The Tirant is a family run, independent, small hotel in the heart of Old Hanoi. Nice rooms, clean and not too noisy. The staff are lovely, very helpful and attentive. It is perfectly located for exploring the old city and has a great little roof top bar. Breakfast was excellent, fresh fare, Vietnamese and European style.

This was the starting and end point of our 3 week Vietnam holiday in Nov-Dec 2011.
Location is ideal - right in the old city, a couple of minutes from Hoan Kiem Lake but in a quiet side street.
Initial 5 night stay was in a room at the back with a window up against another building. The king size bed made the room a bit cramped.
Final 2 night stay was at the front with a window with a view (much brighter) and a queen sized bed which made more space in the room.
Breakfast downstairs was probably the best we had in Vietnam. Staff were very efficient.
We booked this based on online recommendations and recommend further

The Tirant Hotel is easily the best hotel ive stayed at in Vietnam. I stayed here with two friends and upon arrival we received a hot welcome drink to warm us up from the brisk winter weather outdoors. The room is spacious (big enough for three friends comfortable to have a bed each) with very clean, stylish new bathrooms. The breakfast on the ground floor was very good with a great range including banana pancakes, fresh fruit, cereals, eggs etc. The staff was so helpful as we left very early to get a flight from the airport, so they organised a taxi for us (12 USD) and even said they would organise a take-away breakfast for us as we left before the breakfast service started. We also got our clothes washed (which is next to impossible during Chinese New Year) and it came back within a day at a third of the price we expected. Definitely stay here - the price is good, the location is amazing (within 2 minutes of everything in the old quarter) and the rooms are perfect and the staff are great.

Chosen this hotel for its closeness to Hoan Kiem Lake. we stayed here over the last Tet Holidays.
Was not disappointed for the Rooftop Lounge had a wonderful bird eye view of the Lake, had a first class viewing of the Firework display at zero hour of the Lunar New Year (Tet).

Vivian, the owner/ manager of the hotel gave a party at the lounge, with free flow of drinks and finger food.

We had a wonderful time, the clean and spacious rooms, friendly staff, great location and great view of lake and fireworks more than compensate for the hustle bustle and poor hygiene conditions of Gia Ngu street. (was told by the hotel that this street was formerly called Tirant street- a French name, thus the name of this hotel)
One other regret was - when we saw this hotel initially, it is actually much smaller than it appeared on the image of this site - it is actually half the size it appeared to be, the photographers may have stretched the photo before posting it here.