Vienna Hotel — Hotel in Shenzhen

I feel like the longer I was at this hotel, the more I noticed how disappointing and, to be totally honest, gross it was. I was booked here by my company for a work trip, and I rue the fact that they will most likely reserve me a room here again in the future.

The first thing I noticed was just how dated and bizarre, aesthetically, the place is. Neither here nor there, really, but a bit of a bummer. The staff spoke no English, which was fine and completely expected, and I had a coworker to check me in, so no big deal.

The good points, all of which I was able to notice fairly soon after arriving: wifi is free and, generally speaking, reliable and fast enough. This was key for me, because I had work to do and wanted to stay in touch with family back home. So, solid points there. the bathroom was more updated, and the water pressure and temperature fantastic. Really appreciated this when arriving at 1am after a very long day of air travel. -the bed was big and comfortable. I'm not a mattress connoisseur or anything, but even after the initial night of just passing out from exhaustion, I still found it comfortable -I misplaced my toothpaste in the TSA bin during my international transfer in Beijing, and was thanking my lucky stars that they actually had nice little sealed toothbrush-and-toothpaste kits in the bathroom (and a little comb, too!). A nice touch, and super handy.

The less enjoyable things began to appear more slowly:

-the smell. At first, my room just smelled like a garage bay, but somehow by my third night here, as I write this review, it has also taken a strong swampy smell. It's awful. You know that smell when you forget a wet towel in the bottom of a gym bag? That's how my hotel room smells, plus a heavy dose of cigarettes and exhaust fumes.

-the air conditioning. Or lack thereof. No matter what I do to the thermostat, the room remains at 27C (that's 80F for those of us outside the metric system). When I get back from the office in the evening, its somewhere around 24*C, but quickly escalates, with no real sign as to why. I don't think the thermostat actually does anything. And, I'd do something about it and open a window, as the climate in Shenzhen is quite mild and lovely but,

-the room has no windows. Is it day? Is it night? Who knows.

-the level of cleanliness is definitely wanting. The carpet in my room is appalling. I've been trying not to look too closely, and definitely wouldn't step a foot down onto bare. In general, the entire place seems to be... dingy. Do not be fooled by the slick, bright looking photos.

-When I woke up this morning, there were legitimately insects on my nightstand. I swiftly Googled bedbugs. To my relief, they were not that. If I did not already know that no one speaks English, I might have bucked up and asked for a different room or something. But, alas.

-Quality issues. One of my lightswitches literally fell of the wall when I went to turn on the light. The outlet next to the bed is somehow amiss and anything you plug into it falls right out.

I'm not sure that bringing all of this up to my manager will make any difference with the China branch of the company books me for my next stay, but I've really got my fingers crossed. I'm headed to one of the Beijing locations of this chain tomorrow and not feeling terribly optimistic that my stay is going to be...

Our hotel staff argued with us for an hour about our reservation's validity when it had clearly been booked and we had a booking number and references printed out. We checked in late at night after traveling many hours. The hotel lobby is never quiet or relaxed. The elevator service is akin to Chungking Mansions - you will have to fight to board either elevator for several minutes amongst several people to get to your room. ||||Smoking is allowed everywhere and if you are a non-smoker, you will develop dry sinuses, headaches and irritation shortly after checking into your room. I have been informed there is only one smoke-free floor, and I don't think it's possible for it to not be permeated by the smoke from the other 19 or so floors. There were cigarette burns in the furniture in our room and dirt/ashes burnt into the carpet (we were forced to take a smoking room, which is essentially the standard room). There is little to no WiFi, and none whatsoever in the lobby. I started to feel sick by the first morning.||||Housekeeping was very helpful and lovely but they are the only positive about this place.||||The front desk will not assist you with anything, including calling a taxi, which is extremely disturbing because many travelers check in without having a Chinese SIM card and cannot hail their own taxi from the street without an app, as the hotel is located smack dab in front of two bus stops and no taxi will pull over unless they're desperate, as it's illegal to pull over there. They send you to their "business center" which will flat out tell you "NO" when you ask for a taxi to a location less than a mile away.||||Ultimately, we needed to leave to book another hotel and were able to negotiate out of desperation with the "business center" to find us a taxi as we had NO WiFi connectivity or phone service in the worst thunderstorm imaginable. We were stuck in a horrific downpour of rain that broke our luggage with its force as we attempted to hail a cab on our own outside the hotel. We had to go back to the lobby and plead with the business center in order to call a car, as none would stop in the bus lanes and an umbrella did not protect us from the sheer force of the rain, prohibiting us from walking anywhere else to hail a car. They must have finally felt sorry for us but no one should have to experience this kind of treatment, especially when they are PAYING for it. I strongly recommend you book somewhere else if you can avoid this hotel. It is not okay even for a budget or...

Albergo tranquillo, con tanto di sputacchiere (vedi foto allegate) perché i cinesi sputano di continuo. Quindi una bella sputacchiera (non sto scherzando) a piano terra e poi una per ogni piano, in maniera che gli ospiti possano sputare comodamente ad ogni fermata dell'ascensore. Ho girato mezzo mondo e comunque posso dire che per essere in Cina l'hotel è OK. Non vi aspettate l'igiene dei 4 stelle italiani, ma il giudizio tutto sommato è positivo. Si può raggiungere il centro di Shenzhen con pochissimi renminbi o yuan, cioè la moneta locale ma può anche accadere che il tassista vista la breve distanza dall'hotel al centro possa rifiutare la corsa, che di base parte da 10 RMB (renminbi) che sono equivalenti a circa 1,5 €. Quindi quando entrate in taxi e vedrete 10,00 state sereni perché si tratta di 1,5 € circa e se non fate lunghi tragitti rimarranno 10.00 RMB, per arrivare a 100 RMB = 15,00 € dovrete fare oltre 1 ora di strada. Ed ora due consigli sparsi:||||Se dovete muovervi per affari vi sconsiglio vivamente di andare in cina da soli in quanto è molto meglio essere accompagnati da un locale. Potrete parlare con il locale in inglese e poi lui parlerà in cinese con il commerciante. In cina pochi parlano inglese, più che altro i giovani studenti od i manager, la popolazione media è povera ed ignorante, sputa ogni 5 minuti e non parla inglese ma solo la lingua locale.||Se avete bisogno di qualcosa provate a chiedere a me, se posso vi aiuto volentieri in quanto mi muovo a Shenzhen come a casa mia.||||Evitate di piantare le bacchette nel riso e lasciarle in su. Evitate di puntare le persone indicandole con le dita. Evitate di prendere taxi senza insegna, cioè non ufficiali.||Evitate i periodi di festa, tipo il capodanno cinese. Evitate la metropolitana nelle ore di punta, a parte le lunghe code la puzza di sudore e l'asfissia vi faranno rimpiangere il taxi. Preparatevi dei foglietti con scritte sopra le frasi più utili "tassista buongiorno, voglio andare in hotel" e tenete SEMPRE in tasca un biglietto dell'hotel assieme, da mostrare all'autista. Gli hotel normalmente ne tengono appositamente scritti in inglese e cinese, il Vienna Hotel li ha. ATTENZIONE al traffico, solo se provenite da città del sud potete capire di cosa parlo...i semafori spesso sono solo ornamentali, motorette in contromano e passaggi col rosso sono la norma, quindi prima di attraversare guardate a destra e anche a sinistra a prescindere che sia rosso o verde. ||||E prenotate con serenità in questo hotel, il personale è gentile, le donne delle pulizie anche, in pochi minuti sarete in centro e pure hong kong (ci va il visto) è a pochi kilometri. Ricordate di fare il visto prima di partire !||||Il cibo a Shenzhen costa molto poco, di fronte al Vienna Hotel se non volete andare molto lontano ci sono dei ristoranti economici, persino un discreto self service dove i piatti costano 5 RMB, 7 RMB ecc ecc, cioè meno di 1€ a porzione :-)||||Sempre di fronte all'hotel un ristorante a prezzi abbordabili dove addirittura da dentro una vasca potrete scegliere il pesce fresco e farvelo cucinare appositamente su richiesta. Insomma, attorno all'hotel i posti per mangiare non mancano e poi in centro non si contano nemmeno. Impressionanti i mercati dell'elettronica con migliaia di negozi tutti uno accanto all'altro, anche se difficili da trovare se non si sa dove cercare esattamente. Lo stesso per il palazzo di 4 piani pieno di tarocchi di ogni genere, tutti i più famosi brand riprodotti alla perfezione e talmente precisi che è quasi impossibile distinguerli dagli originali ma talmente anonimo che ad alcuni locali ho dovuto insegnare io dove trovarlo. ||||Ricordate di armarvi di santa pazienza, la popolazione cinese è strana e cervellotica, non sempre si riesce a capire il loro comportamento, ad esempio dopo una discussione di 40 minuti mi sono dovuto alzare e prendermi al ristorante una bottiglia di "shuei" cioè di acqua da solo perché non me la volevano portare e non siamo mai riusciti a capire perché, né io né il cinese che pranzava con me!||||Le stanze sono dotate di aria condizionata, il WIFI è gratuito, il ristorante dell'hotel non posso giudicarlo in quanto ho mangiato ogni giorno in posti diversi lontani dall'hotel che usavo solo...