Girlfriend and I had booked 5 nights at this hotel but left after 4. We wanted to leave more because we had experienced all we wanted to in Hanoi but the hotel had run its race as well.. Hard to sleep not because of the obvious tooting but because of a water pump that started up every time someone flushed the toilet or had a shower. Not overly concerning just slightly frustrating.
Clean and nice staff.

My boyfriend and I stayed here for 3 nights, the hotel staff are incredibly friendly and helpful and the rooms are basic but nice. The beds were comfortable and the room and bathroom are clean (they are cleaned every day). We were supplied with clean towels three times during our stay!
One negative, it is a bit loud. Sound seems to travel from the reception area to the rooms, it was fine in the evenings but there is a computer in the lobby downstairs and the staff played music on it from quite early on in the morning... and sang along.
Internet is free (although the wifi was pretty unreliable) and so is printing! A bonus!
Great location, in walking distance of most things. Would highly recommend the day tour of Hanoi. (A reasonable $30 per person)
Overall a pleasant stay.

I booked an individual room here. It was ok : clean, with tv, fridge. It was really cold and the a/c could not heat the place. Although I know that in superior room, it can heat.

Overall, I was a little deceived that they were not serving breakfast, the wifi did not work in my room, and that my room was so cold (I had to sleep with hat and gloves).

On the other side, the staff was really helpful and nice to me. When I came back from my tour to Sapa, they let me take a shower in one great room, even if I had checkout days ago.

So if you plan to stay at this hotel (which is very well situated by the way), I would recommend not to take an individual room, but a nicer one.

Stayed at the Especen for 3 nights at the end of January, 2012. It's decent. I think the best part about it is that it's a bit off the beaten track so it's a lot quieter than most of the hotels in the old quarter, yet it's still a super close walk to all of the hustle and bustle of shops and services. The people at the front desk have very limited english, as we found with most people in Hanoi. Now that we are down south we can see it gets much better. The room was nice, it had a good closet and a decent amount of space in the twin bedded room. The bathroom is the shower (not a seperate one) if that matters to you. One mistake we did make however was booking our trip to Halong Bay through the hotel. We did the Heritage Cruise which was absolutely amazing, and I would totally recommend them, but while on the cruise found out many people had paid half the amount we did. We paid $135, but others paid only $60 when booking through travel agencies which are EVERYWHERE. So I recommend you shop around! Other than that I would recommend this hotel primarily for it's location, and the free internet in the lobby. Enjoy!