Hotel Nikko Guangzhou — Hotel in Guangzhou City

This hotel is located on the outskirts of the Tianhe district, close to the Science city park so a good 30 minutes ride from Guangzhou downtown or the Pazhou exhibition center. ||There is nothing within walking distance so you ll need a cab if you want to eat something else than the hotel restaurants or if you need to buy anything. It therefore can be quite a handicap if you are on a longer stay.||The hotel provides shuttle service to downtown and the East station but the frequency is not enough to be really useful. ||The canton fair shuttle bus is frequent and well run though so proves to be a strong point of the hotel. ||||But the main plus point of this hotel are the rooms. The rooms are very spacious and very new with great shower, rainshower, japanese toilets and bathtub. Beds are super comfy and feel of a great quality. You get all the amenities expected from a higher end hotel as well as ironing board, iron, kettle and coffee. ||The design is a bit odd though, it s like a Japanese 80s hotel revamped with a slightly more contemporary feel so the color combination and overall feeling is really very much 80s. Personnaly I wasn t a fan at all. ||||I chose this hotel because many reviews were mentioning a great level of service but unfortunately I was very disappointed by the level of service in this hotel. Except for the staff at the Benkay Japanese restaurant which offered a very high level of hospitality and friendliness, hats off to them, the rest of the staff I met was really horrid and a shame for a supposedly Japanese managed hotel. ||First, no one I met ever greeted me even when there was eye contact. From the bell boy to some managers or assistant managers at the lobby, no one would greet you of at least offer a smile. ||The staff at breakfast was the worst, there was no greeting on arrival, no smile but long faces and they pretty much just showed you the machine to swipe your keycard and that was it. Not a single service staff had a smile and they even would come to your face and clear your plates without even asking if you had finished. ||Check in level was what you would expect from a local 2 or 3 star and lacked all warmth, politeness and friendliness that you can expect from a higher end hotel. I can speak mandarin so the guy checked me in in mandarin and his language was so rough and lacked all politeness. ||Check out was pretty similar, no greeting, no smile, no how was your stay, no looking forward to welcoming you again, it was pretty much sign here and Ok that s it. She didnt even give me a copy of the invoice until I asked for it. I was so amazed that I think I stayed like 30 seconds at the end in front of the counter wondering if this was a joke. But it wasnt a joke, it was really sign here and that s it, not even bye. ||I don t know how the staff was trained but I think Nikko needs to send some Japanese staff to teach them about Japanese omotenashi. ||||Overall despite some great hardware and being very new I most probably will not go back to this hotel. There are much better properties slightly further away in Science city which offer the same level of rooms but with a much friendlier and better educated staff at the same cost or even lower. ||It s a shame because it could definitely be a great hotel but the staff was really one of the worst I experienced among the higher end properties I have stayed...

Started writing this review while sitting at breakfast waiting for the coffee machines to be fixed. This is reminiscent of dinner last night. We had the buffet and I sat waiting for the beer machine to be fixed. Seems the staff have a habit of taking things, like the trays on the drinks machine, away for cleaning and never returning. ||||Just got the coffee, now no hot milk. By the time they refill the hot milk the coffee will be cold.||||||The only other Nikko hotels I have stayed at are in Japan and these are as expected. Extremely good 5 star Japanese hotels that have the level of care and detail that can amaze. The Nikko in Guangzhou kind of looks like a Nikko but it becomes apparent it is not a Japanse Nikko. Is it a franchise I wonder, I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me. All the staff are pleasant and professional but there is an air of confusion hovering over some of them (not the check in reception staff. See below). This is a good hotel but it is a good Chinese hotel. It is not a Japanese Nikko||||Check in was smooth and the guy who checked me in was helpful and clearly knew what he was doing. I did expect problems but they never materialized. My colleague booked the rooms and they weren’t under my name and I checked in first. The guy took it in his stride, no fuss, no drama. This is the type of service I appreciate. I don't really care if they have 20 different types of coffee at breakfast (they don't) but I do appreciate staff that know what they are doing and can help me when I need help.||||Check out was a little different but not too bad. I had to remind them to charge me for dinner. Then I had to ask for a receipt.||||Rooms. I stayed in a standard room. The room was large and clean. Included tea and coffee making facilities but the mini fridge is empty (typical with Chinese hotels. I like to believe they start with all the right intentions but soon realize it is too much trouble to maintain or get fed up with the guests stripping the rooms bare).||Bathroom quite large and included the usual toiletries. ||||Dinner buffet is OK. Not good. Not bad. It is fairly expensive and not particularly large though. The emphasis is towards Japanese and Chinese food and the western dishes are limited. Drinks are plentiful and the price includes unlimited soft drinks, Asahi and a couple of wines. The Asahi was good when the machine was working.||||Breakfast is a typical breakfast buffet. A little limited but ok. No egg bar but they were kind enough to cook eggs specifically for me. There are 2 styles of fried eggs offered in the buffet (preparpared), either sunny side up with uncooked whites, or over cooked. I like my friend eggs sunny side up but with fully cooked whites and not flipped. ||||Finishing this review in the gym. Taking a breather before leaving. The gym is fairly well equipped but also very typical for a hotel gym.||||Overall a good hotel and I think I was let down because of my expectations rather than the actual hotel. My previous experiences of other Nikko hotels gave me unrealistic expectations.||||||||Would I stay here again? Yes and no. If this hotel was booked for me then I would accept it and not worry. If I was booking myself then I would probably pick...

Stayed here on the first leg of a 3 week tour of China.||It was wonderful to arrive into a clen and cmfortable room. The hotel allowed us to check in early so we could have a rest before exploring the surrounding area in the evening.||The rooms were of a good size with the most enormous bed I've ever seen. Loved the bathroom layout.||The buffet breakfast had a good variety of Western and Asian food and was of good quality.||Parts of the hotel are slightly dated, such as the swimming pool however we noticed some construction work going on so possibly they are in the process of doing some renovations. Once these are finished, a stay in this hotel will be very much enhanced.||The only other drawback of this hotel is that it is quite a distance from the centre of Guangzhou. There is a metro station close by providing a cheap train ride into the city.||The staff were eager to help with any questions or concerns and were very patient with the language barrier.||Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to stay here again and would recommend it as a nice...