IC Nha Trang

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Mostly, but some severe shortcomings

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
They seem to have changed their policy. Before you could book a basic room and pay a reasonable fee to finally get their executive suite. Now you need to book a Junior suite which makes the room fairly expensive compared to what you get. They have lots of room categories which make upgrades less meaningful.

How are the rooms?
The executive suite is very nice. Living room with sofa, balcony and extra small toilet room, bedroom with a corner window with great more than 180 degree view (unfortunately the work desk is in the bedroom and not in the living room) and good size bathroom with freestanding tu, walk in shower etc. Great view from the bathtub.

How is the exec. lounge?
Disappointing overall . Great location and view.
Slow service, mediocre food quality, They even get sparking water wrong: They serve a local brand (nothing against that) in small plastic bottles with manufacturing dates many month back. No bubbles, stale taste. When you complain they get you Pelegrino in small plastic bottles which is even older and - guess what- stale and no bubbles.
Many of their servers lack even basic English skills. Many times several of the staff stands around the entrance and guests have to flag them down.
Unprofessional, for example they talk with guests about other guests - and not in a nice way

Did you receive a welcome gift?
Good size fruit basket, cheese plate, chocolates, bottle of red

How was the minibar?
About average, but with a few larger bottles of alcohol (similar to Bangkok)

What was good and what was bad?

-Good
- Breakfast food quality has improved and they have a good selection of Vietnamese dishes. Unfortunately their bread selection (except the bread for Banh Mi) is pretty tasteless and low quality. Lots of dishes cater more to chinese taste, Also it can look messy, since they don't have enough serving utensils there and don't clean regularly (same for for fish and ham)
- Staff in general is very, very nice and attentive, especially in the lobby, at the door, bell service

-Bad
- Pool is relatively small, chairs don't feel clean. During winter time no more sun after around 11/12 am
- Very difficult to check final bill for accuracy since they don't itemize and show you only a printout with the total as single line item. Also you book in USD, buth the invoice in Dong and it seems they play a bit of a exchange rate game
- They also charged minibar items and after complaining it took them multiple phone calls and around 10 minutes until they take the charges off
- They charge your credit card (on a non prepaid rate) before you actually check out without authorization which makes it quite a hassle when something is wrong
- they bow. A lot. Everywhere. It is somewhere between obnoxious and hilarious and made me feel awkward. Instead of investing into bow training they would better have invested in some management and language training for the staff in the club lounge
- Inconsistent service. Some days turn down closes the drapes, some days they don't. Some days they replace empty shampoo bottles, some days they don't. Seems they have no quality control and/or not enough training for housekeeping.
- They have a tiny stretch of beach across the main street. Looks like they don't have the service any more where they take guests across the street. You need to know how to cross a busy street in Vietnam: Don't look left and right, just start walking and hope the traffic will float around you. Most of the time it works pretty well and you survive.

Overall compared to my last visit about 2 years ago: Restaurant is much better now, Club lounge has deteriorated a lot, staff is as friendly as before but consistency/training seems to be lacking.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points?
With their new policy and inflated categories the hotel is too expensive compared what you can get in Nha Trang

Would you return?
If I wanted to go back to a city hotel in Nha Trang: yes, but book a basic room. If I want to spend a few days to relax I would pick other places like the Mia or the Amiana.
Not specifically about the hotel, but I believe Nha Trang has changed to the worse in the last several years: significantly more hotels, road infrastructure has not improved much. Traffic is now more or less a constant gridlock, the area around the beach is severely overcrowded. Also the noise level because of the constantly honking cars is up even further.