Firstly like to state that location is great, price is ok and the owner Mrs. Moon is a lovely helpful lady.
Unfortunately so much lets this place down which largely comes from the American western manager BB.
Because he is a westerner you are lured into this false sense of trust and believe his sales pitches.
On our first day of arrival we wanted to go up the cable car to the summit of mt fansipan. We asked how much it was he told us it was $30 usd each way so a $60 return trip. In reality it's $30 usd for a return trip. All this time he is trying to convince us to rent scooters from the hotel and book tours.
He marketed the homestay trek as a low key small group trek in the hills around sapa. We were told groups of no more than 6-8 people. The day of the trek 13 people turn up who all had been told the same lies of a small group. The trek itself wasn't private and off the beaten track. We walked the same route as at least 3-4 other groups of 10+ people. At times we were a giant group of 50ish people. The trek, guide and accomodation was great and we did thoroughly enjoy it but once again it was not what we were told or sold.
He also talks about his "personal friends discounts" at restaurants in sapa. He is full of s**t. The restaurants he sends you to have a 10% surcharge and his discount for you is 10%. So your still paying the full price for the meal. I would guarantee he is getting a commission off our stupidity in listening to him.
Other than his bs he is loud, cheesy and generally painful to spend too much time around.
The dorms themselves are damp. That's a lie they are wet. The first room they tried to put us in had no windows and no ventilation. Mould growing on walls, ceiling, on the pillows etc. The duvets, mattress's everything was wet to the touch. We asked to move to the room I was originally shown when asked to check the place out. It had one big French door kind of window which helped a lot. Still the room was damp after having the windows open all day.
A guy we stayed with in the dorm had his medical supplies stolen by a cleaner. The Vietnamese manager mr Kong I believe his name was refused to take the blame or do much about the situation. In fact he blamed the guy for leaving his things on the ground and commented "it's your fault for leaving your things on the ground. The cleaners think it's rubbish and throw it out". The funny thing is his medical supplies were left on his bed. So if your packs, shoes anything is left on the ground it is up to be stolen or thrown out with no follow up from the hotel.
I've been in SE Asia for 1 and a half months now and this is by far the worst place I have stayed in. Such a shame as the owner and location are great.