IC Nha Trang (Vietnam) Master Thread
 

IC Nha Trang, Vietnam

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Overall Yes. Since the hotel is new and still in soft opening I am writing a bit more details, so it possibly sounds more negative than it should.

How is the hotel?
New building on the main beach road in Nha Trang where all the other big hotels are (Novotel, Best Western, Sheraton, Sunrise). The hotel has two towers, one with apartments and one with room. Lobby is one level above street level in the back. Swimming pool is one level above the lobby between the two towers).
The rooms facin the ocean (and main road), the rooms facing the second tower have not much of a view, the rooms facing the Sheraton have a better view, these are on an 45 degree angle to the ocean.
The hotel has their own beach area with attendants and 20 umbrellas.
The hotel is not completely open yet. Club, Spa, Ballroom etc are supposed to open before the end of the year.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked cheapest, first got upgraded to a King Suite. Good size, around 75 sqm with separate living room, 1 1/2 bath, 2 baconies. Nice.
After mentioning that we are disappointed about the view (seems that all King Suites are facing the appartment tower) they showed us several other rooms. We settled for a King Executive Suite for a small extra amount.
These are around 100 sqm, bedroom with work area and full height windows on two sides with a perfect 180 degree view of the bay. Bathroom also has 2 big windiws with the same view, additional living room. Very nicely appointed. Loved the room.


How is the exec. lounge?
Not open yet. It seems that they upgrade RA's also to Club. Instead of club we got breakfast in the main restaurant, all day non alcoloic drinks, high tea and happy hour in the lobby bar.
Also two pieces of laundry per day.


Did you receive a welcome gift?

A french made (as Vietnam wouel not have some nice local gifts) paper notebook, 2 bottles of mineral water and a small fruit plate (both not replentished)


How was the minibar?

Average, with some larger bottles of alcohol (100 cc).
Negative is the piece of furniture they put the minimar in. It is faar too big, almost blocks the entryway to the living room, is not very functional and plainly ugly for my taste.

What was good and what was bad?

Good

- Everybody there is extremely friendly and helpful, but some people still need a lot of training. They are much better than other hotels in that area (Da Nang more than a year after opening was much worse).
- Nicely appointed big rooms
- They all tried really hard to deliver good service
- Location right in the center of Nha Trang
- View


Bad

- Food in general.
- Breakfast layout is very strange. Bread hidden away in one corner, cold cuts at the other end.
- Food selection and quality: Vietnam has really nice baguettes - they only had some stale rolls which tasted a week old and a few bread selections. Cheeses where of the basic cheap type, same for cold cuts. Vietnam has such nice patees and pork cakes. None here. Vietnamese sandwiches are great. The Sheraton next door has a sandwich station. Saigon has premade. Nothing here. Vietnam.
- They serve changing noodle soups for breakfast. They are missing out on the key ingredients, the result is a pretty bland beef broth nowhere near to what the real thing is

- Happy hour: some relatively good little cakes and some stale rolls with some piece of ham and cheese and a few other low quality relatively tasteless items. Same for high tea.

- Dinner Buffet: nice selection of food, pick your fish, turn it in, tell them where you are sitting, the prepare it and deliver it to some other table. Serve was completely messed up, but they were very apologetic and tried their best, but they just did not have the processes worked out.

- Security and lobby layout: The have the main lobby one floor above the street level and a small side lobby at street level. When you have a car pick you up you never know where their security allows them to go. We waited once 15 min for our car at the main lobby, security did not let him go there and sent him even away. The driver finally called, we had the hotel contact security to let the car up.


Value for $ or Priority Club Points?

We booked their opening rate, very good value. Even with the extra payment for the larger lounge value was great.

Would you return?

Yes, hoping that the club lounge will be open next time and they provide breakfast / happy hour and high tea at a similar level as the IC Saigon.


This post was copied from the Royal Ambassador Experience Thread to start a Master Thread about this hotel.

FLYGVA
co-moderator IHG Forum

I visited a few months back (didn't stay there, just got a tour of the construction site as I know a couple of the managers there) and it did indeed looks like a nice property. I believe the Hotel Manager from IC Asiana Saigon has moved to Nha Trang and will be/already is the GM of the new property. He for sure did amazing things with ICAS, so I'm pretty sure IC Nha Trang will be a great hotel once they get everything in place.

After what I heard, the Club is scheduled to open in September, but I can't confirm this in any way.

Regarding the minibar, I couldn't agree more, it seems completely odd and misplaced. I took this image in a standard room, which were the only one ready when I visited, but I guess it's the same style in the suites?

Aulrik, the minibar in your picture is the same in the suites. Very odd. This piece of furniture dominates the room and almost blocks the entry to the living room in the executive suite.

The GM was in Saigon before, he is very nice and very visible. The other members of the team are also constantly present, the assistant GM was clearing tables and helping at the peak breakfast time for example. I believe they know about the shortcomings and that most of the people they hired are trying to do their best, but still need more training.

I got different responses about when the lounge is opening, 'before the end of the year', 'in the 4th quarter' etc.

They need more time, but for the short amount of time the hotel is open they did a pretty good job already. Food quality and selection (especially the vietnamese dishes) is the biggest negative for me. They could hire a chef from the Hue area, this has the most tasty food in Vietnam.

I will be there next week for a 7-day stay, will definitely post a review. Booked Executive Deluxe room, they upgraded me in the system to King Suite (Gold Ambassador).

If you are the first time in Nha Trang:
Basically all Taxi companies have a flat fee from Airport to town (around 250.000 dong) and back (350.000 dong), but you need to ask. The meter fare is approx twice that. There is no or only a small price difference between the different cars, the 7seaters are usually more comfortable.

Ok so who's going on PB bookings =)

I wouldn't have thought it would attract so many extra visitors: it's cheap as chips in $-terms this time of year.

I mean for 5K PB it is certainly decent value, but only if you had plans in the area (or the country at least) anyways. I wouldn't go out of my way to make it there just for the cheap stay. YMMV

I got excited when I read here that there were a PB going on at this hotel, would be amazing for a weekend trip (I live in Saigon), but I didn't find any availability for reward nights at all until December this year.

why not give them a call, i'd jump at i too if i was in VN.

I will be there again late next week on a paid stay. I have seen sub 80 USD rates later this year. More than on points, but still a great value.

Yea, I saw that too, less than U$100 for a standard room, and with the previous manager from Asiana Saigon now in charge there, it probably means we will get suite + Club upgrade as a RA ;) (though the Club is still not open, right?)

Yeah the revenue rates are really cheap that I doubt anyone would know the upgrade policy for RAs on points?

But to be honest I never even heard of this part of Vietnam before, let alone the IC.
This PB must have gotten a huge amount of publicity for them, considering they were the ONLY IC.

Will be visiting Nha Trang late January next year. Had a look at the hotels in the area and managed to narrow it down to IC and Sheraton. From reviews, price and quality wise they seem to be on par with one another. Can't split between the two.

Can anyone share their personal experience of these hotels? (Good vs Bad) Thanks

They contacted me basically to let me know that I should not expect any upgrade on reward nights as a Platinum Ambassador. The upgrade in question is to a room with ocean view, which I think is the same size with same amenities as the room available on points.

They advised me that I can pay the difference (~22$ per night) for the upgrade. On this occasion I couldn't care less about the upgrade to a better view, but out of curiosity I asked if they could offer me a better price for the upgrade since I booked eight nights (and was hoping for something like 120$ total). They basically ignored my request and once again stated that no upgrade is guaranteed on reward nights. Hopefully, upon check-in, I might get lucky on that one - but I don't have my hopes up.

I am interested in club access. Club rooms are priced 70$ more than Deluxe rooms, so I might consider that upgrade. Or simply buying club access without a room upgrade if there would be a decent offer.