Beware of Scam by taxi drivers & touts
There's so much scam by taxi drivers & touts.
Tips to avoid scam:
• Please come to our head office
at No. 28 Tho Xuong street address first, our staff will lead you to
your room; other addresses are just five steps walk from there.
• Don't take any advice from taxi
driver or tout if he says that our hotel is full booked & ask to
take you to other hotel.
• Ask the taxi driver to come
into the hotel's lobby & pay there, don't pay while standing on the
street.
• Beware of FAKE hotel at 13 & 26
Ngo Huyen street. |
Do the room rates include breakfast, service charges and
tax?
• You have to pay
only room charges that we've offered, no tax required. Tax will
applied only for guests who require an Invoice issued by Vietnam's
Ministry of Finance, that kind of invoice is only used for a Vietnam
company with tax code. Room rates do not include personal services
likes: drinks, laundry, phone calls, pickup service, taxi,...
• We don't supply breakfast. But
there are many restaurants with Vietnamese & European food near our
hotel (it's cheap & great). I think you don't need to have breakfast
at a hotel, restaurant food is much better. Do you think that you
will try some great Vietnamese food like "Phở" (about $1.50), "Bún
riêu cua" ($1.00)... at breakfast? Once you travel to Hanoi, you
must try some street food, don't miss that chance! |
Do you offer free airport pick-up
service?
• Some other hotels offer free
airport pick-up service. In fact, they add the pick-up service cost
to your room charge. We offer only room charges with no hidden fees,
so you have to pay exactly what you use, that's why travelers like
to stay in our hotel. Means we do not offer free airport pickup
service.
• We also supply an
airport pickup service for $15 with a private 4 seat car, $16 for a
7 seat car or $25 for a 16 seat car (price per whole car, not per
person). If you like it, please let me know your flight information
(exactly landing time? which airlines? flight number & where does
your flight come from?). |
Payment:
• No deposit required for online
reservation via e-mail.
• You can pay room charges and
other services by cash or credit card upon arrival as well.
• Kindly add 3% of total payment
for bank fee while paying by credit card.
• We
accept: VISA, Master Card, American Express, JCB, and Dinner’s Club
International
• Please ask the receptionist to
give you a receipt after paying and keep for future reference. |
Money
exchange:
|
• Changing currency at
airports or banks always results in a very low exchange rate,
changing currency at Ha Trung Street at street rates is much better
and highly recommended.
• We also
supply currency exchange service at street rates.
• Vietnam
has TWO exchange rate systems as:
Bank exchange rate is a low rate. You only can
sell your foreign currency to the bank but you cannot buy foreign
currency (like dollars, pound, mark, yen,...) from bank.
All Vietnamese & travelers change money at street
exchange rate, it is much better than the bank rate. You can sell or
buy foreign currency at street rate easily everywhere except from
the bank.
For example: If you sell US dollar to bank, bank
will pay for 1 USD ~ 20,000 VND only. But we can offer
street rate as 1 USD ~ 21.000 VND as well. If you pay for hotel
service in VND, street exchange rate will be applied.
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Transfer
between airport and Especen hotel:
|
It takes about 2 hours
from landing time to arrival at our hotel. There are
different ways to go from the airport to Hanoi:
• By
taxi (VND 315,000 or $15): Quickly call a taxi once you have
finished passport control procedures & get your luggage if
your flight arrived late. Some bad taxi driver may you tell
that "Your hotel is full tonight" then take you to bad hotel
to get commission. Some other bad taxi drivers may take you
to near hotel & will wait for you in front of your hotel &
ask to take you to other "brother" hotel. So please ask the
driver to take you to Especen Hotel - No. 28 Tho
Xuong Street - Tel: +84 (4) 38244401 and
come into
the reception desk to get your room. Upon arrival at our
hotel, ask the taxi driver to come into the hotel's lobby &
pay there, don't pay while standing on the street to avoid
getting scammed by the taxi driver or thief.
Don't take any advice from the Tour
Information desk at the airport or from the taxi driver.
•
Cheapest commute is by Vietnam Airlines mini bus
($2/person). This bus will drop you at Vietnam Airlines Head
Office at No. 1 Quang Trung Street, then you will walk about
7 minutes to Especen Hotel. Be careful of some "street boys"
who always have the hotel cards to show you at a station. He
will take you to some bad hotel to get commission. Some bad
drivers may ask to take you directly to your hotel address
but he will take you in around about way. This way is cheap
but not comfortable and not recommended at night time.
• You
can also catch the Kumo bus from the airport to Tran Quang
Khai street ($2/person), but we don’t recommend this because
the bus stop is so far from our hotel.
•
Cheapest way is by public bus if you have no luggage &
arrive before 21:00 only): first you get bus No. 7 (yellow &
red color) VND 5,000 from Noi Bai Airport to Cau Giay, then
change to bus No. 9 (VND 3,000) from Cau Giay to Bo Ho (Hoan
Kiem lake in Hanoi central), then walk about 5 minutes to
Especen Hotel. The total costs for both bus trips would be
VND 8,000 (or 50 US cents)s. Please be careful to avoid
pickpockets. Not recommended because the bus is crowded and
smells bad. You will have to walk 15 minutes to the bus stop
which is hard to locate and you are at risk of pickpocket.
• We
also supply an airport pick-up service for a $15 service
charge for a private 4 seats car, $16 for 7 seats car or $25
for a 16 seats car (price for a whole car, not per person). If you
like it, please let me know your flight information (exactly
arrival time? which airlines? flight number & flight
origination?). Highly recommended if you arrive late or feel
tired or awkward.
• Our
car service to take you to the airport will charge only $13
with a private 4 seats car or $14 with a 7 seats car. Please
ask our receptionist while staying to arrange.
Please see the map or use
Google Map
to find the way to Especen
hotel.
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Other
transport:
• If you want to go somewhere by
taxi, ask receptionist to call a taxi for cheaper & avoid bad taxi
drivers.
• It's difficult to call a taxi
at so early morning. To avoid miss your opportunity, please ask
receptionist to call taxi in advance from last night.
• We don't supply pick-up service from
train station. You can easy catch a taxi to my hotel as well. It
takes about 10 minutes & under 50.000 VND (~ US$3) by taxi to my
hotel. Mai Linh taxi (the green one parked inside train station) is
highly recommended for better quality & cheaper. |
Travel maps:
Facebook:
If you can't use Facebook in
Vietnam:
• Try to change your computer DNS
configuration (see how to configuration for
Windows XP,
Vista or
7) use
OpenDNS with one of these (Preferred - Alternate) DNS server:
Use OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
Or Google DNS:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
• OR you
can edit the file "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" by to add below value to the
rest of the file:
60.254.175.42
facebook.com
60.254.175.42 www.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 register.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 www.logins.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 blog.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 logins.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 login.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 apps.facebook.com
153.16.15.71 upload.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 graph.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 profile.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 static.ak.connect.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 static.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 b.static.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 error.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 developers.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 pixel.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 api.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 chanel.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 0.50.chanel.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 external.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 profile.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 creative.ak.fbcdn.net
60.254.175.42 chat.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 vupload.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 secure.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 connect.facebook.com
60.254.175.42 channel.facebook.com
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Electric:
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