Sheraton Changbaishan Resort — Hotel in Baishan City

Family of 4, two kids under 12. We went during New Year 2019 to Ski. We are intermediate skiers and overall we had a great time.||||Short flight from Shanghai. Small, efficient airport. Quick exit. A little confusion to find the buses and taxis due to lack of signs - had to walk straight out to the parking lot. Note that taxis have very limited trunk space bc of the fuel tank. Felt like quick ride from airport to resort - maybe 30min.||||For the whole resort we found staff - whether in our hotel, the public ski rental place or local restaurants - to be both friendly and helpful (we've lived in Shanghai for 9 years,so I guess that is our base of comparison). Except for the hotel manager, English was limited, so we made due with our non-native Chinese.||||More on skiing. Ski patrol was numerous and helpful. Crowds were reasonable. More advanced slopes almost deserted. Lots of novices and still quite a few locals that don't realize the need for basic instruction which can be a little dangerous, but overall didn't get in our way. Snow is man-made. Can be a bit icy in patches.||||Ski pass. You need to download an APP and use a kiosk to handle registration, payment and activation. Was hard for us to download the App. Our phones are mostly connected to Int'l App stores which didn't have the app. Eventually succeeded with a local android phone. Staff were pretty helpful here.||||Ski rental shop. Sheraton didn't have one or it wasn't open. Westin's shop next door was available. We didn't use the hotel shop. Hotel shop is probably less chaotic, but if you have to carry your equipment back for return, then its relatively far away and uphill, so it would be a pain to return the equipment. There seemed some arrangement with snowmobile to help with this, but it was unclear and infrequent. We used the public shop - chaotic but we made it.||||Sheraton. Only thing to say about the hotel was that it wasn't fully "awake". Room was fine, breakfast food was good enough, the club-floor club was closed, lobby bar basically dead, so all good if you want quiet; however its a bit of a walk to get to the ski lifts and restaurant street. We ate dinner out every night as the hotel just didn't seem inviting for dinner. 10RMB cabs around the resort and some kind of shuttle as well if you don't want to walk in the cold (like -30C). If I go again, I will try the Holiday Inn as it just seemed to be the top location for convenience of skiing and restaurants. Hyatt may also be more convenient.||||We also tried the indoor water park one afternoon. It was included in the ski pass. Kids enjoyed it.||||Hope this helps anyone...

Family of 4, two kids under 12. We went during New Year 2019 to Ski. We are intermediate skiers and overall we had a great time.||||Short flight from Shanghai. Small, efficient airport. Quick exit. A little confusion to find the buses and taxis due to lack of signs - had to walk straight out to the parking lot. Note that taxis have very limited trunk space bc of the fuel tank. Felt like quick ride from airport to resort - maybe 30min.||||For the whole resort we found staff - whether in our hotel, the public ski rental place or local restaurants - to be both friendly and helpful (we've lived in Shanghai for 9 years,so I guess that is our base of comparison). Except for the hotel manager, English was limited, so we made due with our non-native Chinese.||||More on skiing. Ski patrol was numerous and helpful. Crowds were reasonable. More advanced slopes almost deserted. Lots of novices and still quite a few locals that don't realize the need for basic instruction which can be a little dangerous, but overall didn't get in our way. Snow is man-made. Can be a bit icy in patches.||||Ski pass. You need to download an APP and use a kiosk to handle registration, payment and activation. Was hard for us to download the App. Our phones are mostly connected to Int'l App stores which didn't have the app. Eventually succeeded with a local android phone. Staff were pretty helpful here.||||Ski rental shop. Sheraton didn't have one or it wasn't open. Westin's shop next door was available. We didn't use the hotel shop. Hotel shop is probably less chaotic, but if you have to carry your equipment back for return, then its relatively far away and uphill, so it would be a pain to return the equipment. There seemed some arrangement with snowmobile to help with this, but it was unclear and infrequent. We used the public shop - chaotic but we made it.||||Sheraton. Only thing to say about the hotel was that it wasn't fully "awake". Room was fine, breakfast food was good enough, the club-floor club was closed, lobby bar basically dead, so all good if you want quiet; however its a bit of a walk to get to the ski lifts and restaurant street. We ate dinner out every night as the hotel just didn't seem inviting for dinner. 10RMB cabs around the resort and some kind of shuttle as well if you don't want to walk in the cold (like -30C). If I go again, I will try the Holiday Inn as it just seemed to be the top location for convenience of skiing and restaurants. Hyatt may also be more convenient.||||We also tried the indoor water park one afternoon. It was included in the ski pass. Kids enjoyed it.||||Hope this helps anyone...

Summary: Dining services are good. Room quality is good, though not thoroughly cleaned (dust balls on floor, spill spots on counter tops) Guest Services staff needs better training, in customer service and in English. Climate control & internet need improvement. Get a room with a balcony. One room we were put in was above 30C in the winter with windows that didn't open.

I booked an X-mas package for 3 nights, which includes free internet, breakfast & dinner, and welcome fruit and wine.

At check-in, the receptionist didn't speak any English, so she communicated with my Chinese partner instead of me. We were taken to our room, which only had wired internet (no wifi). We called the desk and asked if any wifi rooms were available. About 15 minutes later, they sent someone to take us to a new room.

The worker who took us to the new room dropped us off and left quickly, without making sure the new room was acceptable. The temperature in the new room was above 30C/86F. The windows could not be opened and the A/C could not produce cool air. After calling the front desk, they sent a maintenance worker 15 minutes later who could not solve the temperature problem. Further, the room did not have wifi.

After waiting another 15 minutes for the staff to send someone to solve the problem, we walked back to the front desk to sort things out. We asked to just be put back in the first room, which didn't have wifi, but was at least a comfortable temperature. At the front desk, the SPG counter declined to help us. When we said we are SPG members, she seemed to imply that we were lying by asking what our SPG number was.

A couple hours after we settled into our room, the welcome fruit and wine included in our xmas package hadn't arrived. I called the front desk to request them. Thirty minutes later, I called again. Two hours later, they still hadn't arrived. I called again and the receptionist said that someone would call me back. She seemed uncomfortable with speaking English. Fifteen minutes later, no call, so I called them back and asked in Chinese if she can speak English. She said "not so well" so I asked about the fruit & wine in Chinese. She said something very rapidly in Chinese that I did not understand most of. Several hours later, at 9:00pm, 7 hours after we checked in, the welcome snacks arrived.

The breakfast and dinner buffet in Feast were managed much better. The staff was friendly and attentive, though sometimes a bit understaffed especially at breakfast. The selection & quality were very good and the food items almost never ran out without being...