Holiday Inn Express Tianjin Dongli — Hotel in Tianjin

I had a business meeting I needed to attend in the Dongli district of Tianjin, China and chose this hotel because I stay at IHG hotels often and they are a good value with really good service. The choice of this hotel was the biggest mistake I have made in over 10 years. ||||It is located in an urban area that is inconvenient to almost everything. The light rail station was supposed to be only 1 km from the hotel, so I thought it would be any easy walk. WRONG! As another reviewer remarked, it would be nice if they had at least 1 person who spoke passable English, like many other of the Holiday Inn Express hotels in China I have stayed at. Fortunately my wife is Chinese so she could communicate for me. We were polite, but every response was a bad/sour attitude as if we were an inconvenience to them.||||The room we got was facing the loud street in front of the hotel that is frequently full of industrial and port transport trucks rumbling by with automobiles honking continuously during the rush hours. When we asked for a room change, none was available. The carpet was dirty everywhere in our room and the halls. The mat they supplied for the shower was rolled up and covered with mold/mildew on the bottom. Yuck! We asked for it to be replaced. Uh, no. Peeling caulk all along the floor, and a drain that backed up during your shower. The staff was informed, but, again, nothing done. The internet was so slow that I could hardly get any work done. Each day we had to return to the front desk to have our key reprogrammed after returning from work.||||The breakfast was nothing like other HI Express hotels. Very minimal offerings of food that was cold, and basically inedible. Nothing was ever replenished, and the doors were locked promptly at 9 AM. I had to move dirty dishes out of the way just to find one of the few seats. No other food the rest of the day, unlike other HI Express hotels, unless you wanted noodle bowls or snacks from a commissary counter that you had to wait for the attendant to show up for, if he was in the hotel. He was the only pleasant person I encountered during my 3 days. If you do decide to stay there, and are adventurous, there is a very new mall called Shine City (I think) at the Dongli New Development Zone light rail stop about 2-3 km away and it has a great food court and other restaurants rivaling Shanghai.||||The hotel's listing says taxis are available, but when you ask, they recommend "black" taxis because the wait can be long, and at least twice the price. We had any early flight so we booked a taxi in advance for 6 AM. Trying to check out was another nightmare. Another guest also reserved an early taxi and took ours because the hotel only called one and the young lady from the front desk, who was just awakened from her sleep in the lobby, could not figure out to work the credit card reader. Fortunately, another guest who drove his own car was going to the airport and offered us a ride. I never did get my printed hotel charges, and was asked to call back for it when someone with a clue was on duty.||||I have stayed at several small, local, business hotels in China, and this...

Had to bring a group of students for a competition at the Tianjin National Convention and Exhibition Centre. This hotel was very ideal as it is very near the airport ( abt 15 to 20 min drive) away and also near the Convention Centre. ||As our group was small, we also needed a place that was accessible for students to have a variety of dinner that was reasonably priced. The hotel is opposite a relatively modern mall - Wanda shopping mall (dongli) which had a supermarket, convenience store, a few cafes like Starbucks and Luckin coffee. There was also a variety of food options from KFC, Burger King to local eateries priced at a varied range.||We really enjoyed the stay there as the hotel had undergone a renovation and rooms are clean and modern. Staff at reception was mostly helpful in giving advice and acceding to our needs. Special mention to Landy who is always asking us about our stay and helping us - the stay was made especially enjoyable because of her. ||Breakfast had a good spread and though the food was repeated the spread was good enough to allow us to have different breakfast the few days we stayed there. The spread was local with some international food and the coffee machine was a life...

Had to bring a group of students for a competition at the Tianjin National Convention and Exhibition Centre. This hotel was very ideal as it is very near the airport ( abt 15 to 20 min drive) away and also near the Convention Centre.

As our group was small, we also needed a place that was accessible for students to have a variety of dinner that was reasonably priced. The hotel is opposite a relatively modern mall - Wanda shopping mall (dongli) which had a supermarket, convenience store, a few cafes like Starbucks and Luckin coffee. There was also a variety of food options from KFC, Burger King to local eateries priced at a varied range.

We really enjoyed the stay there as the hotel had undergone a renovation and rooms are clean and modern. Staff at reception was mostly helpful in giving advice and acceding to our needs. Special mention to Landy who is always asking us about our stay and helping us - the stay was made especially enjoyable because of her.

Breakfast had a good spread and though the food was repeated the spread was good enough to allow us to have different breakfast the few days we stayed there. The spread was local with some international food and the coffee machine was a life...