After a series of videos of Ms. Nguyen Y Quyen (Dong Nai) - a female tourist complaining about her "room exploding" despite paying in full, Royal hostel Hotel on Hang Chao Street received more than 30,000 1-star reviews on Google Maps along with countless critical comments.
According to Lao Dong, at 10:00 a.m. on November 12, this hotel was extremely deserted. Although it is almost noon - a time when hotels are often bustling with guests checking in or waiting to check-in early, the first floor of the hotel has dark power outages.
The door was pulled down and there were no staff on duty at the counter. The outside of the hotel is also quite quiet, with no tourists passing by.
Responding to Lao Dong, Ms. Y Quyen said that she booked a room through an online travel service platform for 4 days and 3 nights at Royal hostel Hotel on Hang Chao Street, from November 7-10, and paid in full.
For personal reasons, the female tourist delayed her flight schedule and arrived to check in later than expected. At 2:00 a.m. on November 9, she arrived at the hotel and was informed by the receptionist that there were no more rooms. Too upset, she posted the story on social media and received sympathy from netizens.
By the morning of November 12, tens of thousands of star reviews on the Google Maps app in recent days had disappeared, due to the feature of removing virtual or spam reviews, unrelated to real-life experiences.
In fact, the hotel has received many 1-star reviews, reflecting on the service attitude of unprofessional staff.
Some typical reviews include bad employee attitude, high room prices, rooms with strange odors...
"The staff situation is extremely bad. Customers booked a room on a month's booking, but when the day was right, they reported that there were no rooms, and there were no rooms left. Thank you for canceling the room on the booking and demanding an increase," one person commented indignantly.
Its true that there has never been an employee with such an attitude, not enthusiastic, and a willing-to-see face, one person commented on the bad experience at the hotel.
Regarding the story of customers who have paid but are not allowed to receive rooms, Mr. Bui Thanh Tu - Marketing Director of BestPrice Travel told Lao Dong: Currently, many hotels in Vietnam do not have clear regulations on "full shows" - that is, customers who book rooms but do not come.
In this case, Mr. Tu said that professional hotels will contact guests before the room drop-off time, asking when guests will be ready to receive. This hotel did not proactively call customers, nor confirmed the check-in time.
According to Mr. Tu, once the customer has paid, the hotel has no right to cancel the guest's room, unless the guest proactively announces the cancellation at the last minute due to force majeure reasons such as illness, funeral arrangements, etc.
In this case, the female tourist cannot guarantee her rights without proactively notifying in advance the check-in date about the confirmation of room reservation and changing the room admission time.
In addition, Mr. Tu informed: " booking rooms via the application is convenient, but when an incident occurs, the process of handling it via the application often takes time. If booking through a travel agency, just need a call from a customer, the unit will provide immediate support, including finding another hotel for temporary accommodation, negotiating to change days or getting a partial refund".
Experts say that the hotel will suffer great losses in terms of revenue and reputation. On the other hand, this is also a lesson in professional behavior, crisis handling so that other hotels do not let similar incidents happen.
O Cho Dua Ward Police (Hanoi) discovered a number of violations at Royal hostel Hotel - the facility accused of not allowing guests to receive rooms despite having paid the full amount for 3 nights.
Firstly, the establishment did not comply with the regulations on accommodation notices, violating Point b, Clause 1, Article 9 of Decree 144/2021/ND-CP.
Second, a business establishment with security and order conditions but not granted a certificate of eligibility, violates Point a, Clause 4, Article 12 of Decree 144/2021/ND-CP.
Third, facilities that do not preserve or maintain common fire fighting equipment as prescribed in Point a, Clause 1, Article 22 of Decree 106/2025/ND-CP.
The authorities are handling these violations according to the law.
