A very nice and spacious room with a comfortable bed and a great open view of the park and the mountains. The rooms have modern controls for the lights as well as motorized curtains, which made for convenience both when going to sleep and waking up in the morning. It was also nice that a phone charging cable with the three different adapters was provided. The bathroom is spacious and has a large sink and shower. It is nice that the shower has a choice of rainfall or regular nozzle. The shower controls were also very modern and you merely pushed the button for your preferred shower method. It seemed that the guest before me was unaware of this and had broken the temperature control and not reported it to the hotel. The front desk was quick to send a repair person who was very thorough in fixing the control. While the shower had good water pressure, it seemed at peak times that there was not enough hot water as the shower temperature was just slightly warm. To get a hot shower, I had to wait until late in the afternoon or late at night.
The checkin was fast and the attendant was kind enough to honour my request for a non-smoking room on a high floor. The lobby is spacious with a nice tea area. It is also convenient to have a Starbucks inside the hotel. However, it was a bit noisy as other guests were not always mindful of the calibre of hotel they were in, which ranks in the 5 star category. It was difficult to try to get some work done with people playing videos loudly on their phones, talking on speaker phone or kids running around. This really took away from what should be a calming space. While the hotel attendants tried to maintain order, it really was a losing battle for them.
The location is really dependent on what you are looking for. I found it nice to have the open park view but there are not many interesting restaurants around. For the middle eastern food, you need to bike about 1.5km. This was fine when the weather was good, but it was not convenient during the latter part of my stay when it rained all day.
A few things to be aware of when booking. The breakfast was large with a lot of options but it really is a Chinese style breakfast. To call it Western and Chinese is quite misleading as there were only a few Western options, such as omelets. There is a great large screen television in the room, but only 2 or 3 English channels with the others in Chinese. There is a shuttle bus to the market, but it was a bit disappointing to learn that it only runs twice per day.
The main area for the hotel to work on is its consistency of service. Some of the employees were outstanding but there seems to be a need for additional training. For example, the room came with a complimentary daily minibar, but I had to ask each day for it to be refilled. This was quite embarrassing to do, especially when the stocking was just some soft drinks with a single Tsingtao beer. Also, when I was in the toilet, one of the chefs walked out without washing his hands. While he may have washed them (hopefully) when he returned to the kitchen, he should be sure to wash them in front of guests. Lastly, the pool and fitness area seemed to require special access and the people working at the desk for the pool made me feel very uncomfortable when I wanted to see the facilities, so I just left and did not return. This was particularly disappointing because one of the reasons I booked the hotel was for these facilities.
Overall it is a very nice hotel and I would book it again. But additional employee training would be appropriate so the service does not take away from what is a high quality hotel.
Eccezionale
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