District 7 isn’t really a popular place to stay in when visiting Ho Chi Minh City.  It’s 30 minutes away from the city center which would mean around 120kVND additonal cost per cab fare.  It is popular though for those attending the exhibitions at the SECC in Phu My Hung.

My friends recently visited us and opted to stay in D7 but since they’re an adventurous group, they tried all modes of transportation — taking the Dong Khoi – PMH Bus and even the non-airconditioned public bus. 😉

I had to help find them a hotel to stay in and I recommended Sabena Hotel which was near our apartment.  Sabena is where a friend stayed for over a month so I was pretty sure that the place was a good hotel.  Unfortunately, it was fully booked.

Bizu Boutique came to mind because of my favorite PMH restaurant, Scott and Binh’s where it’s located.  Luckily, they’ve got a couple of deluxe rooms available.  So I booked my friends there.  I’m sorry I didn’t get to take a snapshot of their rooms but I visited the smaller of the deluxe with twin beds and it looked pretty comfortable and spacious enough.  The toilet has a tub but according to my friend, the hot water is turned off from around 10 pm to 5 am.  If you liked updating people about your trip via Facebook, there’s no FB access in the rooms — only in the dining area.  My friend also had a difficult time figuring out how to use the TV — two remote controls — one for the TV and one for the cable channels.  Anyway, the TV in their room was not ancient but definitely not an LCD.

But prior to that, I did check a couple more of mini hotels — Bondi Hotel.  I got interested after reading the reviews.  So I walked over to Bondi Hotel and checked out the rooms myself.  The person by the desk was very helpful.

Breakfast, laundry, and wifi are included.

Rates start from 600,000 VND (~29 USD) to 800,000 (~38USD).  Pretty reasonable in my opinion.

The other hotel I checked out was Oasis Hotel which was almost across Bondi Hotel.

Rates start at 790kVND(~38 USD) to 1.4MVND(~67USD).  The cuts of the room are much bigger compared to that of Bondi Hotel.

Like Bondi Hotel, laundry, breakfast, and wifi are included.

I liked the penthouse with the coded elevator key.  Hehehe!  The receptionist was nice too.  What I didn’t like was that she showed me rooms where people are still staying in — with all their stuff.  The rooms were clean but if I were staying there, I wouldn’t want my room to be shown to anyone. But that’s just me.

Bizu Boutique Hotel
15-17 Cao Triều Phát Street,Hưng Phước 1, Phú Mỹ hưng Town Tân Phong Ward, D7, HCMC
+84 8 54 111008 Fax: +84 8 54 111009
hotel@bizuhotel.com
http://www.bizuhotel.com

Bondi Hotel
26 Hung Phuoc 2 St., Tan Phong Ward, D7, HCMC
+84 8 54124949
bondi361@gmail.com
http://www.bondi.vn

Oasis Hotel
23 Noi Khu Hung Phuoc 2 St. D7, HCMC
+84 8 54123333
hotel@oasis.com.vn
http://www.oasis.com.vn