Holiday Inn Express Xi'an High-Tech Zone — Hotel in Xi'an

The hotel has all that you need for a short business stay near the high tech zone at the right price range. But despite the Holiday Inn Express name its not quite ready for international travelers, well except for the acceptable breakfast.||||Large rooms, basic amenities like room locker and steam iron are available. A big shower and a desk with wired internet but no fridge. ||||The staff are generally nice and very helpful. Specially the ladies at the front desk do all they can to make your stay pleasant despite little command of English. They order taxi for you on their cell phone and walk you out to the taxi to tell the driver the destination in local language. Very nice of them.||||Plus:||1- Location for business, 2- Large rooms, 3- Good, included breakfast, 4-Friendly staff||||Minus:||1- All TV Channels are in Mandarin. NOT a single English speaking or International channel makes your room evening very boring. Holiday Inn Express!! Really?? Seriously??||||2- WiFi internet is terribly slow in the room. So so slow and everything is blocked specially so if you have an Android phone. Forget about playing a clip on your cellphone because it simply won't happen. The wired internet on your laptop is better but the desk chair is not comfortable for long sitting.||||3- Location is far from city center where the Xian Wall, Bell tower and all the great street life such as Moslem street exist. Getting a taxi on street level without an Uber-Like Chinese app is almost impossible. It'll cost you 35 RMB and 35-45 minutes ride to get downtown all in traffic. ||||4- A couple of restaurant including a Burger Kind are around the hotel but that's about it if you are on the foot. Stay downtown and there are infinite, amazing food choices at the right price.||||5- This isn't a hotel issue but Google Map not working in China plus bad Wifi and terrible TV makes it difficult to enjoy your room stay.||||6- No Gym or swimming pool or maybe I didn't see the signs.||||All in all its good if you have business in High Tech zone and lots to do at night on your laptop but eat before...

There are two (2) Holiday Inn Express in Xi’an. This one is located closer to the technology area, and hence more suited for business stays.

The lobby is small. Entry is via a rotating door. Check-in was quick and smooth (we booked via an online booking portal).

Service is good. Front desk is not all smiles but is still polite. Wait staff at the restaurant is very friendly.

Access to the rooms and the room floors requires the room access card. However the card allows access to floors other than that of your rooms. The elevators are not big, so if there are big luggages only four or five persons can fit in.

The rooms (queen) are small. Not to at small like some you get in countries like Japan or Hong Kong, but with enough space to move. The luggage table is a little small for big luggages. Smaller ones should fit nicely. Sound-proofing is bad. I can hear flushing and sounds from adjacent or upper floor in the bathroom.

The room’s bathrooms are a nice and clean. Combs, toothpaste, toothbrushes (1 hard and 1 soft bristle), shower caps, soaps, shower gel and shampoo are provided. Do note that, there are no bidets in the toilet. Also, those planning to share rooms have to note that, they are to be comfortable with their roommate, as there are no locks for the bathroom.

The breakfast is served at the restaurant at level 5. Officially they open from 6am to 10am, however many things are not yet ready if you go before 6:30am. Food are average. However, the drinks are great; I love the yoghurt drink and milk.

Paid laundry services are available. There are little other facilities. There is no fitness center or gym. There is no swimming pools or spas. It is a basic hotel, as fitting of its Express label.

The surrounding area however is pretty good. There are some pretty good restaurants across the hotel. There are convenience stores next to and near it (including a 7-11). There are also few stores selling local food (lamb noodles, meat sandwiches, soup bao, etc), in addition to a KFC and Burger King.

Good for a simple stay, with a budget. Lack of facilities...

During my last visit to Xi'an with my family, with pretty much no prior notice, I was glad to find this reasonably priced hotel and secure their last two rooms. Although I did not have high expectations even as a Spire member, I was very much surprised by how well the hotel treated their guests.||||When I called and made the reservation I mentioned that we were a family of 5 and wanted two beds in each room if possible. When I arrived - lo and behold - we were upgraded to two two-bedroom suites for our whole stay! Not only that, because we were a family, instead of an apple and a banana, we got a cart-load of "welcome fruit" which my family appreciated very much. The suites themselves, although not as spacious, were very well equipped with premium kitchen and bathroom appliances. We (the entire family mind you) were also granted access to happy hour upstairs on the top floor, which is very generous of the hotel as normally this benefit only applies to the member and 1 guest max. We also used their parking facilities, which was free of charge and easy to navigate, although we didn't need to use our car as the hotel was located close to public transit and local restaurants.||||Some cons - the hotel seemed brand new, which is good, but it also smelled new, which is not so good. The smell was not overwhelming at all, but very noticeable nonetheless. Also I found the windows a bit noisy as well. They didn't seem like typical noise-insulation hotel windows to me, but rather regular 2-panel windows.||||All in all, even with the little things I noticed as well as the hotel being a bit far away from main attractions in Xi'an, I am still extremely happy with my overall experience - this is definitely not a typical Holiday Inn that...