23/09/2026
Iāve been sharing the good, the bad and the ugly of our month-long Vietnam adventure so far ā¦ and unfortunately, this one falls firmly into the UGLY category. š
We found this beautiful listing in the mountains of Sapa through Booking.com .
Five bedrooms, gorgeous photos, surrounded by mountains..it looked like the perfect place for our family of 8.
We paid 8 MILLION VND cash for our stay. Which is standard practice here in Vietnam, even when you book through Booking.com. Itās how weāve paid for all our accommodation so far.
When we first arrived, everything seemed okay from the lounge room/entrance. There was an awful smell, but I genuinely couldnāt put my finger on what it was. We were so keen to check out the town so we just dumped our bags and went straight to lunch.
When we came backā¦ HOLY. š³ The stench was eye watering.
The smell had become unbearable.
I immediately contacted the property manager, who said he would have the cleaner return straight away.
The cleaner came backā¦ and left us a CAN OF DEODORANT to deal with the smell. š
The ownerās solution wasā¦āPut the air conditioning on.ā
So we did.
And then one of the air conditioners started flooding a bathroom.
Which, unsurprisingly, did absolutely nothing to improve the smell.
As we started properly going through the property, we found a lot of mould in every room including on the pillows and linen, exposed wires throughout the property, mouldy cookware, so much damage, and other issues that absolutely werenāt reflected in the beautiful Booking.com Culture & Careers photos.
At that point, I was genuinely worried about my kids being in there. I didnāt want to spend the next few days wondering whether breathing in that environment was going to make us sick.
So we packed our things and left.
I contacted the manager and explained that we wanted a refund because the property simply wasnāt in a condition we felt comfortable staying in.
His response was basically that we were being too critical. š And he has never had anyone complain before.
Then things got even more ridiculous.
Please read the comment section to continueā¦
