Destination: Vietnam : Big City, No Room? : Hotels in Hanoi can be found, but until more are built, it takes a determined search

“Hello Mr. Wallace. So good to see you,” said the desk clerk at the Hotel Sofitel Metropole, a warm smile beckoning as I trundled my suitcase up to the desk. “I’m sorry, but the hotel has no room.”

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Apart from food poisoning, the quintessential traveler’s nightmare has to be arriving in a strange city without a hotel reservation and finding every place full. But when that city happens to be Hanoi, pretty much terra incognita in the guidebooks, what can you do? The international hotel index used by most travel agents lists only one hotel--the Metropole--for the Vietnamese capital.

Since the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam July 11, American business travelers and diplomats have joined a torrent of international visitors who have been arriving since the country began its program of economic renovation in 1986. Lots of grand new hotels are on the drawing boards, but precious few have opened their doors yet.

Having been unceremoniously booted out of the Metropole, I began a lengthy odyssey in search of a room. I also vowed to make a list of eligible hotels in case I ever had to parachute into Vietnam again without a reservation.

Just so you can savor what you are missing, the clear favorite of every visitor to Hanoi is the Metropole, which is not only centrally located, but is every inch as much a 1920s architectural gem as the nearby Opera House.

I first stayed at the Metropole, in pre-renovation days, when it was known as the Thong Nhat, which means reunification. The hotel had fallen on very hard times by 1989, and I was once awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of rats gnawing on my suitcase. Then I nearly electrocuted myself on a huge Russian hot-water heater that dangled precariously over the bathtub.

The French joint-venture partners who took over the Metropole have lovingly restored the building to its beaux-arts beauty, down to the polished teak floors. The hotel has a French chef and one of the best restaurants in town. Not surprisingly, the Metropole has run at 100% occupancy since it reopened in 1993.

As a result, it’s not cheap (a double room costs about $210, plus tax and service). But let’s face it, they could double the price and still sell out to the desperate cordon of business people looking for a room. The Metropole has been known to toss the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies onto the street when their reservations expire.

When it gave me the boot, the Metropole sent me to a hotel called the Gold III, which is not far away across Hoan Kiem Lake. But when the bellboy turned on the lights of my new room, I realized something was wrong. At first, I could not immediately put my finger on it. Then I realized the room had no windows: It was a concrete cell.

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Back in a yellow taxi, my search revealed that there is a surprising amount of hotel space out there in Hanoi; you just need to know where to look for it. There are no chains such as Hilton or Sheraton. Basically, you need to decide which area of the city is most convenient, and what level of service you require.

Hanoi can be divided into three basic areas. The first is the ancient city, built 1,000 years ago when people lived on the street named after their profession: the Gold Street, the Shoe Street, etc. The second major area of central Hanoi lies around Hoan Kiem Lake, built up by the French colonialists in the 1920s and still filled with French architecture.

Since development has been limited in those two areas, an urban sprawl has spilled to the west recently. It is an area of strong contrasts, where half a mile of plumbing shops abuts a neighborhood of charming homes, many of which are built around the city’s many lakes.

If you only need a minimum of service and want to stay in the center--where, for tourists, most of the sites are--the best bet is one of a series of guest houses that opened their doors to paying customers when capitalist redevelopment entered the picture. A sentimental favorite for many journalists and business people is the Army Hotel, which is only a couple of blocks from the Metropole.

The Army, run by a group of charming women army officers in traditional ao dai dresses, has been upgrading its rooms and now offers a double with a queen-size bed for $70 a night.

It’s still the army--a woman enters your room at 6:45 a.m. without knocking and demands your laundry. Don’t bother looking for the little chocolate on your pillow at night because there is no turndown service and you have to live with one smallish towel. They also only take U.S. dollars--in cash.

But the Army is incredibly convenient to the center of town, and is scrupulously clean and remarkably friendly, considering that the employees not long ago had other things on their minds than hospitality to Americans.

A lot of Western business activity is now centered in western Hanoi near Giang Vo Lake, which is near the new U.S. liaison office (soon to be the embassy), as well as some new office buildings where U.S. companies, such as IBM, have set up shop. Now that you can quickly call for a metered cab (Hanoi Taxi, local telephone 535-252), being situated a 30-minute drive away is no major disadvantage.

The favorite business hotel in the western suburbs is the Hanoi, a joint venture between a Vietnamese company and a group of partners from Hong Kong. The Hanoi has the feel of a brand-new luxury hotel, without the charm of the Metropole, but with many of the fixtures of a modern building.

Most of the rooms in the Hanoi overlook Giang Vo Lake, one of the last picturesque views in a city increasingly marred by construction cranes. The hotel has an authentic Cantonese restaurant with a chef from Hong Kong, tennis courts and what many Hanoi residents consider the best massage in town. (It’s done with both parties fully clothed).

Just across the lake is a hotel called the Lakeside, which had the most lavishly appointed and generously proportioned rooms of any I saw in Hanoi. The hotel has just acquired the only stretch Cadillac limo in town. In a case of odd political bedfellows, the Lakeside, though Taiwanese-owned, is managed by Chinese from Shanghai and its chef is known for the authenticity of his kitchen.

The Lakeside has Hanoi’s only hotel gym, and like virtually all other hotels, it offers CNN and direct-dial telephones in the rooms.

Also in the same vicinity of Giang Vo Lake is another new Hong Kong-run hotel called, appropriately, the Capital Garden. This is a converted office building so the rooms are tiny, but the appointments are first class. There’s even a golf driving range on the roof.

For those who don’t want to stay in the suburbs, the favorite among business people in the ancient quarter of the city, north of Hoan Kiem Lake, is the Australian-run Royal Hotel. Like many Vietnamese hotels, the Royal seems to have used Moscow’s Hotel National as the design standard--lots of uncomfortable furniture, a house-size refrigerator in the room--but it is close to the center and reasonably priced.

Even more reasonable is the Hoa Binh Hotel, which is named after the country’s hydroelectric dam. A few blocks from the Metropole, the Hoa Binh is undergoing renovations a floor at a time, which can make for plenty of noise and dust. But the rooms are large and comfortable, though only equipped with single beds. The city also abounds with storefront hotels, where a local entrepreneur has pulled down a shop front and replaced it with a 20-foot-wide four-story hotel. These tend not to have elevators and are so close to the street that they can be very noisy. The low prices tend to make them a magnet for backpackers.

The nicest one I saw was called the Ngoc Lonh, which had a clean double room despite a strenuous climb of four steep flights of stairs. Located near the Lenin Park, site of one of the last standing statues of Russia’s Communist leader left in the world, the Ngoc Lonh has the advantage of adjoining the only Italian restaurant in Hanoi with a genuine Italian chef.

For convenience sake, I ended up at the Army Hotel and got just as annoyed as ever when the laundry lady woke me up at 6:45 a.m. Next time I will bring a Do Not Disturb sign in Vietnamese from the Metropole.

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GUIDEBOOK: Hanoi Hotels

Getting around: Lots of brand-new metered cabs are making transportation easier in Hanoi these days. It is still possible to get around by cyclo pousse, the old-fashioned bicycle taxis that are like a wheelchair with a man behind you pedaling away. These are mainly available outside city-center hotels; you shouldn’t pay more than a dollar to go anywhere.

Where to stay: The best way to get a reservation in Hanoi is to use the fax machine. Many hotel employees know some English, but comprehension is vastly improved in writing. However, don’t expect a response. Follow up your fax a few days later with a phone call to check if they can confirm (Hanoi is 14 hours ahead of L.A. time.) Travel agencies may have no better luck than individuals in reserving.

Hotel Sofitel Metropole, 15 Ngo Quyen St., Hanoi Vietnam; U.S. reservations (800) 221-4542, or telephone 011-84-4-266-919, fax 011-84-4-266-920. Double rooms: $219, plus tax and service charge.

Army Hotel, 33C Pham Ngu Lao St.; tel. 011-84-4-252-896, fax 011-84-4-259-276. Doubles from $50.

Hanoi Hotel, D8 Giang Vo St. (Ba Dinh district); tel. 011-84-4-452-240, fax 011-84-4-459-209. A standard double: $190, plus tax, service.

Lakeside Hotel, 6A Ngoc Khanh Road (Ba Dinh district); tel. 011-84-4-350-111, fax 011-84-4-350-121. Double room: $165.

Capital Garden Hotel, 48A Lang Ha St.; tel. 011-84-4-350-383, fax 011-84-4-350-363. Double rooms: $135, including service charge.

Royal Hotel, 20 Hang Tre St.; tel. 011-84-4-244-233, fax 011-84-4-244-234. Double rooms: $150, including service.

Hoa Binh Hotel, 27 Ly Thuong Kiet St.; tel. 011-84-4-253-315, fax 011-84-4-269-818. Double rooms: $75 including tax, service.

Ngoc Linh Hotel, 140 Trieu Viet Vuong St.; tel. 011-84-4-229-157. Double rooms: $150, including tax, service.

Currency: Although Vietnam has its own currency, the Vietnamese dong, the U.S. dollar is the standard currency of exchange in the country. Most menus and hotels are priced in dollars and everyone accepts payment in them. Hotels with foreign connections usually take Mastercard, Visa and American Express. Since relations were normalized so recently, there is not yet a foreign tourist office in the United States.

--C.W.