Grand Rezen Hotel New City Garden Suzhou — Hotel in Suzhou City

Travelled throughout China during the summer and stayed at more than 10 hotels and this one was the worst experience by far.||Judging by some of the previous reviews, if you happen to be coming to Suzhou simply to visit a factory across the street, you may think this hotel is adequate. For any other reason and for those that simply have higher standards or might have an interest in experiencing the real Suzhou during some down time, choose another hotel.||Location: Suzhou is one of those truly beautiful cities that is best experienced by being able to walk around the historic parts at your leisure. There are many much better and more reasonable hotels for tourists. This is so far away from the major tourist destinations that you might as well be in a different city. Also, Suzhou has many different industrial-commercial centers. Don't get stuck all the way out here unless your purpose is to visit somewhere very close to the hotel and you don't want to go anywhere else in the city. ||Note: despite the name, this hotel has nothing to do with the "garden hotel" (a very good hotel in the historical section of Suzhou) and it is not even close to the new commercial centre called the "new district." This is in an older industrial section. Also, of course, despite the info provided to Trip Advisor, there is no "beach" here unless one includes the sediment in the street sewage that washes up on the concrete when it rains.||Buffet breakfast: What should be fresh food is brought out every day, sits there for a few hours, and if no one eats it, it is warmed up and brought out the next day again. I am not sure how many days in a row that the exact same pancake makes an appearance. Also, a manager in the restaurant walks around asking people to give the restaurant good reviews on apps in exchange for getting stuff for free not included in the buffet.||Cheap: the most attractive aspect of this hotel for many travellers, particularly domestic travellers or business hosts, is that rooms are deeply discounted on certain apps (especially domestic apps). A relative we were visiting, was able to book their better tower for far less than even rooms in the poor tower go for (around US 35) However, the front desk may try to weasel out of bookings made on the travel apps--particularly if the person actually paying the bill resembles people that usually are overcharged.||In our experience, we checked in with our reservation early afternoon, rested in our room for a while, unpacked, and went out for dinner. When we came back at around 9pm, the night manager came to tell us that if we did not agree to pay him what would have amounted to a couple hundred US dollars more, we would have to leave that night. It was raining out very hard. They knew we had a 6 year old with us. Luckily, we were able to get in contact with the App providers hat we used to book the room. They got in touch with the hotel that night to make certain they honoured our reservation without any increase or bothering us again.||Potentially Dangerous: This is the only place in China (including a tent on a mountain, and a Ger on the grasslands) that we stayed at on this trip that actually made me concerned about our personal safety. The facility itself looks very modern and substantial. However, one quickly gets the impression that the physical plant has been somehow inherited by an entity that just can't handle the complexity of a modern hotel. For instance, what not too long ago were likely well lit hallways are now dark. One might think they may be doing things like this purposely to save energy if it was not for the a/c billowing out the wide open front lobby door constantly cooling the whole city. Similarly, the escalators are turned off, no longer used stuff like playground equipment just sitting in a junk area in the middle of a lobby, and the pool/gym change room attendant seems to sit in the basement in complete darkness all day unless a guest comes down allowing him to switch on a light or two. Some of this might be comical, until one considers that the fire detection systems are probably also subject to the same facility...

Overall, this hotel was pretty good, but there is definitely room for improvement. I stayed here for 5 nights while in the area for work - chose the hotel based because my client gets a special rate and it is close to their office. ||||The hotel was nice enough - friendly people, nice rooms, good breakfast. Nothing out of the ordinary, but definitely up to par. ||||||The areas that could use improvement are:||||The hotel is very stuffy - the lobby is fine, but the hallways and the rooms are hot and lack air movement. My first room was 27°C (80°F) - I tried to decrease the temperature, but the temperature control unit didn't work, and the windows don't open. I thought it was just that the room hadn't been used in a while and would cool down, but 24 hours later, it was still hot. My 2nd room was better - only 24-25°C - but still on the warm side and extremely stuffy. ||||They have a nice space for the gym, and some decent equipment, but the equipment is aging and some could use replacing. I'd suggest more weights and a couple new weight benches at a minimum. The main issue was the hours of operation for the gym though. People stay at this hotel for business, so they need to be up early. A gym that opens 6 or 6:30 in the morning just isn't...

After leaving a "known and trusted brand" of hotels last night, my expectations for this one were not high. But much to my delight it was way better than expected. Location, not the best to be fair but it is near the subway so you are not beholden to taxi drivers. The concierge, couldn't have been more helpful although their uniforms do leave them looking a bit like a ringmaster. The room was bigger than last nights, cheaper than last nights, better equipped/finished than last nights but to be fair the a/c was not working at all. The breakfast was a bit of a trek over to the west wing, well worth the effort. Western and Chinese, all the food was warm at the least! Quality bacon ( unlike the fakeon they gave us in the Courtyard) actually a great selection, of everything from apple pie to blue cheese, cold meat and salad to a western fry up.|I hate to be one of those overly positive reviews but if I am to tell the truth I have to, even the lesser used areas were spotlessly clean. A truly...