Anantara Mui Ne Resort

I arrived in Mui Ne to celebrate Tet/Chinese New Year, having first gotten a room at the Anam Mui Ne just a few minutes drive away. Due to the festival rush, they had no rooms after a few days and I had to move out to the Anantera Mui Ne. Both hotels were at similar price points, but the entire service approach was very different. For the entire time at the Anam, I could choose what to spend and where to eat, and there were even discounts on the spa treatments. At the Anantera, I was told that I had to sign up for a mandatory New Year gala dinner on the 31st which cost almost US$70. To be sure, that is the normal price for a dinner buffet, but the main thing is guests were not given a choice. As long as you stayed on that day, you would need to foot the bill. Later, I found the room unsatisfactory. There was a blockage of the shower drainage, causing the water to accumulate and not recede even after overnight, plus an unpleasant smell that originated from the shower area. The sofas had stains. However, the biggest problem was that the king bed was not a true king bed, being combined with two smaller beds and leading to serious lack of back support. When I asked to cut short my stay from 3 nights to 2 nights, I was told that I would not be refunded. Most reprehensive for me, the hotel staff that I spoke with kept passing the buck around when I asked who could authorize the refund. When Trip.com tried to help and asked the hotel staff, they constantly lied about the situation, saying to Trip.com that I agreed to waive my refund and/or I was being upgraded to a villa, when nothing of that sort happened and both suggestions were obviously mutually contradictory. Ultimately I decided my physical and mental health was more important and I went back to the Anam Mui Ne after securing a room, losing a very expensive one night's stay at the Anantera on top of the compulsory dinner. Maybe it was the Tet festival which led to B Team handling this, but someone really dropped the ball. This was a two three star experience at best.