Shena Resort

We were there in the Christmas season and decided to book ahead of time - we called a lot of the recommended backpacker-category hotels and found out that they were totally booked, so we decided to go with a hotel that was a bit more expensive. This was a great choice- the hotel manager is a super-friendly lady who speaks fairly decent English, they met us with free food and drinks & did our laundry for free! I'm not sure who the other people who've written reviews dealt with at the hotel - the other receptionist (a guy) doesn't speak any English and was super confused when we arrived with our booking confirmation, but we used the (free) wifi and the Google Translate app and cleared everything up in about thirty seconds - when he spoke to us via the app in Vietnamese he was super nice. The hotel room was very nice, the location was great (the beach is right around the corner and there are a few really decent-priced restaurants on the bach right next to the beach access entrance), the free breakfast is ok (the food - including the coffee/tea - were western-style and not so great), and the service was absolutely great - as I said, she even did our laundry for free! The room was super clean, although the bathroom in the room had a frosted glass wall which was a bit weird. One downside - the hot water appears to be heated by solar heat or the tank is just a bit too small, because in the morning (right before the free breakfast) there's not a lot of hot water. We showered in the evening after going to the beach anyway so it wasn't that big of a deal for us but if you are a morning showerer it's something to consider. Compared to the other hotels on the island, I think the price was ok - you can pay a lot more and have a lot less!