Peace Guest House — Hotel in Hong Kong

Despite the positive reviews this hotel has garnered, my experience was really bad. I was on vacation with my mom, and we had booked a double room for 5 nights. The owner who ran the hotel did not speak English (nor was he present), so there was a middleman named Paul who we communicated with throughout the entire time.

First night: We were put in a temporary double room since all of the rooms were booked. We were told we would be transferred to our permanent room the following day. Paul was nice explaining everything to us, but was quick in excusing himself, saying he was busy. (This was a pattern we saw during our interactions with him.) The water in the toilet spilled outside whenever it was flushed. Since the toilet was in the shower stall, this prevented us from being hygienic.

Second night: We came back after the day was over and was told we would still be staying in the temporary room. We were frustrated since we didn’t want to stay in a room where the toilet was still leaking. We asked for some form of compensation or discount since we were not placed in the room we had paid for nor was the toilet working. He said he would talk with the boss but never followed up on it. We contacted Expedia to see if they could help us. Per their policy, they can only reimburse me if the hotel agrees to the reimbursement. They tried contacting the owner several times, but they had no success. They put in a ticket and told us to wait. At this point we could have left the next day and find a different hotel, but we didn’t want to double book. I also tried contacting the boss through texting (apparently he can read English but cannot speak it), but he never responded back to me.

Third night: We contacted Expedia again in the morning, and they were still not successful contacting the owner. We were provided a small gift card from Expedia because of the trouble we have to go through. At night, Paul transferred us to our permanent room. Half of the lights were not working in the room. We told Paul about the lights. He told us he would get one of them fixed the following day, and would fix the other one tonight. Neither of them happened.

Fourth night: I got an email from Expedia, saying the hotel refused to reimburse us for the nights left, and so Expedia cannot reimburse us. When we got back to the hotel, neither of the lightbulbs were replaced. We were really annoyed at this point and went downstairs to talk to Paul. He said the electrician was currently working on something else and will fix it either tonight or the following day. We also did not get any replacements of plastic cups or toothbrushes. The bedspread was not replaced.

Fifth night: The lights were not replaced. We continued not getting any replacements of plastic cups or toothbrushes. The bedspread was also...

The rooms were clean but was really tight on space. The check in process was really confusing. We went to the 5th flr to check in but were told by a fellow Filipina that we should go the 16th floor because our assigned room moved from 5th to 16th floor. The most stressful part was that the elevators don't stop at all floors (one elevator stops at even number floors while another stops at odd number floors) and you can't go up from the 5th floor to odd number higher floor (note: the elevators were all so small; 8 people with backpacks won't even fit). We had to go down the ground floor and change elevators. There was a long line at the ground floor so it took us a considerable amount of time to go up to the 16th floor. Once there, the Filipina yelled at us. She said we couldn't understand simple directions since we were complaining about the whole process. We also had to wait for another 20 min for another person who had the keys to our rooms. We had no password to their wifi until our last night. Because apparently, the Filipina was told to give us the wifi passwords but she never did. We were also told that we needed to move to another room in the 5th floor during our last night since the roof of the 16th floor would be opened for renovations so we had to move our luggage to the 5th floor again! (REPEATING THE WHOLE ELEVATOR INCIDENT). When we came back that day to get our luggage and check in to our new room, we were told that we could stay at the 16th floor since it was a holiday and no one came to open the roof for repairs. So elevator situation all over again!!!! The ground floor of the building also felt unsafe, there were lots of Indians at the ground floor that kept offering rooms at their guest houses (others were just plain rude and staring). They really had no idea of personal space because one came right up at me with his body just a few inches apart from mine. It was...

It's really hard to say anything nice about this place, except that its location is about as good as it gets. Even so, if I could redo this holiday, I would gladly take the extra 30 minutes on the MTR and stay at a much nicer place. In fact, I did just that - I booked a room at another hotel for the last two days of our vacation after I got sick of seeing cockroaches. As for specifics: 1) Chungking Mansion, where this guest house is located, is ridiculously busy. If you're returning to your room during peak hours (say 8-11pm) expect up to 30 minutes wait just to take the elevator. 2) As I mentioned the property is pretty dirty. There was not a day that I did not see any cockroaches. 3) You know things are bad when the first thing the attendant shows you in the room is how to flush the toilet. This involved using the shower to fill up the tank, as it ran continuously. To be sure, this issue was fixed within a couple of days. 4) Did I mention this place was dirty? 5) Touts everywhere... touting currency exchanges, other rooms, restaurants, etc. You're pretty much constantly assaulted when you're in the public areas of Chungking Mansion. If I haven't been clear enough. Don't. Stay. Here. Swallow the extra subway ride. Pay the extra. Do whatever you can. Don't stay...