Holiday Inn Express LHASA POTALA PALACE — Hotel in Lhasa

This hotel felt like a cheap 1 star motel from the moment we walked in. The entire hotel reeked of cigarette smoke from the lobby to the hallways to the rooms. I think the cigarette smell is soaked into the walls and floors at this point. The smell also wafts into the rooms from under the doors and the bathroom plumbing so even putting towels at the base of the doors didn’t help. This isn’t just stale old cigarette smell, it is old and new smoke that burns your nose. ||The breakfast was also super sad. There was one “meat” option each day which was only a few slivers of meat with vegetables and the rest were also piles of vegetables. They had the food in electric containers but it didn’t work well so all the food was cold. They daily breakfast was just these dishes plus boiled egg, plain steamed bun (man tou) and steamed bun with custard. They did have hot soy milk (dou jiang) which I like a lot. They also had this weird routine where they asked you to walk to the receptionist to pick up a breakfast voucher and then bring it to breakfast. Considering the restaurant was next to reception, not sure why they didn’t just put the basket of vouchers in the restaurant since they didn’t check room numbers or anything. ||The only good thing about the hotel is that they allowed us to check out 2 days early for full refund as we had to change our itinerary due to the Nepal border road...

This hotel felt like a cheap 1 star motel from the moment we walked in. The entire hotel reeked of cigarette smoke from the lobby to the hallways to the rooms. I think the cigarette smell is soaked into the walls and floors at this point. The smell also wafts into the rooms from under the doors and the bathroom plumbing so even putting towels at the base of the doors didn’t help. This isn’t just stale old cigarette smell, it is old and new smoke that burns your nose.

The breakfast was also super sad. There was one “meat” option each day which was only a few slivers of meat with vegetables and the rest were also piles of vegetables. They had the food in electric containers but it didn’t work well so all the food was cold. They daily breakfast was just these dishes plus boiled egg, plain steamed bun (man tou) and steamed bun with custard. They did have hot soy milk (dou jiang) which I like a lot. They also had this weird routine where they asked you to walk to the receptionist to pick up a breakfast voucher and then bring it to breakfast. Considering the restaurant was next to reception, not sure why they didn’t just put the basket of vouchers in the restaurant since they didn’t check room numbers or anything.

The only good thing about the hotel is that they allowed us to check out 2 days early for full refund as we had to change our itinerary due to the Nepal border road...

This hotel felt like a cheap 1 star motel from the moment we walked in. The entire hotel reeked of cigarette smoke from the lobby to the hallways to the rooms. I think the cigarette smell is soaked into the walls and floors at this point. The smell also wafts into the rooms from under the doors and the bathroom plumbing so even putting towels at the base of the doors didn’t help. This isn’t just stale old cigarette smell, it is old and new smoke that burns your nose.

The breakfast was also super sad. There was one “meat” option each day which was only a few slivers of meat with vegetables and the rest were also piles of vegetables. They had the food in electric containers but it didn’t work well so all the food was cold. They daily breakfast was just these dishes plus boiled egg, plain steamed bun (man tou) and steamed bun with custard. They did have hot soy milk (dou jiang) which I like a lot. They also had this weird routine where they asked you to walk to the receptionist to pick up a breakfast voucher and then bring it to breakfast. Considering the restaurant was next to reception, not sure why they didn’t just put the basket of vouchers in the restaurant since they didn’t check room numbers or anything.

The only good thing about the hotel is that they allowed us to check out 2 days early for full refund as we had to change our itinerary due to the Nepal border road...