The Secret Con Dao

Atmosphere and staff

All good. No complaints

The Secret is a lovely modern hotel in a prime location with a huge out -door swimming pool right across from the beach and in easy walking distance of the museum, which is very interesting, the prison and the Cemetery. There are numerous local restaurants in easy walking distance and a free "hop on hop off" bus that runs throughout the day and stops near the hotel. The beds are really comfortable and the WiFi is first rate and fast. We took advantage of the inclusive offer of the airport shuttle and it was very efficient. My daughter received a free upgrade of her room.

Firstly there was no make-up mirror in the bathroom and trying to apply make-up in the only mirror over the the wash basin wasn't ideal. Our rooms had lovely big balconies but no furniture was provided and this seemed to be the case with all the balconies - are people expected to stand up all the time? Or take out furniture from the bedroom? This is a glaring omission. Up on the roof is the Sunset Bar, advertised as offering Happy Hour Cocktails, Wine and Beer from 5pm but in reality only Cocktails are on offer. As the name suggests one hopes to see the sunset from there but for some unknown reason a grey concrete wall has been built all around the edge of the area, meaning if one is sitting outside with drinks its necessary to stand to see the sunset, we christened it "The Berlin Wall". Breakfast was geared very much to the Asian market and the buffet was only available at the weekend.

The pool is amazing and the hotel well located.

It’s a bit overpriced and there is only a few lounge chairs by the pool compared to the huge number of rooms at he facility.

The location was excellent, the pool area was spacious and relaxing. There were always available loungers, the music and general ambience created a peaceful environment. The staff were well polite and well-intentioned. The breakfast offering was broad and set us up well for the day, and the Sunset lounge was a great space with helpful staff.

Unfortunately we experienced a series of issues, starting with the non-arrival of our (paid for) shuttle bus at the airport. Throughout our stay the staff, whilst polite, we felt were under-trained. They often had to be prompted to replenish the breakfast bar, pool towels, room towels, in room coffee, and to serve us for our evening meal (which was also unable to supply us water with our meal). Cleanliness could have been better with glasses not removed from our room for several days, and common areas, such as the sunset lounge, sometimes in need of a mop up. Finally, although off the hotel grounds, our room overlooked a sports field which, every other night, featured a coach with a mega-phone and loud music for roughly two hours. This distracted from our ability to relax at the end of the day.