For my pioneer visit to Hanoi I was influenced by the picture of the neat swimming pool to book into Seven Fridays. After a cramped jet flight I find that swimming is by far the best way to loosen up and get the blood moving. The Tay Ho location is stunning and Hanoi itself is quite a lovely surprise as well, embodying much of French colonial charm allied with Vietnamese cultural style - and of course the unavoidable Chinese influence (although they themselves don't like to admit it: it is amazing how the average Vietnamese admires the Americans - who bombed the hell out of their country and poisoned it with chemical warfare - whereas they distrust and dislike their next-door neighbors upstairs).
Seven Fridays is managed by a combination of westerners and local staff and is heavily party-oriented. If you want a quiet, calm atmosphere this is probably not the place to find it. But I made new friends from Romania, South Africa and other places. The view of the "West Lake" is stunning, but don't get too close up or you'll see just how foul it is (though the city government has promised to clean it up - big job). Taking a walk around the lake (16km) allows a very nice introduction to Hanoi street life without the stress of getting lost. Just as I found in Ho Chi Minh City, a capital with much less charm and elegance, there is relatively little English or other foreign languages spoken. People in Hanoi are amazingly helpful, tolerant and polite, however, unlike Bangkok, which has really gone to hell with an onslaught of arrogant Eurotrash, transnational criminals, penurious one-beer-five-straws Indian tourists and now the selfie-snapping phalanxes of Chinese (conspicuously absent from Vietnam - although you'll bump into quite a few morose Russians).
Nice eateries near Five Fridays, bicycle and motorbike rental is available (traffic considerably less deadly-looking than in Thailand, where getting fatally killed dead on a motorbike is a favorite pursuit of carefree young tourists). I rented a sturdy mountain bike for four days and that made all the difference in the world to roaming around the city.
Highly recommend Five Fridays. As for the staff being "snappy" you have to expect that in a work environment where local people have to deal on a daily basis with penny-pinching, smarmy, demanding Euros, snarling, unfriendly Russians and entitled self-absorbed American brats.
(I'm a 30 year + expat so I except my good self from the above categories of "bad tourist").
Prices in Hanoi aren't as cheap as you might expect, especially if you hit one of the western-oriented clip joints (pizza palace, bar, or the millions of "designer-coffee" lairs). Check prices carefully before you order.
Vietnam is really amazing. You'd never guess they just came through several wars. Bounced right back.
