Trip to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam - April 2009
Review of Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon

We stayed at Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam in the beginning of April 2009. I booked the room online on the Renaissance hotel website and it was 170 USD plus taxes.

The transport to the hotel in taxi was 9 USD and took about 20-30 minutes and it is quite a cultural shock with lots of motorcycles left, right and centre. Upon arrival I found out that I had done a mistake and I had booked a room with no breakfast. If we wanted breakfast in addition it would be 19 USD extra per person so we went for an upgrade to club level instead for 55 USD ) including breakfast, lounge access, evening cocktails etc). We got room 1917 on the 19th floor. The room itself didn’t look to bad at first glance. Greyish walls, a dark green carpet, light wooden furniture etc. The bed was quite big but a bit too hard for my liking – and there were lots of pillows and they were a bit too fluffy. There was a two seat sofa and a chair with a small table, a work desk and chair but internet was at an additional cost. The flat screen TV was nice and in front of the bed and had a good option of channels. There was also a mini bar and a safe.

The bathroom was in green and greyish tiles, the sink area was in dark granite and there was also some light wood. The amenities selection was ok and included shower cap (aka bath hat). Shampoo (aka hair wash), conditioner etc. The shower and bathtub was incorporated and it was a shower curtain deal and I have to admit that I prefer the shower corner with glass door instead.

On the rooftop of the hotel there is a nice pool that gives you a nice view of the city and the river area.

As we stayed at the club level we had access to the lounge on 18th floor and that gave us free WiFi, soft drinks all day long, breakfast and free evening cocktails from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm. The lounge has a great view to the river and it was amazing to see all the activity taking place there. Breakfast was OK but nothing compared to what you can find on some of the hotels in Bangkok. Here you had to choice of bread, fresh juice on bottles, some cereal, eggs could be ordered and they had bacon available, yogurt etc. During the evening cocktails they also had some light finger snacks.

Location of the hotel is very good. Located in district 1 it didn’t take us many minutes to walk to the main areas in town. But if you are up for an adventure you can also get an “om”, a motorcycle taxi to bring you to the place you want.

Conclusion
This was my first time in Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam so I don’t have much to compare the hotel experience with. I can see that they are trying to set up the same deal as you find in hotels in Thailand and Malaysia (with lounge level, evening cocktails etc) but they still have some way to go before they reach the same level in terms of staff, service, communication etc. Due to my mistake when booking the hotel got more expensive than expected (I’m not sure I understand why hotels in Ho Chi Minh should be more expensive then in KL or Bangkok) and it retrospect I should have just kept the standard room and had breakfast at Juice just around the corner from the hotel or stayed at Sheraton nearby (as that would have been cheaper). But all in all we did have a nice stay at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon and I would not mind staying there again.

Please check out the hotel homepage for more information. Please check out TripAdvisor for reviews of the hotel.