Originally Posted by wkndtraveler

Name of the hotel: Sofitel Plaza Hanoi

What is your Le Club status? Platinum

Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Very much so.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked luxury room with city view and received luxury club room with lake view (the upgrade was confirmed already before arriving by a guest relations manager when he contacted me by email and asked our estimated arrival time so that they can prepare the room for us).

How are the rooms?
Liked it. Had fresh flowers and amazing view to Westlake and Hanoi’s center. Large, luxurious bathroom with separate bathtub and walk-in shower. Amenities included Lanvin’s toiletries and bottled water that were both restocked twice a day (and they brought even more if needed). Free laundry for three items per day was useful.

What was good and what was bad?

Good:
- Personalized service: nothing was too much asked. For example, our bed was too firm to our liking so they made it softer by adding extra fetherbed on top of everything.
- Active management: GM and GM2 could be seen in dinner and breakfast buffets checking that everything is good.
- Excellent dinner and breakfast buffets with decent price (they have the best croissants I have eaten outside France)
- Location: away from husstle and busstle yet not too far from city center. Taxi ride takes about 10 minutes to Sofitel Metropole and old quarter and cost only 2–3 euros.
- HUGE swimming pool for a hotel (water is warmed)

Bad:
- Price list for everything including even a room service menu(!), laundry bag, and telephone was very weird, like a joke
- Very dated spa except the pool (feels totally different hotel when entering that area)
- Lounge offerings are somewhat boring (but on the other hand, one can’t expect to get a full dinner buffet there)

Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge?
Large and comfortable lounge, even though not very luxurious (design is more like from a beach villa, I guess it’s a matter of taste). Food on offer doesn’t change much and is limited so ended up trying buffet dinner with oysters, scallops and prawns downsters (loved it), bar menu at lobby (one of the best burgers I have ever had!) and ordering a tasty margharita pizza from room service menu to be delivered to the lounge with freeflowing drinks. It works!

What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
- Platinum recognition was perfection: a guest relations agent escorted us from lobby to lounge to check in and was so thankful for my platinum status. At the lounge, a guest relations manager personally welcomed and shaked hands with us. He was almost every morning and evening in the lounge and made sure all is good.
- A hand-written welcome card from GM2 was waiting for us in the room together with fresh flowers, macaroons, chocolates, mangos and some other fruites.
- Drink voucher was given at check-in, usable for selected wines, beers, cocktails and soft drinks at lobby bar or Summit lounge.

Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?
Absolutely! I will certainly be back when returning to lovely Hanoi. Wonderful hotel with excellent platinum recognition and decent prices (Sofitel Plaza was more than three times cheaper than Sofitel Metropole during our travel). A very good example of a truly five-star hotel!