I have just returned from a stay in VietNam, I spent 4 days in the Hanoi Horison which is owned in a partnership Indonesia/Vietnam so you will find a lot of the decorations come from Bali. This was an interesting mix of a hotel. The rooms gave me the feel of going back in time - everything smelt musty and looked as if it needed a good refurbishment. This was in stark contrast to the rest of the hotel which seemed fine. The staff were helpful and we used their travel desk without any problems. It was the only hotel where we were charged a small fee for exchanging cash. The buffet breakfast as ok as it covered asian as well as western but unlike other hotels it didn't change from day to day and didn't have as much variety. It was outside the old 1/4 but close to other tourist sites. I would have liked to be closer to the old 1/4as there is no shopping close by or places you could walk to.
Ken G
Brisbane
Australia

The Horison is a wonderful hotel. It has a great lunch buffet. Western on one side and Oriental on the other.
Luxurious rooms. It has a real nice pool on an upper floor with a great view over the city.
Top notch.
For some reason the laundry was expensive. I did my socks in the sink.

I spent two weeks [September 2003] at Hanoi Horison with fourteen coworkers for a work assignment. We stayed in ten separate rooms over the two weeks. Every single one was very nice. The ones that opened up onto the pool deck were bonus.
We had some incredible bargain of about US$60 per night.
One colleague is wheelchair bound. His experience broke in the hotel management. They now know which rooms are suitable for wheelchair bound guests!
This is not in Hanoi's old quarter, but it's not far away. We found it very convenient for work without being in the boonies. Hot Rock Cafe [not to be confused with "Hard Rock"] is only a block away.
We had their buffet breakfast almost every morning, had their buffet dinner on quite a few occasions and then had a restaurant service the last night. The food never ceased to be excellent and without headache-causing amounts of msg that's found in most other Vietnamese restaurants. The women in the group complained that with food like this, they'd never fit into those Vietnamase ou dai (pronounced Ow Zhye) dresses.
For some of our project work, we had to acquisition a lot of plywood, but had no facility to cut it to desired dimensions. The hotel staff happily took it to their maintenance shop and did it all cheerfully. A most pleasantly disarming and amazing attitude to behold!
The staff was all around extremely helpful in every respect, checking flight schedules, hailing taxis, even assisting me in learning Vietnamese language!
There are convenient internet connections and ATM on location.