Searching for a cheap back packer’s hotel in Hanoi Vietnam, my wife stumbled upon The Original Especen Hotel while reading Lonely planet’s Southeast Asia on a Shoe string budget guide book. The hotel was highly recommended by Lonely planet.
Upon visiting the hotel’s websites, we were convinced to stop our search for a cheap back packer’s hotel. Indeed, we have found the ideal place to stay in Hanoi Vietnam. The Original Especen Hotel was not only highly recommended by Lonely Planet but was also highly recommended by many travel guides both in print and online.
A single room cost only $17.00 USD while a room for two costs somewhere from $20 to $25.00. The pictures of the rooms in the website were quite impressive considering the price and we decided to contact the hotel. I found out that they answer questions via live chat through yahoo, skype and live messenger so I contacted them via yahoo. The person on the other end was pleasant to converse with, spoke good English and satisfactorily answered all my questions. There was no required down payment for a reservation so we made our booking. Reading online that a lot of tourist got ripped off by taxis in airport, we asked the hotel to arrange for transportation to fetch us at the airport for $15 USD.
Well the day came for our trip to Hanoi, Vietnam and as I mentioned in my post entitled “First impressions of a first timer in Vietnam” we were fetched by the airport by the hotel arranged transportation without a hitch.
We checked in at the counter, and the guy directed us to the other hotel site which was about a minute away. The website mentioned that they have 4 hotels in the area; I initially thought that they were far apart from each other, but they were only each a minute away from each other. The people manning the front desk were accommodating and warm. They can converse in straight English but because of the Vietnamese accent; there are words that you can’t understand. If they see that you seem not to understand, they write the word on paper so that you can really understand what they are trying to say. To some certain extent, I consider their English to be good, save for some few words and the accent of course. That was my first taste of “Vietlish” or Vietnamese English. The website advertised free tea in the lobby, but I haven’t tried that one out. All Especen lobbies have computers with internet connection which you can use for free if you didn’t’ bring any gadget along. They booked us at the double room for $20.00
The hotel room was as what the picture in the website promised. There’s nothing like a nice, clean and cool hotel room to relax in after a long day of travel. As if the air-conditioning is not enough, a fan is provided. But for us the air-conditioning was already sufficient. Water pressure in the toilet was ok. The room has CRT television with cable, a small fridge and internet connection, something we can’t live without. Drinking bottled water and other drinks in the room is not free, but the price is the same as buying it outside. We stayed in the 4th floor. The downside of this was that since there was no elevator, we have to walk all the way up. Good thing we are backpackers and don’t carry a lot of load. A tip if you are not a light traveler, request for a room on the 1st or 2nd. Floors. We stayed in this room for 2 days because we have to go to Halong Bay for 2 days.
The Original Especen Hotel’s 4 sites is located in small alleys, a minute or two walk from the main streets, which of course is a good thing as there is much less noise inside the rooms. Another good thing about The Original Especen Hotel is that it is located within the tourist area where everything is within a minute or 15 minutes walk maximum. As I mentioned in my post “Shopping in Vietnam and sight seeing,” attractions are within the 10 minute walking radius like the water puppet theatre, Hoan Kiem Lake, St. Joseph’s Cathedral, souvenir shops and art galleries. If you are willing to walk for 20 minutes to half an hour from the hotel more attractions such as museums and temples awaits you. You can all search these out in Google maps or any other online map.
The Original Especen Hotel is also located nearby street food stalls, in fact there’s even one a stone’s throw away, just right across our hotel where we ate Pho almost every morning. I wrote about this in my post entitled “Fooling with Pho.” A plethora of restaurants, coffee shops, book shops and shops selling almost anything also abound nearby. The front desk staff was helpful enough to give us a printed out map of the area and made sure we had a calling card so that we can show it to somebody in case we get lost. They also exchange your U.S dollars which according to their site is higher than the banks. I have not verified this, but I’ll take their word for it and I did most of my money exchanging with them. The front desk staff was also nice enough to give us some tips when going around the city such as paying in local currency instead of U.S dollars. As it was consistently raining, they were also kind enough to let us borrow umbrellas whenever we go out. Just like any other hotel in the area, The Original Especen Hostel also offers tours in coordination with travel agencies. We booked most of our tours from them. If you don’t want to book from them you can book at other Tour booking offices near the area. Perhaps you might be interested in “hotel hopping” to review other hotels or guest houses, no problem as these all abound nearby. But for us, we are very satisfied and pleased with our stay at The Original Especen Hostel.
When we came back from our trip from Halong bay since our original room was not available anymore we transferred to another Original Especen Hotel site which was again just a minute away by foot from where we previously stayed. We booked this room in advance, and it was much bigger and nicer than the previous room and it cost us only $5.00 USD more. This room is located on the second floor and is an upgrades version of our previous room as it has all the amenities but with flat screen T.V, bigger in size including the toilet and much more nicer furnishings.
Oh by the way they call it “The Original Especen Hostel” because according to their website “Beware of FAKE hotel at 13 & 26 Ngo Huyen street.” Apparently there’s another hotel considered a competition of the same name in the area. I’ve seen this other hotel and we past by it every morning. I don’t know much about Vietnamese laws but this seems to be a trademark violation in most countries. The other hotel’s signboard is blue, and their name is just “Especen hotel.” It seems like, according to an online search that “Especen” is a generic term and is short for “Esperanto,”a widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Luckily when you type “Especen Hostel” their site shows first in Google.
In most travel sites like Travel advisor, The Original Especen Hostel gets close to perfect ratings, albeit with a few negative comments. But the hotel management seems to be monitoring this and always takes time to respond to any complaint and negative comment. It may not be the cheapest hotel by some standards in the area but in my opinion this hotel is cheap considering the quality of their service and gives you the best value for money when staying in Hanoi, Vietnam. So whenever you are in Hanoi Vietnam, skip the luxury 5 star hotels and get closer to everyday Vietnamese life while staying at a comfortable, nice clean and decent hotel that gives you the best value for your money. By the way, this isn’t a paid review. Click here to visit The Original Especen Hotel.
