Editor Pick
Ideally Situated in the Centre for all the Action
- November 30, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
garymarsh6 from Gravesend, United Kingdom
Kimdo Royal City Hotel Saigon.
We stayed in this hotel which is ideally based right in the centre of Saigon right near to all the sites and shopping and near to the Saigon River. It is ideally situated with plenty of restaurants and bars around. It is within easy walking distance to the cathedral post office, market and opera house. In the next block is the famous Rex hotel where the journalists used to meet to write up their reports to send off during the American/ Vietnamese war.
The hotel is classified as a four star hotel and there are doormen to open the door on your arrival and bell boys to take care of your luggage.
Reception
The reception area is very well furnished with a large air conditioned sitting area with comfortable sofas and chairs and a small bar in the corner. The staff are very attentive and will take orders for drinks very quickly
Check in was fairly easy although I think that some of the staff had a bit of a problem understanding English but on the whole they were very helpful and hospitable. They were quick and efficient and plenty of staff were on hand to help. They can organise tours, cabs, book tickets for you and restaurants. They will also arrange for a driver to pick you up at the airport or to drop you back for $20 which I thought was excellent value.
The rooms.
The rooms were very big and spacious with nice furniture and usual amenities as found in most hotels. The beds were very big too but they were very hard. There were good facilities in the room including a large television, plenty of storage space for luggage and clothing. There was a mini bar and tea and coffee facilities.
On one of the days we reported that the air conditioning was not working. On our return to the hotel later that day it still was not working. I called reception and they sent someone immediately. We left to go out to dinner. On our return the air conditioning was still not working. I rang reception again and they sent a man up. He looked at the air conditioning unit shook his head then called for help. By this time I was very tired and just wanted to sleep as it was getting on for 2AM and it was quite obvious the pair of them were not going to get anything sorted out.
I rang reception and asked them to provide us with another room which they were reluctant to at first but then organised another room when I insisted and they then moved us into a suite. They insisted on calling porters to move all out stuff up to the new room. It was much better here with the air con worked very well as the humidity in Saigon is very tiresome.
Restaurants.
There is a large restaurant in the hotel serving both Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and European cuisine. The standard of the food was very high and we had nothing to complain about. The breakfast buffet was very extensive and they cooked eggs anyway you liked plus pancakes and waffles. When we first went to the buffet restaurant for breakfast the manager asked if we thought anything could be done better. We made a couple of suggestions which would make it easier for guests to serve themselves and also causing less work for the staff. We went off for four days and returned for a couple of more nights to find they had implemented the changes we suggested and the restaurant experience was even better than we had experienced originally. The staff were very friendly and bent over backwards to try and help you.
There is a gym and swimming pool which we did not use but I understand that the facilities are very good. They will also offer massage services and spa treatments in the health club.
The cost of the rooms range from $80 for a single room per night to $210 a night for the biggest suite and it includes breakfast. I think it is certainly good value for money as the standards are quite high, the service is good, the staff are very friendly and helpful and the biggest bonus is that it is right in the heart of the city and although outside it is mad and noisy inside it is like a peaceful haven.
I would definitely recommend this hotel if you happen to be visiting Saigon.
From journal South Vietnam
Editor Pick
The Best Location on Nguyen Hue!
- October 13, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
Eric from Aiea from San Jose, California
I had been wanting to stay at the Kimdo for a while, having passed by it many times walking down Nguyen Hue and seeing that It was probably the center of central locations for Saigon’s tourist areas. I always liked the ground floor reception area, with its lion statues out front and its big plate glass with couches and customers always there looking at people passing by and very attentive doorman always taking care of customers.
The Super Deluxe room I had was very clean and well maintained and had a great décor to it. I really liked the extra area that the sitting room provided in getting the Super Deluxe. It was a huge room for the great rate price that I obtained! The only pitfall was the shower in the bathtub was not working properly, and the shower pressure itself was low. (Would recommend that you check the shower in the room before taking it, just to make sure that it adjusts properly). Of course if the view out of the big windows in the sitting area is really great – your likely going to stay with that room despite shower issues.
One of the best features of the Kimdo is the free Wifi on each floor. If you have T-mobile or similar service with your home cell phone – you are to put that to use and make free Wifi calls back to the USA or elsewhere and I was able to use T-Mobile to make Wifi calls back to the USA as well as sending and receiving text messages. Also, if you do not have 2 door cards, use a business card in the power card switch to keep the AC going - otherwise it takes a few minutes to cool the room down.
The Kimdo has a great staff, and from the front desk to the waitresses at breakfast – everyone there was just super helpful and friendly. The rooms stay in such good shape and are so clean because the cleaning ladies really do take a very great pride in what they do. Those doormen who I had seen helping other in the past – were a great group and really gave some great tips on different places and managed to get me a taxi in no time what so ever each time I needed one.
The hotel has a great breakfast buffet that is a full fledge spread out of Viet and Chinese and Western foods. Your ticket is left in the room daily by the cleaning crew. The breakfast area is on the 5th floor and it really is a huge and wonderful dining room with a waterfall in back and large windows to the side that look down onto the street .
The location of the hoel is central to the tourists areas of District 1. You are across the street from the Carville and the Saigon Saigon Bar atop of it, half a block from the Opera House and all the places around it, and about a km from the Benh Thanh market area (10 minutes walk). Taxis are always available on Nguyen Hue to the front of the hotel. There is a major department store next door that has several floors. You can purchase a sim card for your cellphone there if you have one that works in SE Asia.
From journal Saigon Mid-Autumn