Tam Coc Friends Bungalow Ninh Bình

I notice previous reviews were posted 2019. The new owner has only been there a few months and has never run a guesthouse before. It shows. He actually forgot I was there last night, went home and locked me in. You read that correctly. I went to leave last night at 19:00 to go and eat and the entrance was padlocked shut. I was the only guest and I was locked in like a prisoner. He was also unaware of basic check-in procedures. He had no way of looking up my booking. I had to show him the Trip.com confirmation on my phone. He asked to keep my passport for the duration - I refused of course. He also wasn’t on top of basic cleaning eg empty beer cans and glasses sat for 48 hours on the tables by the pool before the area was cleaned + tidied. The first morning, I went to the reception desk, put my key on it and motioned to him to keep it. I returned 8 hours later to find my key lying exactly where I had left it and 12 guests milling around, any of whom could have gone into my room. I am sure he is on a steep learning curve and will address these issues as he accrues more guest feedback. The location, pool and bungalows are lovely. If you choose to stay there, manage your expectations of the service. He is a sweet, smiley guy who wants to please - but is currently simply clueless about the basic hospitality requirements of his new business.

Excellent place, very friendly and helpful staff, clean rooms and great service. We were invited to a birthday party of a Vietnamese family and sat together having interesting, but nice food and drinks. The manager was very helpful and always ready to give information about places to visit, logistics and otherwise. Recommended! The pool is not very large, but certainly good when you need to cool down.

Our arrival didn't go very well. The toilet didn't work and the manager immediately set to work to fix it but no success. So then he had to put us in the very last available room which was not as nice as what we booked. However, the next day we were given a new good room. Our booking included breakfast but no breakfast is served at the place. So he took us on a motorbike to a restaurant nearby where we were allowed to order a cheap brekfast. So don't book it with meals. Our main problem was that the manager guy spoke no English at all. You had to type your questions on his phone which translated it. That made you think twice before asking. Also he was always very serious, no smiles at all. But he did fix all the issues, so he is working hard. We actually wanted to book a room at Tam Coc FriendLY Homestay but somehow we booked this one by mistake. Even the taxi brought us to the wrong one, so beware of the difference! It is a little bit out of Tam Coc town, but very close to the Bich Dong Pagoda. There are a few Vietnames restaurants nearby, walking distance. The nice thing is that you can use the bikes for free. So we cycled to Tam Coc, Hang Mua and Trang An with the bikes provided. The homestay is on a side road, very quiet. It has a small swimming pool and there were kids in it enjoying it grately. The room is very large, the largest we had in Vietnam. It has AC, WiFi, fridge and kettle (bring your own supplies). The bathroom is also quite spacious but the shower goes all over it. The sink is outside the bathroom in the room, which was nice. Things were clean. We stayed here 3 days and once we knew how to operate (restaurants, bikes) we felt alright.