HotelChatter

Anti-View

Room With an Anti-View: A Balcony Wardrobe in Ho Chi Minh City

April 24, 2008 at 9:33 AM | 0 Comments

You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.

How's this for a contrast: if you stay at the Sheraton Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, you'll have a fantastic view of a swimming pool belonging to the Caravelle Hotel next door. But get one main street away from the action, and this is the view from your hotel window instead.

Vietnam vacationer ultrapop design had this to say about their choice:

Well, we did ask for a quiet room away from the main street. Behind it rises the modern Sheraton Hotel in stark contrast.

We're still not sure which hotel gives this view, but it's somewhere in the Dong Khoi section of Ho Chi Minh City, so drop us a line if you can identify it. And let us know if the same wardrobe selection is still hanging on that balcony.

[Photo: ultrapop design]

Vietnam Hotels

A Tight Squeeze for Luxury in Vietnam

August 20, 2007 at 9:49 AM | 0 Comments

If you travel to Vietnam on business at the last minute, you may notice a problem getting that upscale room in the hotel you wanted. According to this news article, there's a shortage of hotel rooms at the top end and things could get worse before they get better. Some interesting notes:

- Ho Chi Minh City needs 17,000 more international-standard luxury rooms by 2010.
- Hanoi's hotels can only meet 70 percent of needs during the peak tourism season.
- Most foreign and domestic travelers chose to stay at luxury hotels, according to the survey conducted at 29 hotels in 10 big cities nationwide over the last two years.
- The survey also showed net profits were up 21 and 40 percent at four and five star hotels respectively, much higher than the 4 percent increase at three-star hotels.

So if you're heading that direction, you may want to look into a suite at a 3-star hotel, booking far ahead at the Park Hyatt in Saigon (pictured here), or getting out of the two main cities and chilling out at the Imperial Hotel in Hue instead.

Related Stories:
· High-end hotels in demand in Vietnam [Thanhnien News]