广州逸林假日酒店 — Hotel in Guangzhou City

This was a stunning alternative to mediocre hotels next to GDUFS when it opened a few years ago. It's well-priced and not too far from the airport and Baiyun Mountain - and nice rooms, especially if you get a garden room with sitting-out area, plus good WiFi connection. ||But now room carpets are dirtier, corridor mirrors are turning spotty from humidity, the breakfast buffet has become stranger and stranger (and less appealing - what's with the coffee the consistency of paint? and the same stale rolls put out day after day? The Western food is hardly what a Western person would eat, so stick with Chinese). The hotel has become more Chinese-run. It's sad, because I like the place and want it to succeed in catering to international guests. Here are two things that need some help:||-- Not many friendly faces, even at breakfast, except for the girl who seems more concerned with collecting your voucher. You feel like you're bothering staff if you want them to make you a bowl of soup or replenish the coffee (very thick and likely instant - why not get a Nespresso machine or something decent? In the rooms, there's only instant with sugar and creamer pre-added, not a decent coffee in the place). The egg station also seems to be gone, or at least there's nobody there if there still is one. ||-- Every fitness center in the world has at least a water cooler with paper cups, if not bottled water. Not here. You have to bring it or buy it. (Water should be free - especially when they leave the doors open to the humidity and it's hot in there.)||Okay, Easeland - now it's up to you! I'll be back next year. Hope to get a decent coffee and a smile or two - and a bottle of water in the...

This hotel is close to the airport and handy for the university, where I was attending a conference. It is quite a way away from everything else. Unfortunately, for a hotel that supposedly caters for people on business trips etc., the language skills of the staff were pretty poor. Trying to arrange my booking over email was a nightmare, and if the one receptionist that spoke and understood English wasn't working, we were a bit stuck. Furthermore they had no concept of the chip and pin system, they kept trying to bypass it and I ended up having my card rejected because they didn't understand it - very bizarre, I can't believe that other guests don't use chip and pin, given that it is standard in Europe! This led to a nightmare trying to explain to staff that I needed to make an international call to my credit card company to find out what was wrong, even though I had no credit on my room (they impose some arbitrary limit, very weird behaviour, I don't know why they don't just keep a copy of your passport so you can't skip paying the bill, like literally everywhere else in the world). ||We ate in the Chinese restaurant one evening, the staff there also lacking language skills. In Europe, it's near impossible to get a job in hospitality if you don't speak at least one other language. The waitresses all stood there watching us while we tried to decide what to order, it was very unsettling.||Rooms are fine, pool is nice (but take a swimming cap). Good selection of food at breakfast.||I had a massage in the salon in the lobby, it left me black and blue. I don't know what happened, since I couldn't communicate with the...

This hotel is close to the airport and handy for the university, where I was attending a conference. It is quite a way away from everything else. Unfortunately, for a hotel that supposedly caters for people on business trips etc., the language skills of the staff were pretty poor. Trying to arrange my booking over email was a nightmare, and if the one receptionist that spoke and understood English wasn't working, we were a bit stuck. Furthermore they had no concept of the chip and pin system, they kept trying to bypass it and I ended up having my card rejected because they didn't understand it - very bizarre, I can't believe that other guests don't use chip and pin, given that it is standard in Europe! This led to a nightmare trying to explain to staff that I needed to make an international call to my credit card company to find out what was wrong, even though I had no credit on my room (they impose some arbitrary limit, very weird behaviour, I don't know why they don't just keep a copy of your passport so you can't skip paying the bill, like literally everywhere else in the world). ||We ate in the Chinese restaurant one evening, the staff there also lacking language skills. In Europe, it's near impossible to get a job in hospitality if you don't speak at least one other language. The waitresses all stood there watching us while we tried to decide what to order, it was very unsettling.||Rooms are fine, pool is nice (but take a swimming cap). Good selection of food at breakfast.||I had a massage in the salon in the lobby, it left me black and blue. I don't know what happened, since I couldn't communicate with the...