Ancient House*** (Featured Hotel)
Our brief comments:
 Occasionally we come across a really special hotel. The Ancient House is one of them, and is one of our few 'Featured Hotels' - establishments that go well beyond being somewhere comfortable to spend the night.
The Ancient House is about a kilometre from Hoi An Ancient Town, and four kilometres from Cua Dai Beach. From outside it looks like an ordinary Vietnamese hotel. However, enter the lobby, and you find yourself in a stylish copy of a traditional house with rich terra cotta tiled floors, palm trees, an abundance of wooden pillars and beams, and attractive furniture. From  there, a flight of steps takes you to a stylish mezzanine floor with a games area and shop area, both tastefully coordinated (the bar and restaurant are up more stairs on three levels)
By this time, you'll be impressed. Step outside the rear of the reception building, and you realise there's a lot more. You stand at the top of a cascade leading down to a circular swimming pool. On the left is a classically designed  Vietnamese garden. To the right, you see the 42 rooms.
The immediate impression is of a Greek mountain village - dozens of snow-white individual villas jumbled on top of each other separated by paths and small flights of stairs. In reality, they are carefully designed traditional Vietnamese single room houses. All villas have stone walls and floors, and all are 32m2 (one villa combines two rooms to create a family 'suite').
Inside, they're light and airy, with modern design and high quality fittings. Standard rooms have the same facilities as the others, but lack an open view and side window. The more expensive villas have delightful small patios, each with a table and chairs.
The villas to the rear of the hotel have views across the river that runs alongside the rear of the property. Apart from standard rooms, the rest overlook the tropical gardens.
But there's yet more! Behind the pool there's a real ancient house, the home of the proprietor's parents. Beside that is another building housing their traditional business, a pho (rice noodle) factory which was the family's original source  of income and is still in full production. Early every morning, the family and local workers make 75% of Hoi An's daily requirement of pho! Guests at the hotel are welcome to visit the family, to watch the pho being made, or even join in (beware - pho making is a very early morning activity!).
Finally, nearly all materials were locally sourced, construction was by local builders, and all staff members are from the immediate area - many are family members. The garden, and the rest of the complex, was created according to feng-shui principles. As we said at the beginning, the Ancient House is special!
(Inspected May 2006)
Room facilities:
Room Categories |
Standard |
Superior Garden View |
Superior River View |
Special |
| Number of rooms |
14 |
14 |
8 |
6 |
Air-conditioner |
|
|
|
|
Satellite television |
|
|
|
|
Shower or bath |
|
|
|
|
Bath with shower |
|
|
|
|
| Bath + separate shower |
|
|
|
|
Personal safety box |
|
|
|
|
Coffee and tea facilities |
|
|
|
|
| Laptop connection |
|
|
|
|
| Free broadband access |
|
|
|
|
Extra bed |
|
|
|
|
Child's cot |
|
|
|
|
Room size (m2) |
32 |
32 |
32 |
32 |
View |
none |
garden |
river |
garden/river |
Additional room facilities: wardrobe, kimono, Internet connection, old fashioned standing fans, (Special rooms only: fax, computer, DVD player)
Hotel facilities:
Outdoor pool |
|
Non-smoking floor(s) |
1 |
Pool bar |
|
Non-smoking rooms only |
n/a |
Fitness/health centre |
|
Vietnamese/Asian restaurant |
|
Sauna |
|
International restaurant |
|
Massage |
|
Patisserie/coffee shop/cafe |
|
Jacuzzi |
|
Business centre |
|
Additional hotel facilities: non-smoking rooms, the 'Ancient House' and pho factory, shuttle bus, free bicycle hire
|
