Nazdoom

I reported the issues I had (more than I wrote above) directly to the Director of Rooms and GM and the GM as of early April matches the description you provided.

FlyingFrZ

The recent negative posts are a little worrying since I am booked for three nights at this property in August.

Is this hotel still a better option than the Sheraton?

SHLTP

This property has always been hit or miss - the rooms can be fabulous or hit by tropical heat. For me, the misses have been service related with lounge and concierge but other folks tried to help.

Sheraton is great service wise but older hardware.

JJuice

FlyingFrZ

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll just stick to this property for now. The Sheraton seems to be a winner with their new tower, but upgrades are not permitted unless you are already booked into the tower.

potm

DMPHL

Had a 1-night stay here, booked on a promotion for 17,500 points. Checked in in the Lounge on the 22nd Floor during happy hour, received an elite upgrade to an Executive Suite on the 20th Floor...Was a bit much for 1 night, but enjoyed as much as I could with a 4PM checkout.

The hotel staff were wonderful and went above and beyond in a lot of small ways.

zzap

Good to hear some positive reports from stays at this property. Perhaps my horrid experience was just an unusual outlier.

Intl359Widget

I am looking forward to my upcoming stay at the LM Saigon and am curious to see if my SNAs will clear or not for this trip next week.

s0ssos

Lounge currently closed.
Breakfast at Latest Recipe, happy hour at Latitude 10.

Bravada04

That is too bad.............I am a big fan of the Le Meridien lounge in Saigon!

s0ssos

So this hotel seems a little sad. It wasn't very busy, compared to other hotels in district 1, and maybe that is why a lot of stuff seems subpar?
The people working here seem more trainee level (maybe when they get trained they move on to other hotels?). They are nice enough, but definitely not the quality level one expects of this hotel. For example, when coming to checkin (showed up half an hour before the time I stated in the email, when I responded to their informational/welcome/want taxi service email), they asked me to wait in the lobby for the room to be prepared (the hotel isn't busy at all, I'd presume they should have rooms already ready). Then someone else came over and said we could sit in Latittude and have some drinks. Obviously, these would be complimentary, and we got seated, got a menu, but only coffee and tea were free (the very basic ones) the server said.
Breakfast is meh, compared to 5 star hotels elsewhere.
The hard product is still what it was years ago (so delightful, similar to W), though one of the electronic blinds in the room didn't seem to go up. But the pool seems to sad with nobody there, pool bar closed.

The area is definitely different. I remember looking out the window at the river years ago, seeing nothing. Now they are building a bridge across the river directly next to the hotel. There is a tall building just next to the hotel as well (so they tell you to close the blinds for privacy).

Things are constantly changing but they had us scan the PC-COVID app.

bigdog2

Stayed here 7 nights in July for leisure travel...Wife and myself. We were happy with the room hard product, but very disappointed with the hospitality experience. Did not feel up to standard to other LMs we stayed at before.
20th floor corner suite (partial living room) was great. Didn't get upgraded at check in despite Elite status...so I asked the next day for a room with a larger bathroom and they happily obliged with a complimentary upgrade to the corner suite.
Breakfast buffet was decent, nothing special though.
Service issues... the front desk staff were overwhelmed with the number of business travellers and the desk seemed understaffed. There were instances where I called Guest Services and no one answered...So I went to the front desk and they tried calling Guest Services and got no answer either.... staff do seem like they are at a trainee level. Not so comfortable dealing with guests. They seem nervous and lack hospitality acumen. Several instances of this...but the biggest problem came on the last night. My wife and I come into the hotel at 22:00 on Saturday night after attending a show at the Opera House. A doorman stops my wife and asks only her for her name and room number and verifies it on his clipboard before letting her proceed. The doorman did not address me at all. Basically this doorman thought my wife was a hooker (who was not a guest) and I was her John (who was a guest). Door policy to stop "unregistered guests" from entering guest rooms aka preventing escorts and prostitutes from visiting the hotel on weekend nights...but I don't even look like a sex tourist, nor my wife a sex worker. We'd been coming and going together through the bloody hotel for the last 6 days and this new doorman wasn't told to be mindful of the existing guests?? Anyways my wife's feelings were hurt. I spoke to the Duty Manager and they apologized, promised additional apologies at check-out and a "Le Meridien Saigon Gift," and late check out at 18:00. I insisted on speaking to whoever approved of this door-check policy, the assistant GM or the GM. The next day our keycards stopped working past 16:00 so they had to re-program them and then when we actually checked out, a different Duty Manager just gave a boilerplate apology, and no gift, and no GM or Assistant GM present to address our concern...As if the staff doesn't even understand how they've made us feel unwelcome as guests.

Prior to staying at the LM Saigon, we were at the JW Marriott Phu Quoc and the JW's hospitality and attentiveness makes the LM Saigon hotel look amateur and quite frankly, pathetic. The JW Phu Quoc was honestly one of the best hotel resorts I've ever stayed at. I should write a post for that thread because it was so great. But because we went from the JW Phu Quoc to the LM Saigon, the difference was like day and night. The LM Saigon definitely didn't live up to my standards for hospitality, and the service recovery was very poor. I could've argued on our behalf further upon check-out but we were tired of dealing with the numerous service mis-steps and didn't think it was worth it because The Duty Manager and Loyalty Manager didn't need to hear our words, it's the General Manager (Justin Malcom, the Australian bloke) who needs to hear it. As a hotel, you absolutely cannot have discriminatory policies where you instruct doormen to interrogate guests walking into the hotel based on whether he thinks they look like prostitutes or not... its f**ked up...We've never had this happen to us at any other city hotel or Marriott hotel period.
Can't wait for the new Marriott hotel to open in HCMC...hoping it will be better and similar to the Marriott Shenzhen Nanshan.... FlyerTalk posters said the LM was better than the Renaissance and Sheraton Saigon, but the LM disappointed us greatly with its poor hospitality.

Kmxu

We stayed at LM about 4-5 years ago. They did not check for prostitutes.

But they asked us to pay for stains on sheet. They had a very low service standard.

bigdog2

I actually had a lengthier write-up prepared to post but lost the copy. Boneheaded of me, but it better represented some of the mixed feelings I had about the hotel. I want to mention that the AC set-point temperature was inaccurate as per zzap's post. Setting the AC to 20 C made the room feel more like 24 C. I also wanted to say that housekeeping staff did a wonderful job each day, providing us with like 8 bottles of water when they noticed we drank all the bottles, and neatly arranging and tidying our personal items that we had strewn across the tables, couches, and countertops. The rooms we stayed in felt very clean and was thoroughly cleaned every day. Additionally, I wanted to make note of the location of the LM Saigon. It's a reasonable 5-10 minute taxi ride from plenty of District 1 attractions and amenities, and a 4 minute walk (through an unglamorous side/construction access road) to Le Thanh Ton street (Japan town). The immediate area at the rear of the hotel is not nicely developed yet and still in phases of construction and demolition. Shimizu and the Japanese consortium are building a Line 1 Metro station located immediately behind the LM Saigon. I am sure that the area will look very nice and the location will be amazing in a few years when the Metro and the surrounding neighbourhood is finally finished. However, as of now, it's still a bit rough looking, but on the other block, Japan town on Le Thanh Ton is filled with many nice restaurants, bars, clubs, and vice activity in the evenings, but still safe and clean. If you stay at the LM on a rainy stormy day, I highly recommend ordering delivery from Pizza 4P's just 5 minutes away on Le Thanh Ton, rather than getting in-room dining or eating at a hotel restaurant.... Online ordering is a breeze (can pay with credit card) and the food arrives promptly and fresh and hot, and affordable.