff was recorded in our logbook as well as in the telephone printout and this was a fact, no one can deny. The tenants had breakfasts in the morning at our hotel, the tour guide and the driver from Indochine Travel came to our hotel at 10am. So what was our fault?
The hotel is equipped with a passenger lift. And it was up to the tenants to use the stairs or the lift. We have no comment.
The tenants made 4 night booking but they checked out suddenly without prior notice. We did not ask for any compensation or charges from the tenants. Were we wrong when allowing tenants to leave the hotel without charge? Please comment.
You may further check up with other reviewers of our hotel for a better judgement.
We remain available for further clarification.
Sincerest yours,
s old quarter
from bernard57We stayed three nights, and made use of the numerous services offered by the knowledgeable hotel staff, including a wonderful overnight trip to Halong bay. They also arranged a fantastic private tour of Hanoi with an English speaking guide and driver, and flawless airport transfers.
Many boutique hotels offer flashy rooms but spotty customer service. The Elegance stands far above the crowd, providing a genuinely warm and friendly introduction to Hanoi and its environs. Highly recommended!
Did not meet my expectation...
from chad2001Airport transfers: $20 US each way for a roomy A/C 16-passenger van. Both times, the drivers showed up on time and got us to our destination safely.
Location: located on a very busy and very narrow street of Pho Ma May of the old quarter. I personally did not like this location. I would prefer the wider and quieter streets of Pho Hang Trong (“Drum” Street) or Pho Nha Tho (“Church” Street).
Laundry service: We got laundry done at the hotel for $1 per kilo - a good deal!
Rooms: very small but adequate for short term stay. Both the deluxe and superior rooms we had were very small. Unless we were given the worst rooms in each category, or the pictures on their website are deceiving.
Cleanliness: for a property only a couple of years old, I had expected a little more. The bathrooms and towels look a bit old.
Staff: very polite, helpful and many speak good English.
Overbooking issues: We booked directly with the hotel via email and got several confirmation emails from the manger Mr Do Van Dan. When we checked in, his staff politely informed us that they didn’t have all three rooms I had booked and asked if we would take two rooms instead. I said no and told them they let me down because I had emailed / called several times to confirm to avoid this kind of issues. Luckily, it didn't take long before they offered me the third room which was upgraded to Deluxe...We were glad this first day worked out...Before we left for Ha Long Bay I wanted to confirm that they will have 3 rooms for us when we return. Again, because of the overbooking issues, they asked if we could help them out by going somewhere else. At first I thought it would be easy to find 3 rooms for 1 night at hotels on my back-up list but that was not the case. They helped me make a few phone calls but none of the hotels I had in mind were available. So I once again almost had to beg them to accomodate us, and once again they agreed to accommodate us when we return from HL Bay. The overbooking issues turned out to be a non-issue for us (which I was glad) but it did cause us some headache, making our stay there a less pleasant one.
World Class Service
from skonkleUnforgettable quality
from EskidagerReviewer: A TripAdvisor Member, Reykjavik, Iceland
We have just returned from a magnificent week at Hanoi Elegance 2, Ma May Street 85 in the heart of the old quarters of Hanoi. The hotel is small but a horn of plenty. The service, accuracy, courtesy and friendliness of the staff was incredible. We stayed on the eigth floor in a spacious triple room with an unforgettable wideangle view over the capital and the old quarters of Hanoi. At breakfast one could have either a rich variation of freshly made continental dishes or the delicious traditional Pho from the genuine Pho kitchen across the narrow street. All dishes came with fresh fruit, fresh fruit juice and youghurt which could win all youghurt competions. Every day one had fresh fruit served at the room. The room had PC and free internet access which was great. We paid $60 per night for the room which was far more than excellent value. There was one king-sized deluxe bed and one deluxe single bed with fresh linen. Considering the many qualities of this hotel its location, the superb rooms, the excellent and friendly staff and the unbeleivable offered service this is the best hotel you can choose for your visit in Hanoi. We will never regret our choice and we will certainly stay at this hotel again.
Hanoi Elegance Comes Though
from Spider40view overlooking the street (rm 605). It had thick enough doors to keep out the street noise at night too. The location couldn't have been more convenient as we'd booked a trip with Handspan to Halong Bay and their office is right accross the street. I highly recommend this place.
what a gem
from battlingthe staff are super friendly , more than glad to help you with anything , always asking if there is anything you need , very comforting after coming in off the streets of hanoi away from the snearing snickling peole there.
the rooms ( we had 2 ) where very nice , the first one we had at the back of the hotel was very quiet , clean , a bit old in the bathroom , but still well presented .
the 2nd was at the front of the hotel , it had wooden shutters over the glass french doors that led out to the balcony. these shutters were amazing , they kept out 99 % of the noise and 100% of the light , we slept in one day till 9.30 because the room was so dark we though it was still night...lol very stylish decor and a well presented bathroom with spabath ...great after a long day walking !
its location is right in the heart of the old quarter , very close to everything.
the in room internet was also a blessing , as you couls sit in comfort and write to folks back home
all in all a great place to stay , a breath of fresh air to be greated with open arms into a stylish hotel after a hard day in the city indeed !
i would rate this hotel 100% it doesnt look much from the outside , but inside is just fantastic.
breakfast was not a buffet , but still plentifull .
Nice room, pleasant people, good breakfast, great value
from RossEits all true
from robpriorVery elegant
from OzzieMelbourneThe hotel is well located, only a short 5 minute stroll from the Hoen Kiem Lake. Having the internet in your room was also very convenient. The Breakfast is the only disappointing thing about the hotel. We had breakfast at the cafe across the street.
We enjoyed our stay very much.
Top Local Tips for Hanoi
Taking a taxi Make sure that the driver puts the meter on. He will most probably try to give you a fixed price but insist that he puts the meter on otherwise you will end up paying more than double.
Try The Local Restaurants! After having some less than great local eating experiences in Asia, we gave the Hanoi scene a try. We were well rewarded with quality and value.
Rooms If available, try to ask for an upper-level room - the 8th floor has windows on 3 sides and the 6th and 7th floors have balconies. The hotel pickup and drop-off at the airport is also a great convenience and saves the hassle and worry over the unreliable Hanoi taxis. Staff is very honest and helpful.
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Other names for Hanoi Elegance Hotel 1
- hanoi elegance 2 hotel
- elegance 2 hotel hanoi
- Address: 85 Ma May Street - Hanoi - 10000 - Vietnam
"Great welcome and attention to detail" - Dublin
"An Oasis of Calm, Comfort & Friendliness" - jerry richard tysoe
"I recommend this hotel" - Wendy Guscotts
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Dublin Ireland July 2008