The hotel was really nice and the room we had was great - clean, spacious, good bathroom, fantastic pillows. The only slight oddity was the not-quite-opaque curtain on the window that joins the bathroom to the bedroom. As I was travelling with a friend we just had to make sure the main room was well lit when the bathroom was in use! The location by Westlake gives a good view, but traffic noise at the front of the hotel is quite intrusive (I can't imagine that there's anywhere in Hanoi that this isn't the case). Taxi time into the Old Quarter and other bits of the town was variable: 20-40 minutes depending on traffic, and also seemingly extended by all taxis (apart from one which got lost, and turned out to be quicker) choosing to go up and around the lake, rather than just going the other way round the west side. The staff were all very helpful, and before we arrived Mrs Thin was extremely helpful in arranging our overnight train tickets for onward travel in Vietnam.