It was an odd experience. When I checked in the staff wanted to confiscate my passport for the duration of my stay after they had kept a photocopy of it. I was shocked and insisted that I keep my passport with me. Then the staff offered the other option of paying a 500k dong deposit. I took that option of course. It was weird because if there was that option in the first place which is a common practice why did they need to insist on collecting my passport when none of my other Japanese colleagues were told to submit their passports for keeping or to pay a security deposit?
During my checkout after my stay had ended I asked the staff and they said it was because they had a lot of unruly Chinese customers which again did not make sense since I’m a Singaporean. Perhaps the staff thought that just because I speak Chinese it meant that I’m of Chinese nationality.
The room I was given had some issues with air conditioning. Even though I had switched the timer off, the air conditioner would go off automatically at 5plus in the morning and I’d wake up in a sweat and have to switch it on again. It wasn’t that much of a problem since I had to wake up for work around that time but it was just somewhat annoying.
All in all, while the hotel was a decent one for the price, the initial experience of being told that my passport had to be confiscated left a very nasty taste in my mouth.