UASPG

I wish it had been true when we were there in December, but a typhoon did not make it possible. And I think that we will keep seeing an increasing number of those trouble makers.

fdem

chuck1

I'm a Platinum member who just stayed two nights. The best thing about the place is the friendly, helpful and kind staff.
That said, I just found it really odd.
It's big, full of marble and lots of gold and is just really bright.
I was upgraded to something just below a Presidential Suite. It was huge including two big balconies but there wasn't really anything soothing or peaceful about the room. It was hard to plug in devices in the living area and the lighting was really bright.
I would not suggest anyone vacation here for a long period. I think it is designed mainly for big groups from Asia.
It's just off a main road. There isn't anything scenic about the area either.
There were just two restaurants open and the spa was still in a hotel room.
Breakfast was fine but you aren't going to mistake it for a Park Hyatt or St. Regis buffet.
Room service dinner was acceptable though basic.
The pool is super long and I mean super long - I was told the longest or biggest in Vietnam. I never saw anyone in it.
The ocean never had anyone either. The beach looked clean enough and there was some surf. In contrast to the Four Seasons down the road, there did not seem to be any services such as beach chairs, water toys or waitstaff.
For Vietnam, I also thought it was pricey. Airport transfers were something like $45 each way and a car/driver was about the same per hour.
For us it was nice to use points to see Hoi An.

fdem

nikkoap92

It's ok though, it has the best restaurant imo. It's ok for 1-2 nights. Then you should try the local hotels where you have private villas, and large private pools. Four seasons was local brand but now it became 4 four seasons. I was happy to stay there before the brand and it was cheap.

remymartin

Stayed here recently during very low occupancy. The property upgraded me to a massive suite. While the suite was spacious and nice, it felt like some more thought could have been put into the décor. It felt a bit too cold. The suite had two balconies but none of which had chairs making them useless. There was also some sort of very noisy cleaning unit at the end of the corridor running 24/7. Luckily this noise couldn't really be heard from the room.

The pool here is indeed the biggest in Vietnam and the grounds are huge. This is where it gets weird, though - at such a low occupancy, the hotel feels like ghost town. There's a beach in front of the property but the hotel does not utilise the space in any way (contrary to Pullman Danang, where I also stayed).

The rates that the property commands seemed high given how empty it is. There were just a few tables during dinner time at the two restaurants, which I didn't feel like trying. Breakfast was fine, but not memorable.

On the ground floor facing the pool, there are rooms called "pool deluxe room" with a small plunge pool (not to be confused with deluxe pool view room). I did not see that room but it could be fun, too. The lobby bar was beautifully decorated and well equipped.

The location is good and bad at the same time. There's not much around the hotel except Marble Mountain and it's pretty far from Danang. This has one advantage, though. It's pretty much the same distance to Hoi An, which I personally preferred to Danang anyway. If you want to visit Hoi An but stay in a resort, this is a decent property to do so once it has more occupancy and is in a better state for business.

Finally, a word of warning This property has a a lounge, which is not yet opened. When asking whether a coupon would be issued to compensate for the lack of lounge, the FDA called me back to tell me nothing will be used because Resorts are excluded from club access. Now this is something we were reading rumours about a few months back (can't find the link), and it's not official yet but at least this property seems to think so!

fdem

Starwood Lurker

Just as an FYI, I don't think it is a matter of resorts being excluded from giving access to their lounges as it is that this particular resort will never have a club lounge to begin with. They can't offer access to something that will never exist.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts LLC

[email protected]

fdem

littlevoices

I stayed at this property last week as a SPG Platinum with three rooms booked for a family getaway just prior to Easter. Overall we were happy with the resort, and when it is fully finished it will be both huge and impressive. For the moment it probably has another few months (if not years) until it is completed, as the villas (on the south of the resort) were still under construction. Thankfully there wasn't that much noise, but certainly at times you could hear some banging and the view looking in that direction wasn't great. Only the main hotel restaurant and the beach cafe were open, the others were empty and still not finished (including a Japanese restaurant) so we had only partial food options available. Meanwhile most of the trees were stumps awaiting some growth since the trunks had clearly just been put into position from elsewhere.

SPG platinum benefits were restricted to one room, but since we had booked rooms with breakfast that wasn't a problem. As it was we then had a chance to try different room types - two plunge pools and one garden suite (which was an upgrade, we had booked a sea view. The hotel did offer us the room type we booked but with a nice view if we chose to decline the upgrade). The garden suite was huge, two large rooms, more than double the size of the plunge pool rooms, and with two large 'balconies'. However as it was at ground level and the view looked out onto the hotel's road, a fence and trees with no leaves it wasn't much good except for space. I wouldn't recommend paying for this room. The plunge pools were far nicer, and went down well, though they have limited privacy and are certainly not an alternative to the pool. Speaking of pool, that was ready and was huge, and with the resort being such low occupancy there was a lot of space for everyone. As a note on the rooms - they had very nice new Samsung TVs and good HD TV that looked rather nice.

The official platinum benefits (printed out) were fairly standard, but I suppose the cocktails were a bonus:

• A welcome gift of free breakfast (valuable), local gift (not a clue what), or 500 star points
• Nice touch: 2 cocktails per person at the beach restaurant each night between 17:30 to 19:00 - this was worth about USD40/night considering the price of cocktails in the resort
• Standard stuff: Room upgrade, 'VIP treatment' (aka fruit provided, but only in the upgraded room), free internet, late checkout (subject to availability since this is a resort)

Since this was a family trip we actually ate in the hotel in the evening for one night (normal restaurant), and did room service - both were perfectly reasonable, perhaps not too overpriced for a 5* hotel, but I did feel the menu was lacking much that made it Vietnamese. Breakfast was comprehensive, including an egg and noodle chef, but certainly nothing that made me feel it was more than a standard four plus star hotel in Asia. Service was a bit spotty (the restaurant was near empty in the evening but it still took 10-15 minutes for drinks to arrive and for 6 diners our main meals arrived at three different times around 10 minutes apart, and I suspect that one of the meals was forgotten and cooked up rapidly since it was missed from the initial order, though they'd flagged that one main was going to be later. This will need management attention as it isn't explainable when the number of staff and chefs outnumber the guests eating. Pricing was far higher than going locally, but didn't feel like a complete gouge. For kids - not that much to do at the moment, there was some 'tree house' space with a few items to climb and a walkway, but it isn't much - hence more a resort for adults.

On location - the hotel is way out of town and you need to get uber/grab cars around, thankfully there are plenty around and they are well priced. The hotel shuttle (van or car) from the airport was expensive very compared with a local car, but we used it for certainty around arrival and it was very professionally done. The only other thing worth mentioning is that directly north of the hotel there is just a large empty space. If you want somewhere cut off from Da Nang it's good, if you want to be the centre of the action it is less so.

Final note - the beach looked very nice (for photos) but when we were there it was a red flag and the waves were clearly too strong to swim in, or even paddle, as such it was empty. No sign of any sandflies that I'd heard about in similar hotels.

As such, overall conclusion was good - we'd come back for the space and when it is fully finished, bit worried where they will put all the people considering that it already started to feel fairly full in the main facilities with only a skeleton number of guests, but to get SPG points in this area it is fairly reasonable - first I'll try the new SPG hotel in Hoi An when it opens.

fdem

Sadly the spg option never happened. There will be the four points in Danang from may( unless that leaves as well) thanks for the review and will monitor to see how it develops

littlevoices

Wow, you're right... a few weeks ago when confirming this trip the Sheraton Hoi An Tam Ky Resort was likely to be a future option opening in May, now I see it has disappeared (as discussed in this thread). Oh well, at least the four points will be cheaper!

remymartin

Thanks for the comprehensive review. I do note this benefit did not exist when I was there so sounds very new (and welcome)!

nikkoap92

The fourpoints is the same cash rate with the other 4 SPG in Vietnam. About 3,000,000 VND ++ which is crazy for a tiny room without a bathtub.

chanp