Hotel Scams in Vietnam - Traveller Beware

As a traveller, scams are something you need to be aware of and at least somewhat prepared for. They can happen anywhere, and no matter how experienced you are, you can still fall victim to them.

I wrote a post about how to avoid scams while travelling recently, in the hopes it might help a few fellow travellers, but it’s not an exhaustive list, and there are always new scams popping up.

Now I like to think of myself as a pretty savvy traveller, and generally try to do my homework, but even I have fallen for a scam or two while travelling. Most notably, when I fell for the pretty well known “Tea House Scam” in Shanghai, China, back in 2014.

However, I recently saw a post on Reddit about a scam I would have never considered, and wanted to share it for visibility.

Never Judge a Book(ing.com) by its Cover

The scam in question involved a hotel in Saigon, Vietnam, that has tons of great reviews online and nice looking photos of the hotel and rooms, but pulls a bait-and-switch on travellers with a dingy building and hotel rooms that looks nothing like the photos and had “… damaged floors, an awful paint job, and peeling walls.”, among other issues, according to the OP (original poster) of the Reddit post.

The OP had booked the hotel using Booking.com, but apparently this particular hotel has been known to pull this scam on travellers who book through other platforms as well, and under various hotel names.

According to the OP:

[The] scam hotel operates under various names, including Labar Hotel Saigon, Baglioni, Matterhorn Inn Hotel, and Cabana Hotel.

However, they’re just as likely to change or add new fake hotel names, so don’t rely on the names above alone.

One of the Booking.com listings of OP’s hotel

• Baglioni Signature

  

Address of the scam hotel in question

• 47A Đ. Nguyễn Trãi, Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

  

Notice someone labelled the hotel as a scam on Google Maps? 😅

A few commenters also noted some other hotels pulling the same scam, so it’s not just this one hotel / owner unfortunately.

Leaving a Negative Review to Warn Others

Generally, the best way to let others know about scams, or bad experiences, is to leave a review on the platform you booked through, or on a site like TripAdvisor, so others can be warned.

However, in the case of booking sites like Booking.com, Agoda, Hotels.com, etc., you can only leave a review if you’ve actually stayed at the hotel. Well, as soon as OP and her husband settled into their room, they received a cancellation notice from Booking.com, stating their reservation had been cancelled due to “insufficient funds”.

Wow. What a coincidence. 🙄

And when they went to the front desk to confront the hotel staff, they were told it must be a mistake and that they would sort it out with their booking team.

But of course they never did.

Eventually, OP’s husband was able to get Booking.com to allow them to leave a review, but almost immediately after, tons of new fake reviews started popping up on the hotel’s page, pushing their negative review down.

OP even added a review on TripAdvisor, but the owner of the hotel apparently responds to negative reviews with:

“the hotel you mentioned is not our hotel because it is located next to our hotel”

Another commenter on the post noted that another Reddit user posted recently asking about the same hotel, so it’s definitely not only OP that has been scammed by this hotel.

Rinse and Repeat

According to user u/Lascivious_Cumquat86 from the 2nd post:

what happens with booking.com in [Vietnam] is these places get shut down for scamming customers, fake reviews/photos, etc., and they just rebrand and open a new account. rinse and repeat. i’ve been using that site for 20+ years all over the planet, never had problems except in [Vietnam].

very common for them to contact you directly, asking for a “deposit” wired into their bank account to “guarantee” the room, which is typically the entire amount. this is after you paid in full on booking.com. of course, that money is never returned. they’ll make up shite like “oh, booking.com doesn’t charge you, it’s just a reservation”.

So again, this scam isn’t unique to Labar Hotel Saigon / Baglioni Signature / Matterhorn Inn Hotel / Cabana Hotel.

Tips for Avoiding Hotel Scams

1. As always, do your homework: Always read reviews on multiple platforms, and look for reviews that mention the hotel being a scam on search engines like DuckDuckGo, Bing, Google, etc.

2. Check the Address: If you can, check the address of the hotel on Google Maps, and look at the street view to see if it matches the photos on the booking site.

3. Ask questions online: If you’re unsure about a hotel, ask on travel forums like Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, or the various travel subreddits on Reddit (ex: r/travel, or the sub specific to the country or city the hotel is in), to see if anyone else has had experience with the hotel.

And finally, if you do fall victim to the scam, Reddit user u/YuanBaoTW/ suggested the following tip for travellers who find themselves in a similar situation:

If you arrive to a hotel and it’s an obvious scam, take photos and videos and do not check in. If you happen to check in, document the room and leave.

Absolutely do not stay at the property, even for a single night. Book alternative accommodation and keep a record of it.

Immediately contact the booking platform. If they do not cancel your booking and agree to a full refund, immediately contact your credit card company and file a chargeback the minute charges post to your account.

With photos and videos proving that the property was not anywhere close to being as described, and evidence that you went elsewhere, your chargeback will be successful.

As I noted at the beginning of this post, this is one scam I was not aware of and had never considered before. And I’ve been to Vietnam a number of times, staying in hostels, hotels, and bungalows, and never had an issue. But I was obviously just lucky.

I’ll certainly be keeping a closer eye on reviews and photos in the future, and will be checking the address on Google Maps as well, just to be safe.

So be vigilant, do your research, stay safe, and hopefully you won’t fall victim to any scams while travelling.