Le Meridien Xiamen — Attraction in Xiamen

Location: Halfway up in Xianyue Mountain Park, scenic and serene, and only accessible by private cars and taxis or by foot. The hotel is a bit further away from Xiamen city center, about 20-30 minute taxi ride from the railway station, and about the same from XMN airport. Buses only take you to the foot of the mountain and you would have to walk about 15-20 minutes up. To get out from the hotel, fortunately, you can ask a friendly concierge to call a taxi, or you can book an Uber or Didi on your own.

Reception: All you can expect from this high-end hotel in China--friendly, patient, and helpful. My gold status was more than once recognized. Staff were always smiling and greeting. They are willing to do many things for you, like bringing a bucket of ice, lending you a nail clipper or a tea set, etc. Due to my Gold status (possibly), each night one servant would knock on my door and present me with a Xiamen stuffed sweet pie (called Xianbing in Chinese, a Xiamen's specialty and treasure) , and ask if I need a "good night" service (basically she would pull down the drape, prepare my bed and adjust the lighting for sleep). Very impressive and attentive service. If you don't speak Chinese at all, don't worry as I saw there were a few foreigners in the hotel with no problems in English communications with hotel staff.

Room: my room is facing the mountain side, basically a green canvas outside. Make sure you keep the balcony door shut, because A/C would turn off itself automatically with an open balcony door, and it would invite mosquitoes and bugs in. The bed is very comfortable and it was so quiet at night. During the day, you can occasionally hear airplanes flying over, but not bothering because of a good soundproof window. The most impressive part is the bathroom. The bathtub is oversized and the amazing thing is the showering area is right beside the tub (sort of a combo bathing and showering unit), so you can do whatever in the tub and don't have to worry about watering spilling around, and thus you can get out of the tub directly into the shower.

Dining: buffet breakfast, with Western and Chinese options. Just to give a sneak peak: Western options: pancake, waffle, hashbrown, egg, sausage, bacon, pastries, cheese, cured meat and many more; Chinese options: porridge, fried dough, spring rolls, fried rice, freshly made soup noodles, tomato egg stew (my favorite) and many more. And of course with the coffee and juice service. You would leave here rethinking how much you can eat for breakfast. There were also lunch and dinner buffet that I did not try, since one buffet a day is good enough.

Tip (for you to pretend to be a local): Xianyue Mountain Park has some well-paved walking and running trails accessible from the hotel. So for your own exercise, you could walk from the hotel all the way to the east end of the park (Guanying temple near SM shopping mall). I did once and it took around 45 minutes and about 2.5 miles/ 4 km. Along the way you can bump into many Xiamen locals exercising too so you will...

This hotel has been one of my favorite hotels for some time. Rooms are clean. Most of the management is friendly and helpful. However, if you are foreign you need to be careful of the concierge and the help out front when getting a cab. I am also VERY disappointed with their Customer Experience Manager. I received an email asking about my experience at the hotel which I responded to and asked for a response but did not receive one. My email described my experience with the hotel staff and the way they treat Westerners who need a taxi.With my first try with a taxi I went downstairs and ordered a cab with the Concierge. There were a few guests in front of me. As time passed I went outside. A Chinese couple walked up to outdoor staff and requested a cab. They had not been in line with the rest of us who happened to be foreign. The outdoor staff ordered them a cab and they received the next cab. When I asked your Concierge as to why they received a cab BEFORE those of us who were waiting I was told this was a special cab that only goes to the airport. I have been coming to Xiamen for many years and this is a complete lie! There are no special cabs to the airport. The airport is only a 20 RMB ride from the hotel. No taxi could survive on ONLY airport rides in Xiamen. The staff then called a special taxi for me and now put me in front of the other foreign guests! I told them this was not fair as others were there before me but they insisted I get in. I knew the other foreign guests were going to the same area so I invited them to join me rather than further insist your hard headed, dishonest staff be fair. The staff mentioned the fare would be more than 10 RMB to Marco Polo area. I took no exception to this as I know a metered ride is about 15 RMB. When we arrived the destination I handed the the cab driver the 15 RMB on the meter but he wanted 15 RMB from each of us! I complained as I can speak Chinese but the other foregn guests just gave the money so they could move on. They did not understand that allowing this only creates more problems later. I have been taking taxis in China for 17 years and no matter how many people are in the cab you are only charged the meter in an honest situation.The whole situation felt suspiscious but I decidided to just forget and move on. That is until the next morning when I needed a taxi to go to the airport. I went outside where two taxis where waiting and asked the outdoor staff for a taxi. Rather than giving me one of the two taxis waiting he called for a special lao wai taxi. It aĺl became clear to me what is happening. Why would a special taxi be needed for lao wai? I told him I understood what he said because I could speak Chinese. At that point he called over one of the cabs that was already waiting and I paid metered fare. I am sure the lao wai taxi would not have been a metered taxi. This is a completely unacceptable situation! Overall my stay was very good. Just the taxi situation and the poor follow up really brought y...

When booked the hotel on website we had this impression it will be ver resort like and would fit quite well for our leisure purpose when coming to Xiamen. However the overall staying experience turned out to be a big disappointment. Upon arrival, the exterior gained a quite good first impression and then we found out the things inside really made a different feeling, in an unpleasant surprised way. Checking in, we been placed onto a none-SPG floor while the explanation was it was packed with group's over weekend. Where was the privilege of being a SPG and the advantage of booking early? We guess it shall be fine to stay on 3rd floor while the front desk mentioned will place us in a nice mountain view room. Walked into our room, it has a smell while I went up straight to balcony to open window where then I spotted mouse's "legacy" , while the so called mountain view was so close to you in steps away that you will feel the mountain blocking the view of anything. Anyway, we were on a tight time schedule to catch one of most popular restaurants for dinner, so headed out straight away. 15-min before heading down, I rang the concierge trying to book a taxi as on its website mentioned that it can offer 24-hour taxi booking services, turned out we got a straight away answer saying it cannot be arranged due to, again, a big group was checking in next 15 min.... After waiting at the line for half an hour, we figured there would be no way we can luck on taxi, which by the way they shall really mention about the great inconvenience for hailing a taxi when staying on mountain top. We found out the hotel actually has buggy car, until we requested it the hotel staff then realized they can transfer us down with a buggy car... It took entirely 45 minutes till they offered this solid solution. Of curse, we ran super late for our dinner appointment. Because the uneasiness of moving out the hotel, we decided just to stay in this "resort" as much as we could for next day, while we found out the swimming pool ground floor is made from gray-ish colored floors which makes the water looks no desire to jump in at all, also the tower was bought from IKEA as cheap as it would be (in blue) and they smells..... Breakfast was another big drawback with coming down at 10am, almost everything was gone and no refill for the buffet stations afterwards.... Of course they said it is due by the big group just came down earlier. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this hotel as it really sacrifices the personal experiences to make "big group" business. And there are so many detailed places the hotel need to catch up on to really match the name...