Sofitel Hanoi, 💢I was treated differently in Vietnam hotels, it was annoying

When choosing a hotel in Hanoi, I checked my notes and saw the unique stairwell and French garden of the Sofitel Legend Hotel, so I chose to stay here. The temporary booking price was about 400 US dollars per night.

The overall check-in process was very smooth. All the reception staff were very friendly. The first room I checked in was a bit noisy and they immediately helped to change it. The annoying thing happened when I took my camera (the set in the first picture is not a long gun) to take pictures in the small garden after checking in.

From the moment I entered the hotel garden, a male staff member kept staring at me. When I started taking pictures, he came up and told me "no photo". I said that I was a guest staying in the hotel and asked if guests could not take pictures. The answer from the other party was, sorry, you can’t. So I took out the photos of the guests on Instagram and asked him why he couldn’t. He didn’t speak English well, so he just shook his head impatiently. I felt puzzled, so I walked to the swimming pool on the other side of the garden to avoid him. Unexpectedly, he quickly caught up with me and called a female staff member with better English to backup.

Here comes the point. The female staff member came up and told me in a serious face that I couldn’t take photos, especially of other guests. I patiently explained that there were no other guests around when I took photos. She continued to point at my camera and said no commercial photo. I explained that this was my personal camera, but she didn’t believe it and kept rudely arguing back and forth, interrupting me in the middle to prevent me from explaining. Finally, I asked her to call the manager directly, and I came to ask if guests couldn’t take photos. She asked me to show my room card to prove my identity.

At this time, I was already angry. I asked her name, and she asked me to show my room card first and then tell me my name. After seeing me show my room card and getting angry, she began to apologize, explaining that since many bloggers did not stay in the hotel recently and came in to take photos directly, she thought I was in the same situation, and changed her tone to say that guests could take photos.

In the nearly 20-minute negotiation, I clearly asked many times, "I am a guest, why can't I take photos in the hotel?" The other party kept rolling his eyes and rudely interrupting me from beginning to end and asked me to leave, until I was ready to complain + showed my room card and then began to apologize.
Later, I reported this to the front desk. The duty manager took my complaint very well and kept apologizing, but we were not given any compensation, and the other party did not even apologize to me formally.

As a top tier hotel in Vietnam and a well-known international chain brand, is it so rude to treat foreign Tourists? I hope to post this note to help you avoid spoilers and consider carefully when choosing a hotel.