The $18 a night was Nguyen Thahn at 19B Bùi Thị Xuân. If you stay here, or anywhere I recommend below you definitely want a ride home at night. It's not like the backpacker row, you want to stay cautious and avoid being a a target to potential pickpocketers and petty criminals if you're flashing your Iphone or staggering drunk home.
I stayed at 15 Bùi Thị Xuân for 1 week as well, they had a free breakfast and it was $20 a night.
The $12.50 a night was a bit far away from things but still nice, and the cost difference usually covered taxi fair (about 50k.. 2.50 usd.. from backpacker row). It was Ngoc Duc Hotel at 781-A11 Lê Hồng Phong.
I tried number 1 and 3 for bringing my gf home and they wanted her ID, nothing more. These aren't fancy places, number 1-2 would clean your place every day if you wanted. #3 cleaned my place every few days, usually when I asked (via google translate). The Le Hong Phong place was definitely off the beaten path, not many late night restaurants nearby. The places on Bui Thi Xuan you can eat and drink at 17 Bui Thi Xuan (A Buu Lounge) 24 hours a day .. little bit of a premium though, about 30k for a saigon and 35k for a tiger, and they speak no English at all so just say what beer you want or point at the menu and chill out at the bar
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I also stayed for a few days at Min Chau, because they had a kitchen, they're on Hẻm 611 Điện Biên Phủ. The thing I didn't like was the owners would go to sleep early and if you came home at midnight you had to knock on the door to wake them up and let you in .. and usually you had to knock quite loudly... :|
Please remember, I don't mind simple (these places might not be the greatest). I've had places they only cleaned once a week and I didn't care. All the places are somewhat small as well.... I just love the life in Asia and want to keep it going.
Generally speaking, in vn, just pay a day or two on Agoda, and if you like it, talk to the front desk and secure the Agoda premium free rate. I think you will find you save at least a few dollars every day if you stay for a while.
Another generally speaking, the reason they ask for the gf or gf-for-the-nights ID is because some tourists come home drunk as sh*t and they have a bunch of stuff stolen by the bad girl. None of the places I mentioned have safes, but none of the cleaners stole anything either... I don't go for the gf-4-the-night so I've been good so far.
Tomorrow (actually late today.. 3-15 at 8pm) is Saigon Barhopping event, I plan to attend if anyone wants to meet a noob to the 2+2 forums.
Last edited by CaliRiTT; 03-14-2013 at 08:00 PM.