Intercontinental Shenzhen Dameisha Resort — Hotel in Shenzhen

Dameisha, a beach getaway spot for residents of Shenzhen and nearby Hong Kong. Located in the Yantian District of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, the Dameisha beach is a common destination for the elite to settle in or the tourists to getaway from the hustle and bustle of either nearby metropolitan areas. Located on the northern tip of Dameisha is the InterContinental Shenzhen Dameisha Resort. Built in 2007, what was once a Sheraton Hotel transformed into an InterContinental in 2011, the resort now caters to many families with children and couples looking to have a luxurious vacation on the beach. Being recommended the InterContinental Resort out of the 2 other chains in Shenzhen, I wanted to take a look at the resort to give it a review and see what was the difference in this resort compared to others. ||Here is a review of my August 30th to 31st stay:||I booked the resort with 34,000 IHG One Points for the Standard Room, which is on the higher end of point redemption costs for any InterContinental Resort. On a typical working day, the resort charges 1,500 RMB ($205) per night for the same room. However, the resort charges above 3000 RMB ($410) per room for weekends. To put that into context, for 3000 RMB you could stay 2 nights at the Sanya InterContinental Resort (1086 RMB per night) and can probably still afford a round trip flight from Shenzhen to Sanya. Either way, the resort certainly has some justification to charge that high of a price because of the high turnout in families coming to the resort on weekends. ||As an IHG One Diamond Ambassador member and one that has the IHG’s Club Lounge Annual Membership, I was called by the resort’s Assistant Operations Manager Freja to fill her in on my arrival details. That included my 1 King Bed preference and my arrival time. I was told prior to my arrival that I was upgraded to the 1 King Classic Ocean View High Floor Room. It’s nice however to see hotels call elite members to detail their preferences before arrival. I revealed that I was coming from Guangzhou’s InterContinental Hotel, where the managers were expressing their compliments to the resort, specifically in regards to the Club InterContinental. I was then offered a tour of the resort by Freja, to which I accepted. Keep in mind I never revealed that I was reviewing the hotel pre-arrival. ||In the morning of my arrival, I was given a text from Freja detailing the weather and an approximate time of driving from the station to the hotel. Upon arrival into the big resort, I was immediately recognized getting out of the car and greeted by Freja, the Club InterContinental Manager Maxine Qin, the Concierge Supervisor/Manager, and the Front Office Manager Annie Liu. I realized that unusually for a busy day, they were all supervising my arrival. This was because they were all part of giving me a tour for my resort experience, and I guess it was them knowing I was supervised by a bunch of managers and directors at the Guangzhou InterContinental Hotel. Freja during check-in gave me a personalized gift bag containing items such as a electric fan, a travel bag, a beach mat, a room freshener, and a welcome card with a drawing of my late dog found on my WeChat avatar. The electric fan in particular was given to me because I had a video of me kayaking on my WeChat moments as explained by Freja. This was quite the personalized arrival and quite the mind blowing gift bag.||Annie Liu specifically supervised the room arrangement, surprise upgrading me to the 1 King Ocean View Balcony Suite. I found that out at the room when it looked twice the size of the original 50 SQM Classic Room. The 1 King Ocean View Balcony Suite category typically is located on the corners of the wave-shaped main hotel building. It is a 90 SQM/ 945 SQFT space that contains a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and large balcony area. The bedroom contains the king sized bed, a day bed, bedside tables, a modern digital alarm clock/ telephone combination, and a flatscreen TV. This is surrounded by luxurious wooden floors wooden walls, an abstract carpet, and warm practical lights to compliment the colors of the outside beach. The living room contains a couch seating area, a dining space, another TV, and a minibar area. The bathroom holds a freestanding bathtub, shower, toilet, and dual vanity sink. The bathroom is armed with the Byredo Blanche Soap brand. Surrounding the suite from the beach side is an extended balcony that runs down the contours of the building that view the beach and the Club InterContinental building. In the evening, the bed is turned down and some yogurt is served bedside. ||Although the suite is progressing with innovative features like lighting controls, USB power ports, and other small details that makes the suite modern; something I was surprised to see was no electrical Japanese toilet, which is something seen in more upscale-priced InterContinental with recent modernized renovations like the InterContinental Shanghai Harbour City Hotel. Keep in mind on the weekends/holidays this suite costs 4,800 RMB ($661) without Club InterContinental access, and the suite was missing some cleanliness, such as the long strand of hair found on my toilet and the unclean small towel that I saw. ||Annie, Freja & Maxine were kind enough to show me other rooms of the hotel. They showed me the following:||1. The Presidential Suite: A 395 SQM 2 Bedroom Suite with 2 bunk beds. It has a living room, bar area, dining room, and multiple bathrooms. The suite is located in the main building overlooking the Dameisha Marina and the Beach. ||2. 1 Bedroom Suite Ocean View w/ Club Access: A 119 SQM ocean view suite located in the Club InterContinental Building. ||3. 2 Twin Classic Garden View w/ Club Access: A 45 SQM twin bed room located in the Club InterContinental Building. ||4. 1 King 1 Bunk Bedroom Kids Themed Suite: A Family-Friendly suite located in the Main Building. Everything in the suite is adjusted to have a child’s theme in the suite, and the facilities in the suite are also child friendly. ||5. Unnamed Suite: Annie took me a suite similar to my 1 King Bedroom Suite, however one of the unique features that Annie expressed that was detrimental was a jetted bathtub where the water source from the ceiling which was difficult to maintain. ||The Shenzhen Dameisha InterContinental Resort is home to one of the countries most expensive access rates to the Club InterContinental Lounge. Unless you have the IHG Club Lounge Membership Card, the Entry-Level Executive Room 2,200 RMB ($302) on the working days, 3,800 RMB ($523) on prime time. Depending on when you visit, the Club InterContinental Building can be an impressive feat of exclusivity to guests. The significantly more recently constructed executive hotel building is located to the side of the main hotel building. The Club InterContinental building has its own entrance walkway, a front desk, an exclusive swimming pool, a lounge area, The Azure Restaurant, and outdoor lounge area including a golf putting course and a lounge chairs. The luxuriously designed building is home to a number of executive rooms and suites as mentioned. ||The Club Lounge Area itself contains marble floors, white concrete walls, and beach inspired practical lights. Luxurious wooden furniture tables, leather seats, and small furniture items like curated plants fill up the beachside Club Building. Afternoon Tea and Happy Hour services are provided by the Club Lounge Staff. Breakfast is provided in The Azure Restaurant, along with an Exclusive Lunch or Dinner service. However, much of the Afternoon Tea and Happy Hour services certainly remain questionable for the price and standards for the Club Access. In addition to fruits, there were 3 sandwiches, cookies, pana cotta, a pastry, and two baked cakes. The Afternoon Tea is quite limited based on choices and lacks inspiration for some dishes based on presentation and recipe. I can say the same for Happy Hour as only 9 options were available: salad, spring rolls, sandwich, cold noodles, bread, cakes, cheeses, and cold cuts. All of which were cold dishes. If you look at the Guangzhou InterContinental’s Happy Hour, there were at least 4 hot dishes, and 20 cold selections at a much lower priced Club InterContinental Rate. I will credit however Maxine Qin and her team for mastering the “Zurita Tonic” non-alcoholic cocktail challenge. ||Something that certainly disturbed my perception of the Club InterContinental Building was the lack of quiet spaces available amidst the high number of families with children in the club lounge. Whilst I do understand that it is a family resort, having this many active children certainly feels indicative of the exclusive concept of the Club InterContinental. Something I was not happy as well was how the hotel allowed a film crew to film a music video outside the club lounge. Whilst the film crew was respectful on a behavior level, some of the professional gear like the hard lights were deflecting off the windows of the lounge and the club room windows. It was also a disturbance to the guests in and around the pool where they were filming. As a filmmaker myself, I really don’t think what both the film crew and the management decisions were professional. Yes the film crew were paid guests, but keep in mind all the other guests around the area also paid their way to stay at this hotel. I think this is a mismanagement by the hotel, and this disruption in the club lounge should have not happened. ||There aren’t many ways also to access to the Club Lounge Building, as you must either take an electric shuttle to the lounge from the main entrance or walk via the sandy beach. A walkway between the pool area to the front entrance of the club lounge was for some reason blocked off. Finding ways to get from the main building to the club lounge can prove to be an inconvenient challenge. ||Let’s turn to the more positive sides of things, and that is the recreational facilities in the resort. There are 3 outdoor swimming pools for play in the main building area. It’s armed with the safety of life guards and many unique playful facilities for the children, such as the water slides, kayaks, diving water jet etc… Directly outside the pools are access to the public beach, which is supplemented by the shower facilities at the gates of the beach. Inside the hotel are also a range of arcade games and activities arranged for children. This is in addition to the fitness center and indoor swimming pool made available at all times regardless of weather. Feeling more adventurous? The resort via a third-party company provides jet skis, kayaks, and other fun ocean activities at the beach. They also provide a tour to the small island off the coast of the resort’s beach for photography sightseeing. ||Given the secluded nature of the resort, there aren’t many nearby restaurants that would justify leaving the resort for better qualify food. Most likely you would find yourself eating at the hotel. The Food & Beverage Team was delightful to show me around the resort’s 3 restaurants and lobby lounge:||1. Commune: InterContinental’s Signature All-Day Dining Restaurant Chain, which is seen in many newer InterContinental properties in Mainland China. The resort’s all-day dining restaurant serves mainly buffets during breakfast and dinner, along with a-la-carte dining throughout the rest of the day. At the time I visited, they were serving a Southeast Asian Themed Buffet. Noticeably the resort just used the Commune trademark and kept much of the old set-ups from the past. These include such as the outdated chairs, tables, buffet choices, etc… Much of the food is left to desired as the maintainability of freshness during breakfast remains to be a challenge. The scrambled eggs they pre-cooked for example looked very dried out. Other items seems to be left out for a long time as they deteriorated in freshness. Grease in the “square ham” seems to float up. Fresh juice which is a common item in other Commune breakfast buffets were also lacking. The Commune Restaurant at this resort however is not of the indicative standards of others. Commune also holds snack bars at the swimming pool for guests to enjoy.||2. The Azure: The resort’s high-end restaurant serving European course meals and a-la-care, along with being the Club InterContinental’s Breakfast Venue. It is a restaurant inheriting the club lounge design with seating and elevating it to a dining experience. The restaurant overlooks the beach and is a perfect place to dine-in for whatever the meal may be.||3. Cantonese Cuisine Mansion: The resort’s Chinese restaurant operated by a third-party. It inspires in traditional Cantonese cooking with live-seafood and various other traditional dishes that make the portfolio of dishes incredible. Although the restaurant is not designed consistent to the InterContinental brand, their chain of restaurants around Shenzhen is highly regarded as a decorated brand. This restaurant was present when the resort was still managed by Sheraton, so it remains as a long-time tenant of the resort’s property. ||4. Lobby Bar: The hotel’s lobby lounge overlooking the gigantic chandelier in the resort’s lobby. It’s a place to relax and get a drink, with a nice range of seating areas away from the privacy of your room. Interesting enough, the bar serves a range of Voss sparkling water products as an option towards redeeming membership drink vouchers. ||For dinner as recommended by Annie, I ate a course meal at The Azure. For 588 RMB ($80), I was served some starter bread, a Kale & Quinoa Salad, Pan-Fried Scallops, Poached Egg Corn Soup, M5 Australian Wagyu Sirloin Steak, and an Opera Cake. All of which I felt were very delicious and presented well, however it’s not really a comparable product as opposed to other hotel restaurants. Char for example is the Guangzhou InterContinental Hotel’s Michelin Guided Steakhouse, and they served a much higher quality 5 course meal for the same price. Therefore, I was rather underwhelmed by the service. To give the restaurant credit however, they made the meal complimentary after I expressed to the F&B manager my feedback.||Breakfast was more of a conflicting experience in my opinion. Having seen the poor maintenance in quality at the Commune Restaurant, I decided to come back to The Azure for breakfast where the restaurant holds the Club InterContinental’s Breakfast Buffet. The options and food quality is far better than Commune. There were options such as Cantonese dim sum, made-to-order Congee, charcuterie, egg options, and other great dishes that is unheard of at the Commune. There were dishes that I had that were left cold such as the steamed beef stomach. The Eggs Benedict was nice enough, with some potential to improve. What concerned me more however was how the maintainability of food here was better than Commune. Typically, Club InterContinental Lounges would serve the identical condensed options from the All-Day Dining Breakfast. The food quality in The Azure is far superior than Commune by a concerning margin. I think Commune can serve the same items as The Azure, because no hotel should alter the quality of breakfast between its Club Lounge and All-Day Dining Restaurant. I ranked the Commune Breakfast at #12 out of 19 InterContinental Buffet Breakfasts in China. ||Overall, my stay was rather on the underwhelming side based on the software of the service. Food & Beverage and Housekeeping certainly are what dragged my stay down. The Club InterContinental is a very unique hardware product in this resort alone, but it does not define the value it is marketed as when comparing the software service with the underwhelming afternoon tea and happy hour to other cheaper Club InterContinentals. There were a lot of gaps seen in breakfast service, all be it I did have a solid dinner. ||I think service from the staff members is absolutely phenomenal. That is especially guided towards the Club InterContinental Team, F&B Team, and Front Office Team. I think with what they are working with, I think the resources that the ownership and management can provide on the software product can be much better and well put into use. However, I thought how they handled the film crew was questionable. ||However, none of what I have seen in the hotel would justify 3000 RMB per night for a standard room on weekends. Nor would 4800 RMB for access to the Club InterContinental. This is because the demand only uplifts the price, and the value certainly is unjust for what you get out of it. I’d say come over when it’s not peak season to get a much more reasonable deal. I don’t think it’s worth the visit. Therefore, I think based on my personal InterContinental rankings, here’s how I rank the resort:||Overall Rankings: #18 out of 29 InterContinental Hotels & Resorts||Club InterContinental Rankings: #7 out of 21 Club Lounges||Buffet Breakfast in Chinese InterContinentals: #12 out of #19 All-Day Dining Restaurants in Mainland China InterContinentals||Maybe I’ll have better luck with the resort...

Dameisha, a beach getaway spot for residents of Shenzhen and nearby Hong Kong. Located in the Yantian District of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, the Dameisha beach is a common destination for the elite to settle in or the tourists to getaway from the hustle and bustle of either nearby metropolitan areas. Located on the northern tip of Dameisha is the InterContinental Shenzhen Dameisha Resort. Built in 2007, what was once a Sheraton Hotel transformed into an InterContinental in 2011, the resort now caters to many families with children and couples looking to have a luxurious vacation on the beach.||Now I was actually here last August to review the resort. Admittedly, the resort was lacking standards that were vindictive of the quality we are meant to see in the InterContinental Brand. However, at the time there was no General Manager, the resort was packed brim with families during the summers, and there was an imminent typhoon storm coming into the resort at the time of my stay. Now I decided to give the resort another chance and to see what the hotel would look like under better circumstances. Therefore, without alerting any of the hotel’s management, I decided to come into the hotel on January 18th to the 19th to review it. ||Before my arrival the hotel’s guest services office upgraded me to the 1 Bedroom Suite I was in before. That is because I had an IHG One Diamond Ambassador Membership, and the resort somewhat traced my guest records at the resort. Nothing really happened afterwards with the many of the resort’s management staffing changes. Usually there would be the Assistant Operations Manager assisting and communicating with guests, however to my surprise the previous Assistant Operations Manager Freja left the resort. That’s not an issue however, as it was good that the awareness of my arrival would be more discreet.||Upon arrival I was checked into the hotel by the Front Desk Supervisor Jory Jiang at the IHG One Rewards Ambassador Desk. Jory made sure I had everything covered to my knowledge from the room to the amenities at the Club InterContinental Lounge. Jory assigned me to the same exact suite as I stayed in back in 2023, which was Suite 551. However, the suite was still in cleaning preparations despite me having to state an exact arrival time during the pre-arrival call and arriving at that approximate time. I was asked to wait for 15 minutes to get access to my suite whilst the room is under cleaning preparations. ||The 1 King Ocean View Balcony Suite category typically is located on the corners of the wave-shaped main hotel building. It is a 90 SQM/ 945 SQFT space that contains a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and large balcony area. The bedroom contains the king sized bed, a day bed, bedside tables, a modern digital alarm clock/ telephone combination, and a flatscreen TV. This is surrounded by luxurious wooden floors wooden walls, an abstract carpet, and warm practical lights to compliment the colors of the outside beach. The living room contains a couch seating area, a dining space, another TV, and a minibar area. The bathroom holds a freestanding bathtub, shower, toilet, and dual vanity sink. The bathroom is armed with the Byredo Blanche Soap brand. Surrounding the suite from the beach side is an extended balcony that runs down the contours of the building that view the beach and the Club InterContinental building. In the evening, the bed is turned down and a set of eye masks were given. ||As I said last time, although the suite is progressing with innovative features like lighting controls, USB power ports, and other small details that makes the suite modern; something I was surprised to see was no electrical Japanese toilet, which is something seen in more upscale-priced InterContinental with recent modernized renovations like the InterContinental Shanghai Harbour City Hotel. Keep in mind on the weekends/holidays this suite costs 4,800 RMB ($661) without Club InterContinental access. The hotel doesn’t even have electrical curtains for you to use, which could be an improvement for later on. Again, I found hair strands in both the bathroom amenity cabinet and the coffee table cabinet. ||It was certainly not a great find given that I has to wait to get the suite cleaned, yet the suite was not thoroughly cleaned. Unhappy about the room change, the housekeeping leader and Duty Manager Erick Pu addressed the issue and got apologized. Erick gave me an upgrade to another suite. This time on the top 12th floor in the resort. It had the same features but a smaller balcony as opposed to the corner balcony.||Separate from the hotel’s main building where my suite is located is the Club InterContinental Building. Depending on when you visit, the Club InterContinental Building can be an impressive feat of exclusivity to guests. The significantly more recently constructed executive hotel building is located to the side of the main hotel building. The Club InterContinental building has its own entrance walkway, a front desk, an exclusive swimming pool, a lounge area, The Azure Restaurant, and outdoor lounge area including a golf putting course and a lounge chairs. This time when I visited, I also discovered there is an exclusive gym, indoor swimming pool (closed), a chess room, an indoor event space, and a rooftop patio event space. The luxuriously designed building is also home to a number of executive rooms and suites as mentioned. ||The Club Lounge Area itself contains marble floors, white concrete walls, and beach inspired practical lights. Luxurious wooden furniture tables, leather seats, and small furniture items like curated plants fill up the beachside Club Building. Afternoon Tea and Happy Hour services are provided by the Club Lounge Staff. Breakfast is provided in The Azure Restaurant, along with an Exclusive Lunch or Dinner service. ||Afternoon Tea and Happy Hour took a turn of a big improvement since I last visited in August. For Afternoon Tea, improvements included an increase in options for quantity and quality. You can also say that the afternoon tea was more innovative in the sense that creativity took a turn into items such as the Unique Coffee Flan, the small Hot Dog sandwiches, and the cakes provided. I think a way the resort can make the afternoon tea service even better is providing a menu for coffee, tea, and drink options available for afternoon tea service. They did a menu for the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks for Happy Hour, they could do that as well for the afternoon tea drinks. Happy Hour improved by the new hot canapés being served to each guest, which was a change from just cold options from the buffet. Furthermore, I was quite happy with the drink service. There’s even multiple options for non-alcoholic drinkers, which was the case for me in particular where you can provide a particular recipe. ||Hey someone should give Fawn Mo a better contract. As a trainee, she seems eager to make guests happy and joyful, along with other attendants who have also accompanied her in the service during my presence. Now I do have some criticisms for the Club InterContinental Manager M.Q. There wasn’t much engagement with guests from her during my visits to the Club InterContinental. Usually I see the Club InterContinental Managers interact with guests in some sort of way, but the idea that I never saw interaction from her to the guests was perhaps a little odd. I found it quite disappointing, as the manager is usually the backbone of a guest’s customer service impression. Most of the time I see her at the desk and not look at guests when they pass. I think it’s fair to say that I have met many Club InterContinental Supervisors or Assistant Managers from nearby InterContinental hotels that can be a better substitution for this Club InterContinental Manager.||I decided to come back to The Azure for breakfast where the restaurant holds the Club InterContinental’s Breakfast Buffet. I had quite a history with The Azure. But just like last time, the options and food quality is far better than Commune. There were options such as Cantonese dim sum, made-to-order Congee, charcuterie, egg options, and other great dishes that is unheard of from the All-Day Dining Restaurant. I felt that the problems that still occur is the ability to maintain heat for dim sum dishes like the spare ribs which I thought were raw because they were cold and looked pink. The breakfast service could use a-la-carte menus that could accompany the a-la-carte options that aren’t easy to find around The Azure. The restaurant is progressively managed by the Food & Beverage Manager Kenneth Hu. I think he’s doing the best he can to improve the restaurant over time to perfection. He will be a great manager up the line! ||I was told that some of the hotel features in the main building are undergoing renovations. That includes a renovation of the previously outdated Commune Restaurant, which already has new furniture equipment and hopefully a new portfolio of food options with the highest safety standards. Also being renovated very soon is the Capri Italian Restaurant, which is being turned into a Southeast Asian Restaurant. That’s the first I have heard of such cuisine-type being implemented in an InterContinental Hotel. I imagine it’s going to be very exciting. During my time, the outdoor pools at the Main Building were renovating, I wonder what new features could be introduced in there. There is a private beach exclusive to the resort and its neighboring yacht club. There are also gym facilities and an indoor pool for use by guests in the main resort floor. Something that could be improved would be the old elevators, in which a new button panel would be nice along with an InterContinental perfume scent.||It was time to leave and Erick made sure that everything was fine at the end of the stay. Overall however, much better! The resort has seen some improvements, which I think will progress towards a better standard not just for the Club InterContinental Building, but the entire resort facility. I would say the key improvements that are yet to be seen is the hygiene standards, the rest is just a matter of small changes. I left the resort with 3 stars previously, but now I have decided go give the hotel 4 stars as a way to change my perception on the resort’s improvements from my experience. With the Front Office Manager Annie Liu (who has done great even without a General Manager during my first stay), and the new General Manager Joseph Lou, things seem to be going in a good direction. It was a shame that I didn’t get to meet Annie (who was on vacation) this time, as I personally met other managers in other InterContinentals who used to work under her and is said to be a great Front Office Manager. ||So here’s how I rank this resort out of all my InterContinental Hotel experiences:||I usually rank the breakfast at the All-Day Dining Restaurant, but this time I chose not to go. ||For Club InterContinental, I rank it 9 out of 29 of the experiences I had. ||Overall, I rank this resort #20 out of the 35 InterContinental properties I have visited. It could be higher next year after the complete...

Having visited over a Chinese public holiday long weekend, the hotel was very crowded and well-subscribed – as to be expected. On the surface, Covid-19 definitely doesn’t seem to have made a dent in occupancy at this well-known hotel.

Despite the large number of visitors checking in at the front lobby, hotel staff were generally efficient at managing the queues and directing the numerous procedures one had to go through to register themselves for epidemiological prevention measures. However, as expected, all the interfaces (whether filling up an online form or paper form) were in Chinese, so it wasn’t too handy for foreign guests. However, someone who introduced himself as the Director of Rooms did come up to us to specially assist is in filling up some forms in Chinese. So, all in all – a generally well-managed check-in experience, despite the longer than expected wait times.

Guests are, for the day, given access to the pool areas and private beachfront before and after their respective check-in and check-out times. This was a welcome service – with a beach access card, you are can get beach towels and access the well-fitted changing rooms and indoor jacuzzi and sauna. What stood out for this hotel was its excellent and direct access to its own private beachfront, with plenty of both pool and beach loungers available. Chinese guests tend to avoid the pool and beach during hottest hours of the day (between 11 AM and 4 PM), so there was ample space in the pools and on the private beach.

The rooms themselves were well-appointed, with a very spacious bathroom, private balcony, a freestanding bath and a commanding view of the South China Sea. What really stood out were the views – the hotel appears to have be designed so that the large majority of rooms all enjoy excellent views. The air-conditioning could be adjusted individually, although it seemed to be straining a little on a hot summer’s day. With all balcony doors closed and the temperature set to the lowest, the air temperature in the room was still averaging out at 20 to 21 deg C, which we thought could be lower.

A definite let-down, however, were the F&B and in-room dining options at the hotel. The Italian restaurant, Capri, was closed, leaving two in-house dining options – a Chinese restaurant on the first floor and an all-day, general dining restaurant by the pool. The latter seemed to only offer a buffet option on a Saturday, and both options are not the best if one is a vegetarian. The all-day restaurant had a limited a la carte menu, with the same limited offering extended to in-room dining. My partner was unable to order a salmon & avocado sandwich as the hotel was “out of salmon” – something which was unfortunately communicated to her 20 minutes after the order was placed.

We were also somewhat disappointed that the Italian restaurant, Capri, was closed. While we weren’t told why, we thought it might be because their Italian chef was unable to return to China due to the ongoing arrival ban on foreigners. However, having subsequently read (the somewhat negative) reviews of Capri on third-party websites, perhaps it would have been a stretch to make the assumption that their chef was Italian – either way, it seems like they might need to rethink their Italian dining concept if they want to go ahead with it at all.

The rooms were fitted with tea and coffee making facilities, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a French coffee press included – until we realised that all the coffee available was only instant coffee, which seems to call into questions why a French coffee press was included in the first place.

Breakfast was a very crowded affair, and on one occasion we had to wait to be allowed in the restaurant – not unexpected, but it would have been ideal if they cleared the tables quicker to facilities a turnover of dining guests more quickly, or extended the breakfast hours. Even close to 10.30 AM (when breakfast stopped serving), the restaurant was still rather full. Breakfast options were somewhat limited for a five-star hotel, with most dishes catering to Chinese tastes – that itself is not a problem, but this seems to not align with the InterContinental’s more diverse and international brand. In fairness, only less than 5% of the guests were foreigners, but it would have been nice to see a more even balance being struck between catering to local guests and maintaining an international outlook in its management style (as one would expect from an InterContinental hotel), especially with regard to F&B and dining options.

All in all, this is still the best option if you’re looking for a luxury getaway on Dameisha beach – so, worth a shot and,...