Crowne Plaza City Center Ningbo — Hotel in Ningbo

My last stay at this hotel was a very bad experience indeed. I

Everything started out OK, I was upgraded which I understand is a privilege and not a rite. I had a few errands to run and finally settled down to doing my e-mails at about 9 p.m. only to find after battling for about 1/2 an hour that neither the wire nor the WiFi worked in the room. I called the front desk who then referred me to the internet provider, after treating my like I did not know the first thing about connecting they finally said that they would ask the front desk to send up someone to check the internet and would call back in 10 min.

well needless to say the internet provider never called back, however about 15 to 20 min later someone arrived in my room. It was now around 10 p.m. after trying to out what was going on they finally decided at just before 11 p.m. that the internet in the room and most of the floor was faulty. Finally they offered to move me to another room which at that time of the night was not at all convenient - nor did it make much difference since it was already close to midnight and I was tired - but they insisted and made me walk in my night gown down the public passage to the new room - yet another inconvenience.

The morning came and I was set to check out, I presented my card for payment and the machine at the desk did not accept the card ... they tried 3 separate machines and let me know that my card was faulty ... however I had drawn money the night before and I knew that the card was not faulty and insisted on seeing the manager.

The manager proceeded to tell the front desk clerk what to say to me - I am sorry but when I ask to see the manager at a hotel, I do NOT want to get the clerk telling me what his manager is saying on the phone, I expect the manager to take my request seriously and come in person to the front desk.

While I was letting the manager know that her attitude was much less than acceptable another senior staffer arrived took the card and without any fuss completed the transaction. The front desk staff had clearly not been properly trained for their job.

This entire ordeal cost me a further 40 minutes of unnecessary frustration ...

There were four areas of extreme frustration during this trip. the internet did not work in the room and in the 2nd room it worked intermittently. (the internet is not free we pay for it in the room rate!) this in a hotel that caters for international business visitors is unacceptable. The night manager moved me to a new room even though I did not want it and did not allow me the courtesy of changing into clothes to make the move - the time spent figuring out that the internet did not work had robbed me of the time that I needed to work any way. The front desk staff were not trained well enough to be able to operate the card machine for paying the bill. The duty manager had the audacity to use her front desk clerk to tell me what she was telling him on the phone while she sat in her office ... I am a guest with a legitimate problem that the front desk clerk could not attend to ... this is a hospitality business and not some corporate where managers can hide in their office.

After this last experience I cannot recommend this hotel fro any business traveler at least until they have addressed the aging internet cables and properly trained...

We spent seven nights at the Crowne Plaza Ningbo. We checked in at the Club Floor and because of our Platinum IHG status, were upgraded to a two-room suite. The room was large and spacious and located in the Great Wall Wing of the hotel a few floors below the Club. The only negative was that the bed and sofa were extremely hard by Western standards. Otherwise, housekeeping always did a great job and the laundry service was very good.

The Crowne Plaza is in a great location for tourists. We were within walking distance of many attractions: Tianfeng Tower, an ancient tower which is an iconic symbol in the center of the city; Chenghuang Temple Commercial Area, an area with shopping and traditional dining area (i.e., lots of food stalls with a large interior seating area); Tianji Square – a huge, ultra-modern shopping area; the Catholic Church (a cathedral by most standards); Qita Temple; Moon Lake Park; the Drum (Clock) Tower; Tianyi Library Pavilion; etc.

The Club is a bit unusual compared with most other clubs at IHG properties. The staff members were professional and friendly. In particular, Luna and Fiona were very helpful with regards to touring (and their English was pretty good). However, since the Club is also the Business Center, the staff had to stay at the reception desk. So, once inside the Club, it is totally self-service.

We were told our rate did not include breakfast at the restaurant but only at the Club (very unusual). So, we had breakfast at the Club as well as evening cocktails and snacks. During our stay, we virtually had a “private club” for happy hour – that is, we were pretty much the only guests except for a couple of evenings when a British couple was there and one evening when two German businessmen showed up.

Each morning a breakfast buffet was served. Since we were practically the only ones eating there, it certainly would have been more cost effective to send us to the main restaurant. Instead, each morning the hotel chefs brought up several hot dishes (mostly meats) and then the Club staff put out salad, great breads, cheese, cereal, fruits, assorted sushi and a real treat – smoked salmon. We enjoyed these each morning along with espresso and café latte (Luna showed us how to use the coffee machine).

During the evening happy hour, there were four bottles of liquor – gin, vodka, Irish whiskey and scotch. There also was red wine, white wine and beer. The staff didn’t have access to liquor so if a bottle ran out, that was it for the evening. It wasn’t a problem for us as we typically have a gin & tonic so we were able to switch to vodka & tonic when the gin ran out one evening. The staff members were able to replenish wine and did so when a bottle ran out.

Food during the happy hour was very repetitive during our stay (i.e., fried small whole fish, chicken skewers, lamb skewers, salad, cheese, fruit and a few sweets). We did fine since smoked salmon and/or smoked chicken was usually one of the cold dishes along with some small sandwiches. However, we found it odd that while cheese was served at both breakfast and in the evenings, there was no bread in the evenings – just a few crackers in a jar. Also, there were no snack foods like peanuts or chips.

Again, it was a very different Club Floor experience for us and not what we typically expect from an...

first of all, i am a gold member, and whenever I travel, i try to stay at one of the hotels of the IHG chain, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza or Intercontinental. Up to now, and i count hundreds of stays, i had an overall good experience.

in ref. to my las stay at the Cowne Plaza NIngbo , the room had no appropriate air condition or it was not working well, and i mentioned it to the reception, because we were feeling real bad and cold (me and my son).

after my complain, they told me that the problem was solved, but unfortunately, at the following night it was worst. almost freezing.

Again i explained this to the reception, and they sent to us a very small electrical heater!!! But at this time my son was sick, and i was afraid that another freezing night could harm his health.

it was aprox. 10 pm and i go down to the lobby, ask for the manager and explaing all the problem to him.

He was very kind , looked for a room but he could not find a twin bedroom room for us to change, but instead , he offered me that he had a room with only one bed, that we could use, so my son could move to this new one bed room and avoid getting worse.

To my complete surprise, i get a call from reception only 10 minutes later, by the time i was helping my son to move to the new room, and they said to me that in this new room they included another bed, so we need to move both to the new room, otherwise we will be charged for two rooms that night.

it was very strange to me , because the new room was very little, so i went to the room in order to check how they managed to install a second bed.....and to my big sorprise.....it was a camp bed!!!!!!!!!!! unbelievable. i was astonished. It was like to sleep in a tent like a boy scout in my childhood.

I called again to reception and asked if they made a mistake or even a joke; but they insisted .....either we stay in the freezing room we were sleeping , or we moved to the new tiny room and either my son or myself will have to sleep in a camp bed which width may be ,50 cmts....because of the late time i could not move to another hotel and we had to spend a third freezing night at the Crowne Plaza Ningbo!

a very very sad and bad experience at...