Yes, that seems to be the case in HCMC - either very expensive or low budget places. We chose the Metropole - wanted a Senior Deluxe room but that was unavailable and I'd read that some other room categories had no window (!! - apparently quite common in Vietnam) so we opted for Business Deluxe - newly renovated, nicely decorated (but small) and overlooking the pool. The windows were double-glazed so we didn't hear any traffic noise at all even though the hotel has a main road front and back. This room cost 140 USD a night, including an ok buffet breakfast. We booked it through saigonhotel-linkdotcom and paid this booking agency in advance with c/c. This hotel was located jsut a few minutes' walk from the interesting 'backpacker area' and a short taxi trip to the upmarket part of District 1.