Our brief comments:
The 7-storey Metropole is located on the apex of two intersecting roads about 2km from the city centre and the same distance from Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown. It's part of the Que Huong chain of six mid-range city hotels and two restaurants.

For a small hotel, it's comparatively well-equipped. The entrance lobby is spacious and attractive. Rooms are on the small side (especially the suites!), but acceptable for a city hotel. Standard and Superior rooms have no bathtubs, but compensate with a decent shower cabinet rather than just a shower head on a tiled wall.

Standard rooms lack both a balcony and a view, but Superior rooms upwards have both. At the time of inspection, the Superior rooms had just been upgraded, some of which were designated as 'Double Superior' - the extra 2m² was noticeable, but only just.

There are two restaurants, L'Orient and the Tropicana. The former offers mainly European cuisine, the latter serves mostly Asian and Vietnamese dishes, and overlooks the pool.

The Metropole scores with its swimming pool, a rarity in city hotels. It's quite small, but perfectly adequate for a refreshing dip after an afternoon in the dust and fumes of Vietnam's commercial powerhouse. There's also a well-equipped health centre with a spa shower, steam bath and sauna.

A particular attraction for our inspection team was a very civilised afternoon tea in the Lobby Lounge - an good buffet range of sandwiches, cakes, snacks and, of course, tea at an extremely reasonable price.

The main drawback of the Metropole is its awkward location. However, taxis are cheap - considerably less than the extra cost of an equivalent hotel in the city centre - and there's also the pool as a bonus