Hotel Continental was such an awesome experience. My husband and I stayed there during a whirlwind 55hours in HCMC--a weekend trip. We loved being in the thick of the Graham Greene experience, and we felt that at this hotel. First, it's in an excellent location and it *looks* historical from the outside. It's right across the street from the Opera House, it's maybe 4 blocks from Apocalypse Now (which was a hoot!), and many other hotels and shops. The room is very spacious. Our room overlooked the opera house, so we moved the seating area chairs around and made it so that our seats overlooked the square. We drank wine and enjoyed ourselves after a day of touring. I remember liking the toiletries in the room. Bathroom had huge bathtub and REALLY hot water! Oh, the hotel will sell you things from the room, which is so cool, and a great souvenir. This hotel is a gem of a place, if you're a hotel nerd like us. If you want the most updated, high end hotel, you should go to the nearby 5 star joints. If you like history and culture, this is the place to be. I should mention that breakfast was excellent--we had pho, which made an excellent hangover remedy from our night out at Apocalypse Now, the famous nightclub. We had dinner at a place called XU, that night and it was FANTASTIC. Overall, we recommend this hotel for anyone looking to have an old school "Saigon" experience.

A very historic hotel in an awesome location but unfortunately because of it's location and history it is very noisy because it's very popular for weddings, the walls are thin and the traffic is non-stop.
The outside of the building is gorgeous but the rooms are not. They are very spacious but very tired and uncomfortable. The beds are rock hard (the norm for Vietnam, well most of asia really) and the shower pressure is non existent. The service is just and so is the breakfast and other facilities (or lack of).
There are much better choices around but if you want to stand on the balcony and imagine a time gone by then it's an experience.

Although the "charme" is mentioned a lot, we found it very disturbing to have a room without a window. We had another room for the second night. The hotel is old and would be a good candidate for a make-over. We stayed there during New Year and Jan 1st. Both days, there were weddings in the atrium which were so noisy that we couldnt even think of sleeping or event hear the TV. If you stay there make sure you ask for a room with a window. Street side seems to be less noisy than atrium.
Breakfast is ok but very basic and terminated at 9.55, location is unbeaten. When considering this area, I would probably chose the Rex the next time.

Highly recommended for the right type of traveller. If your priorities include a swimming pool and a modern gym, you're better off somewhere else, but for us this lovely hotel provided old style charm and historical atmosphere that added greatly to the value of our trip.

Insanely spacious rooms, with basic, but adequate bathroom. Friendly staff and perfect location in the city center right next to the opera house. All this at a very reasonable price.

I hope to be able to revisit this place before they renovate - it'll still be charming, but not the same after a makeover into a modern five star at five times the rate.