Avis : Flora Hotel Hue

If you read about Hue, you’ll think it’s a centre of traditional culture and heritage in the central region of Vietnam. In reality, whenever I am walking the streets in Hue, unless I am literally arm in arm with my wife, I am approached and followed by oily parasitic men offering *********, special massage and ‘lady boom boom’. Flora hotel is in the centre of Hue, in an area intent on emulating the sleaziness of HCMC’s Pham Ngu Lau district. All beer and cocktail happy hours, music pumped so loud that conversation is difficult, and massage parlours galore. The hotel is a typical Vietnamese building, thin and tall with paper thin walls and tiny, cramped rooms. We stayed at the very top, supposedly the best room in the place, but there is barely room to walk around the bed. It smells damp and musty, the fridge vibrates so loudly that you can’t sleep if it’s on, and the elevator bell is set to ‘extra loud’ and goes ‘ding dong’ every 30 seconds 24 hours a day. From the constant noise and unending activity, I guess all the other guests are running in and out of the hotel to buy ********* and get some lady boom boom, having a great time. In my own experience, staying here has been a nightmare. There was a baby screaming through the paper thin walls all one night and reception are happy to let people check in and make as much noise as they want arriving at 4 or 5 in the morning. What I continue to be astounded by when it comes to hotels and homestays and resorts is how little they seem to care about providing what most guests are actually paying for. I’m primarily staying at a hotel to get a good night’s sleep so why do hotels do so little to ensure they are quiet at night? Why is there a need for a loud bell on an elevator at all? Why are doors constructed so that they have to be loudly pulled shut against the jamb? Why doesn’t reception ask late returners to please be quiet and why don’t late night and early morning staff use the stairs if the elevator makes so much noise? And on a related topic, why is breakfast provided at an unhelpful time for anyone wanting a relaxing holiday? Breakfast is nearly always from 7am to 9am in Vietnam which might be fine for tour groups visiting 5 cities in 4 days, but it is completely unreasonable for the more leisurely traveller. The answer to these questions is, of course, that Vietnam is focusing, post covid, on attracting block-booking tour groups because it is low investment, high yield.