中南海怡酒店 — Hotel in Shenzhen

I was recommended this hotel because this is a hotel that is generally used by communist party members on their trips to Shenzhen, and I have to say that, overall, it filled my expectations.||||THE GOOD: Breakfast. For the level of this hotel it is great whether you think Chinese or Western standards. You will have a selection of Chinese and western foods. Bread, meat, rice, fruits...although you will not find salmon nor cheese. If you are on a budget you will be able to eat so much and so varied that your next meal will be dinner.||||Also location is excellent because it is placed right in the middle of line 1 (chegongmiao). This means that you have easy access to anywhere in Shenzhen, from the electronics market to the great food court of Laojie (both along line 1, by the way).||||THE BAD: First and foremost the staff, but for the wrong reasons. I can tell they really want to help, but they just don´t have the experience nor knowledge. Typical examples are the complete disregard of the "do not disturb" sign (I strongly advice you to lock the door with the metallic clip), the attempt to show hard work by staying literally on top of you when all you want to do is eat in peace, their lack of an English command, and their attempts of billing you for their mistakes or things you didn´t order (more on that later).||||The rooms are also not well kept. Air conditioners are badly maintained and you will be lucky if you don´t develop a sore throat (a coworker and yours truly did). The carpet is dirty and there is this overall feeling that they do not use cleaning products whatsoever.||||THE UGLY: Some tips that will save you valuable time.||1. Write down, together with the deposit money or whatever other paper, the number of key cards they give you. A coworker and I had the experience of the staff giving us one keycard but thinking that they gave us two, and asking us to return the "phantom cards" because otherwise they would have to pay for them. Scam? Perhaps.||||2. Give back the remote of the TV. My coworker watched two movies but was billed for three. I thought this could be a mistake he made selecting another movie or something until they asked me to pay for a movie...when I didn´t even power on the TV for the whole time. Furthermore, according to them, the movie was a Chinese movie...I do not know if this was an error in their system or another scam attempt. I should mention that they finally didn´t charge me anything after I asked to talk to management.||||3. Make sure that everything in your room works. Look for wet marks under the A/C. Check that the safe box works. Check the lights. If you complain they will take forever (or never, as it was my case) to fix the issues.||||4. Avoid using the A/C overnight. Otherwise you will expose yourself to throat infection.||||5. Checkout with enough time. As the issues mentioned above (or scams, who knows!) will come during checkout, I recommend you to give yourself one hour just to handle them. This is precisely what saved my flight, and maybe the reason why these potential scams work...maybe some people will pay a couple of dollars so they are not retained at the check-in desk...||||IN CONCLUSION: I will come back to this hotel because of its value, the breakfast, and its location. However, I will make sure that A) I count and write down the number of keys. B) I inspect the room before unpacking and make sure everything works and C) I return the remote controller so they cannot try to bill me. By the way, maybe is also a good idea to state clearly that you will not use...

Date of Stay: June 3rd to the 5th, 2015||||The hotel itself is somewhat unique, perhaps not to Asian standards but to those new to Asian travel. The Hotel Entrance was unassuming, almost invisible. Climb 4-5 stairs head through the sliding doors, enter the elevator and travel to the 6th floor. A short walk down the hall brings you to the lobby. Such a journey would almost never take place in the west. There is access from the floor main lobby in the structure housing the hotel, but barely a sign can be seen and what seems to be a Customer Service desk was vacant of Customer Service Personnel. The idea of a hotel hidden away was interesting.||||The lobby was bright, of a modern decor and intimate. Fuzzy red chairs were provided to guests dealing with the front desk staff.||||Negatives||||Apart from staying at ultra luxurious hotels in China, where no small detail is left unmanaged, a guest will certainly notice a few things either old and weathered or in need of up keep in typical Chinese hotels. In this particular room, mould or water damage could be seen around the interior entrance of the hotel room. Unfortunately this took away from an otherwise appealing room.||||In addition to the elevator found at the rear of the building, acting as the main entrance, guests had access to many other elevators providing means of visiting the massive restaurant on the 4th floor, or as a means to access the front of the building. The problem lay in the fact all elevators were not created equal. Not all ‘lifts’ provided access to all floors. By not paying attention, you will find denied access to a desired floor or the box your are standing in goes no where. Heaped on top these interesting experiences was the foot traffic in this multi use building. Wait times for a way up or down can be long and a ride could very well be snug.||||One last ‘bad’ note, the poor little ironing board delivered to the room had certainly seen better days and was a little wobbly.||||Positives||||Room # 901 was much larger than expected. From the point of entrance, to the bathroom and shower capable of hosting a small group, to the main living area, nothing felt cramped. The bedding appeared to be very clean and felt fresh. The one lounge type chair was a fun red but seemed out of place, with no real place to go. The room provided lots of work space and various wall plugs to charge any number of electronic devices||||The Bed was very large and pillows were the right amount of soft. A rather unique surprise was the personal sauna unit found right in the room.||||A nice touch was the motion activated softly lit bathroom light. Sure saves on trying to feel around in the dark or going blind from the flash of a really bright light being turned on.||||The television was of the flat screen variety. A pleasant feature was the WiFi instructions found on the Menu when turning on the TV.||||The WiFi was at a good speed. Great for Email and browsing but did not perform well when playing video, not exactly crucial. Hey your a visiting a great city, stop watching youtube or those stupid videos on Facebook, get outside!||||In the Vicinity||||The location provided a center point for wandering. Shopping and eating options could be found in all four directions.||||Street food, South, across Shennan Ave while many eat-in style restaurants to the North of the Hotel.||||Overall, a pleasant Hotel to stay while visiting Shenzhen.||||Score: 3 out of 5 glasses of Scotch...

The Laguna Hotel in Shenzhen is quite an unusual place. It offers a sense of dilapidated luxury, the kind of luxury you'd think a Soviet government official would enjoy while out on tour...||Rooms are enormous by any Western standards - but that seems to be the norm in China, at least based on my experience. There are some luxuries like a flatscreen TV, combined light switches that allow you complete control of all lights from your bed or the shower with massage feature, but somehow all seems old, with a bit of a Soviet-era style in it and quite unusual. ||Otherwise, not too many reasons to complain either. The room was quite clean, breakfast acceptable and there are many bars and all-night shops very close by. And it is amazing what 10 Euros will buy you there! ||Staff was not great at English, but they were friendly and tried to accommodate all your needs. ||One helpful note, especially if you arrive late: hotel reception is on the 16-th floor for some reason, not at ground level. Also, while WiFi is available for free, like everywhere in China it is only accessible from the reception area (not in the room) and of course you won't have any Facebook access so don't get ready to...