Saigon Phu Quoc Hotel****

Our brief comments:
We inspected this hotel after it had been open for several months but before the second phase of development was complete. Since then, the remaining works have been finished. The comments below relate to the situation at the time of inspection and may be incorrect.

The Saigon Phu Quoc is probably the best hotel on the island in terms of facilities, but as there are few places to stay this statement should not be taken as an indication of quality.

It advertises itself as "Vietnam's premier four-star island resort", a highly questionable claim. It has a range of facilities, but public area, rooms and particularly the single restaurant leave a lot to be desired.

The 3.4ha (8.4 acres) complex consists of a mixture of accommodation blocks, 2- and 4-room villas, and apartments, all built on a good white sand beach among a large tropical garden.

When we visited, the reception area was unappealing and the reception staff members on duty far from friendly. Around twenty guests arrived simultaneously from the airport only to find that the rooms were not ready. The guests were left sitting around waiting for over an hour without even a drink. Although this was extreme, the service quality was generally poor.

Some of the names of the room categories are bizarre. Apart from the Family and President apartments which are not listed here, all rooms are identically sized - 33m² with a 12m² balcony. The differential between room standards seems to be based almost entirely on the facilities available in the rooms - only the V.I.P. category has genuine sea views in all rooms.

All rooms have a ceramic tiled floor, a large glazed aluminium-framed window incorporating a sliding door leading to the balcony, and a wall-mounted air-conditioner. Decoration, furniture, fixtures and fittings are very similar in all rooms.

The Saigon Restaurant is upstairs in the reception building. It's small in relation to the number of rooms, and serves an almost exclusively Vietnamese menu.

The buffet breakfast makes some concessions for foreign guests. Even taking into account the difficult in transporting goods and ingredients to the island, most the meals provided were prosaic and poor quality.

There are two outdoor bars, the Yo Yo by the pool, and the Co Co on the beach. Apparently, there's also an outdoor restaurant, but so far we've been unable to obtain any details.

The freeform pool in the centre of the complex is adequate, and is monitored by a lifeguard. There are also three rescue/security stations on the beach.

There's a good range of recreational activities mainly focussing on the beach and sea.

Phu Quoc island has been earmarked for development by the Vietnamese government, which means that its previous reputation as an unspoiled natural area will rapidly fade. On the upside, several new foreign-invested hotels are planned and some are already under construction.

Faced with serious competition for the first time, standards of accommodation on the island are likely to rise. Hopefully, the Saigon Phu Quoc will respond to the challenge.

If you're interested in the larger Family and President apartments, contact us and we'll send details.

(Last inspected in February, 2003 - comments welcomed if you've visited more recently!)

Room facilities (?= awaiting updated information from the hotel):

Room Categories	Tarzan	Robinson	Star Cruise	Panorama	V.I.P.
Number of rooms	8	5	20	16	10
Air-conditioner
Satellite television
Bath or shower only
Bath with shower
Bath + separate shower
Personal safety box
Coffee and tea facilities
Laptop connection
Free broadband access	?	?	?	?	?
Extra bed available?
Child's cot available?
Room size (m2)	33	33	33	33	33
View	garden	garden	garden/sea	garden/sea	sea

Additional room facilities: two-way airport transfer. Panorama and VIP rooms: daily fresh fruit, newspaper, bathroom scales.

Hotel facilities:

Outdoor pool		Non-smoking floor(s)	?
Pool bar		Non-smoking rooms only	?
Fitness/health centre		Vietnamese/Asian restaurant
Sauna		International restaurant
Massage		Patisserie/coffee shop/cafe
Jacuzzi		Business centre

Additional hotel facilities: doctor on call, tennis court, barber's shop, hot and cold Jacuzzi, parasailing, fishing and snorkelling trips, kayaking, horse riding, scuba diving

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