LOCATION: Good, not excellent. It is on a street that is less crazy than most and is a15-20 minute safe walk to the main tourist sites (Reunification Palace, shops, and the other hotels ie Sofitel, Hyatt, etc.). A taxi to these areas should cost about US$1-3. Diamond Mall is a 5 minute walk and has a food court, tons of shops, and a bowling alley.

BEST WAY TO GET THERE: Taxi from the airport is negotiable and we paid around $6.00

BED/SHEETS/PILLOW: Bed has great down pillows and down comforter. Linens are very nice. Bed is soft but would have preferred a down mattress.

LIGHTING: Tons of light in the bedroom, bathroom and living room.

BATHROOM/SHOWER: This area was not remodeled and the worst part of the room. Resembles an old holiday and is complete contrast with the rest of the room which is very nice. Shower has excellent water pressure and can be made hot if desired. Shower curtain wouldn’t touch leg during showers, but still kind of gross.

TOILETRIES: Fine, but nothing special.

CLEANLINESS: The entire hotel room and common areas are spotless.

A/C: Separate A/C in bedroom and living room and it would quietly get the rooms cool quickly.

CLOSET SPACE: Tons of space for 2 or more people to unpack all items.

STYLE OF ROOM: Very impressive and huge. The living room/kitchen area was massive and even the bedroom is way bigger than most standard hotel rooms. Décor was very nice with nice pictures, sofa, etc. Balcony is a nice addition. Washer (also dryer) was nice to have as well.

QUIET/MORNING LIGHT: Could slightly hear the horns of the cars on the street outside, but this has got to be the case in every hotel in this city. The morning sunlight could be blocked to make the room pitch black.

FOOD: Breakfast for one person is included in the rate. It is provided in the coffee shop accessible via the lobby. Even though the options were very limited (cereals, toast, eggs, and a few meats), the plus is that you get a great coffee. The coffee shop is Highlands Coffee which is the Starbucks of Vietnam. There is no restaurant in this hotel, but plenty steps outside the hotel.

TV/INTERNET: Flat screen TVs in both living room and bedroom. Perfect sizes for the rooms they are located. Tons of English channels with movie channels included. DVD player in the room but no movies are available at the hotel (there is a place a 2 minute walk in which you can purchase pirated DVD movies for about a $1.00 or the real deal for about $15). Internet is of average speed and is available for $5 for 2 hours (login/out saves unused time) or $11 for 24 hours. We were able to access someone else’s wireless network one night, so you can try this first.

SERVICE: Excellent! 24 hour front desk is knowledgeable about the city and is very professional and efficient.

COMMON AREA: Never saw the pool or gym, but the lobby is nice, but not a place to hang out.

ROOM & CITY TIPS: Higher rooms will have better views. 1 bedroom apartment is a worthwhile upgrade from the studio if not a huge difference in price.

SUMMARY: I strongly recommend this hotel. We were considering the much more expensive hotels in town (ie: Sofitel, Hyatt, Legend), and were so happy we stayed here instead. It may not be as central as the other hotels, but the much bigger room and huge difference cost would make me choose this hotel again for my next stay.

I stayed at this Seviced Apartment from 12 November - 16 November - 1 Bedroom Premium.

HUGE! With a spacious kitchen, sitting room and bedroom, this is the biggest room I ever stayed in all my business trips.

Lobby areas is passable, not like the well-decorated ones (e,g. Park Hyatt) but clean and simple. The convenience store which is big and well stuffed up is just next to the lobby.

There's no restaurant but buffet breakfast was served each day of my stay. Pho 24 (a popular Vietnamese fast food white rice noodle chain is just across the apartment).

A relatively good swimming pool, steam room, business center and gym.

Room is equipped with broadband internet but you have to purchase either the two hour (within a single day) prepaid card or 24 hour prepaid card. Each retailed at reception for USD$5+ and $11+.

If you don't want to spend around USD$2-3 for each item to be sent for laundry service, you can always make use of the washing machine and ironing board in the unit.

The only complains I have:
1. Bedroom carpet smelled of 'mould' (though I seriously don't think many travellers could sniff it out)
2. My shampoo and bath gel were never refilled for two consecutive days

Overall, for a corporate rate of less than USD$135/- per night, it is really value for money - many times!!!

I will definitely want to stay in it again.

For long term stay - USD$3200 per month for my room size.

Just returned from a weekend at this great serviced apartment . We booked this via the Ascots webiste and chose it becasue we were struggling to get a good hotel in a good location with a bit of luxury and all in a room for a family with 2 kids. We opted for the 2 bed exec apartment and were not disappointed.

The apartment block is more like a hotel but with lovely large bedroom and living space. I got the thumbs up from hubby and kids !. The whole block is really nice, with very friendly and helpful front desk.

The apartment 901 was better than i expected. the website pictures don't do it justice. The apartment was well furnished, clean, spacious and modern. We had a huge balcony out front, not that we used it, 2TV's with loads of channels, 2 bathrooms and very comfy bedrooms. We would have moved in if we could have.

The location is good. About 10 mins walk to Post Office, Notre Dame and War museum. There is a decent mini-market downstairs. We have breakfast included - that was the only disappointment. It was a bit basic, which is fine for me, but the kids do like a big buffet breakfast, and were extremely disappoined at this. Having said that, I think it was becasue the coffe shop was closed for renovation work.

Would I stay here again - in a second !. When you have a family, this sure beats squeezing into a hotel room and camp beds. The best bit was us$140 net per night.

The rooms here are large and spacious. Our room had satellite TV in both the bedroom and the lounge room. There were comprehensive cooking facilities and all the required accessories, and plenty of space for eating.

Our three bedroom apartment had all the space we needed for the kids.

There is a Ciao cafe - a chain of cafe's in Saigon - attached to the hotel open from 7am until late. It serves a huge variety of Asian and Western dishes, and provides room service.

It has a swimming pool - lap pool style, nice and large. It has a fitness centre and table tennis. Fitness centre is the real thing, not the couple of weights that passes for a fitness centre in many hotels.

It is actually close to the centre of Saigon, but not located in the traditional hotel district. It is less than a kilometre to the main shopping strip and the main markets, but no one in Saigon appears to walk this far, and it possibly isn't recommended until you get the hang of crossing the roads. There is a modern department store with a nice food hall about a block away.

There is a full supermarket downstairs open until late to buy supplies for breakfast etc.

We enjoyed staying at the Somerset.