The An Hoa Hotel in Nha Trang is a place that a lot of backpackers might miss out on, this is because the owner does not pay commission to the drivers, hawkers and entrepreneurs that hang around and lead backpackers to their ‘friends’ hotels.
In Vietnam, almost every time a driver takes you to a guest house or hotel upon arrival, this will put up your room rate, the fact that An Hoa doesn’t pay these drivers makes your stay much better value. Not only will the room rate be cheaper, you won’t suffer any hassles for taxi rides and tours from ‘in-house’ drivers. Bear in mind that the drivers are just trying to earn a living, always be polite to them when saying no.
The An Hoa Hotel, Nha Trang
After arriving in Nha Trang, I headed down a street across from the beach and came across a place with around six or seven guest houses, or ‘Mini Hotels’ as they are styled in Vietnam. I looked in a few of them, but on arrival at An Hoa, I found the staff were very friendly and full of good advice, I also noticed that they had internet terminals to use for the guests in the lobby.
When they took me to the room I was really impressed, it was big and clean with a balcony. The balcony isn’t facing the beach, but you can simply turn your head to the left and see across Nha Trang Bay all the way to Hon Tre Island (with the VinPearl logo).
My Room at the An Hoa Hotel
The room had cable TV with good channels like Animal Planet and Discovery, a large bed, fridge, and plenty of cupboards and drawers to store my gear in. There was two doors, one normal sized door at the side, and a large double-door to go out to the balcony.
The bathroom was like a large wet room, with plenty of space to shower and put in your toiletries. Sometimes hotel bathrooms in Vietnam and around the rest of Southeast Asia can be very small and pokey, so the comfortable size is always a plus point.
Bathroom at the An Hoa Hotel
The service at reception was great, when exchanging some US Dollars to Vietnamese Dong they gave a superb rate. I’m not even sure how they came up with such a good rate, it’s almost as if they ripped themselves off! I asked the best way to get to the market from there, the receptionist quickly organised a ride there, which would have been a long walk. The motorbike driver charged a fair price for the trip, the market there is great, and I enjoyed a long walk back down the beach.
The receptionist suggested a boat tour around the local area, and I had also heard about it previously. The boat tour only cost around $6, it wasn’t what I had expected but it was very interesting to say the least! The boat tour was the most craziest day trips I have ever been on, in both good and bad ways.
On the first stop on the boat ride, we visited an aquarium, which was very disappointing and quite depressing. They had rare marine life that was kept in very poor conditions. Giant turtles were crowded into small tanks and rare fish were swimming in dirty, almost stagnant water. The aquarium is an optional addition, you can opt not to pay and wait on the shore or in the boat. My advice here would be not to go into the Aquarium and support this kind of thing. It would be great if the owner of An Hoa could advise people not to go to the aquarium on the boat tour.
The Street with An Hoa Hotel
After that, the trip became surreal, but fun! The host got out a karaoke machine and handed out songbooks to us, then out of nowhere, they set up a full band, complete with a drum kit and guitar, all on a small boat with a few passengers. We also stopped off for snorkeling, and at Hon Tre Island for some seafood, which is the big resort development by VinPearl resorts.
Throughout the whole trip, everyone kept wondering what the host meant by ‘floating bar’, he kept going on about it during the whole trip. Suddenly, the boat stops, starts playing loud electronic music and he jumps into the water with a float, a bottle of wine and some plastic cups. The whole thing was totally bizarre to me, but I joined in, jumped into the water and enjoyed a glass of horrible tasting wine!
The 'Floating Bar'
After the fun boat trip, arriving back at An Hoa Hotel, the receptionist asked me if I’d enjoyed it, I had to say “yes, except for the aquarium”. The trip was an experience-and-a-half.
Upon leaving, the owner asked me to go on TripAdvisor and make a review, he said he enjoyed the feedback to see if there was anything he could improve on. This is great, and it’s good to see somewhere that is interested in receiving public feedback instead of buying fake reviews.
Among the online travel culture, TripAdvisor lost some it’s reputation as a trustworthy website recently, as it was uncovered that accommodation owners were paying people to post fake, but positive reviews about their businesses. There is also a culture of people posting fake negative reviews, with the aim of bringing down the ratings down for other competing businesses. TripAdvisor is currently under investigation from the Advertising Standards Agency, due to their inability to control the fake reviews and comments made by anonymous users.
The fake negative reviews on TripAdvisor are easy to spot, anonymous profiles with no photo, ambiguous accusing statements made without any specific details of their actual stay. You see lot of these reviews on higher rated hotels as people try to bring them down. You can also see some of these fake negative reviews on the An Hoa Hotel TripAdvisor page. The fact is that I can go on TripAdvisor right now and rate any hotel as I please, with any comments that I like.
I had a great stay, would definitely stay there again and I am confident that the An Hoa Hotel has a good TripAdvisor rating on merit, from real guests that have stayed there.