Zte Hotel Xi'an — Hotel in Xi'an

Usually I have stayed in the nearby Holiday Inn Greenland Century City. So it was with some degree of excitement and I trepidation when I heard that my hosts had booked this hotel for me.||||I arrived at about 1100 and was quickly helped with checking in by my hosts and into my room, 1022 (there are 19 storeys). This overlooked a building of 8-9 storeys, so far, being erected - I never had any problems with noise even though they generally started work at 0630 and, on one evening, worked until 2200. The room was a reasonable size, with a large bed, comfy chair, work desk, TV, and coffee/tea making facilities. In the wardrobe was a safe which was easy to operate.||||The bathroom was large with a WC, bath and separate shower. This is better than the HI where the shower is part of the bath. The shower was well designed and spacious with a raised central 'island' so that water ran from it into a moat and then into the drain. There was always plenty of hot water. Toiletries included a pleasant smelling bar of soap, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and body lotion. A useful feature of shower was two swingable horizontal bars on which dripping clothes could be hung. There was no drying line. Note that there is a window between the bathroom and the bedroom, enabling one to watch the TV whilst having a bath (there would not be any sound though). A blind can be lowered to protect one's modesty!||||There was a large range of TV channels, including CCTV News which is in English.||||There were adjustable reading lights by the bed which worked very well as I often read in bed.||||Wifi was free, fast and reliable.||||One surprising feature of hotel was that it had power sockets that could accept my uk three pin plugs. Never experienced that before in China. If by design then ten out of ten to the hotel.||||My first attempt at breakfast in the hotel was not comforting as the venue had moved from the ground floor (1st) to the 2nd but the only notices informing people of this were in Chinese. Being English with no knowledge of Chinese, these notices were meaningless. I followed two ladies and was lucky because they were also going to breakfast. Lunch and dinner that day were similarly affected. For some reason a wedding function on a Sunday in the lounge area closed the normal ground floor restaurant for reasons unclear to me? I had breakfast lunch and dinner in the hotel and they were all buffet with a wide selection of mainly Chinese and some western food. Although breakfast opened at 0630, I found they were never quite ready at that time.||||Although I had no knowledge of Chinese, I had no difficulties coping. In fact some of the staff spoke very good English and were very helpful.||||Comparing this hotel with the HI, the ZTE is busier but the HI has a quieter less busy restaurant, albeit with possibly a slightly more limited selection. Where the HI did much better was the availability of coffee. Only on two mornings out of four could I get coffee and even that was half a small cup. This necessitated having two cups because pushing the button twice might have overfilled the cup. The second morning I was successful, I could get only one helping of coffee as the machine displayed an exclamation mark indicating it had run out of coffee, or possibly water. Knives and forks are available but you need to ask the staff. As I am very happy using chopsticks, I had no need to ask.||||My hosts twice treated me to a meal in the Chinese restaurant on the second floor. The food I had here was excellent and the service very good.||||The tea and coffee in the room were replenished daily except on the day before I left. Too many hotels seem to make this mistake and I find it infuriating and unnecessary. All that was provided anyway were two packets of Nescafé coffee, one sachet of green tea and one packet of normal tea. Two complimentary bottles of Aquafina water were provided daily.||||In summary, it was a very comfortable hotel with some pluses and some minuses when compared with the HI. However, the ZTE is significantly cheaper, according to my hosts who always pay. I think my preference would be for the HI because of the quieter lunch and dinners. A big plus in the HI is that the restaurant will cook to order at lunch and dinner, a fillet of beef or fish and bring it to your table, which I am not sure was done by the ZTE.||||I would have no concerns about...

This is the second time I have stayed in this hotel, this time I was in room 1023, compared with 1022 a year ago. It was booked by my Chinese hosts and is some way out from the city centre. This was no problem as I was here on business. It is about 40-50 minutes from the airport.||||I was quickly checked in and in my room, having arrived at about 0800.||||The room is opposite two high rise buildings which were being erected last year. Work is still taking place on them which caused some noise one morning (0200-0300) due to two trucks moving to and fro.||||The room had a bath, separate shower, large bed, comfy chair, desk, room safe and sufficient storage facilities. Toiletries included body lotion, shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, also paper tissues and toothbrushes/paste. I stayed four nights, Monday to Friday. The room did not have an iron or ironing board.||||There was a buffet restaurant on the ground floor and a Chinese restaurant on the second floor. Breakfast opened at 0630 and was in the ground floor restaurant. They were not always ready by 0630. The first morning I went down at that time to find the area unlit apart from around the buffet area and little food out. All was usually ready by about 0645.||||There was stood selection of hot vegetables, fresh fruit, yoghurt, pastries and bread. There was a coffee machine but this was a bit iffy. Sometimes it worked. I think the problem was that the staff were not very proactive in filling tor emptying it, it ground beans up.||||The room was quiet, little noise from nearby rooms except when people let their door slam shut. Wifi worked well and was reliable. There was always plenty of hot water. Two complementary bottles of water were provided each day. Coffee and tea (green and black) supplies were replenished daily. Coffee was the normal Nescafé coffee rather than the milk powder, coffee and sugar powder often supplied.||||There was one English Channel on the TV. A news 24 channel CCTV-News.||||The buffet restaurant is open at midday and in the evening. There was always a wide selection and you would have to be very fussy not to find something you liked. One minor niggle was the tendency of other eaters not to close the lids of the hot food after helping themselves. As a result, the food was not piping hot and was at risk of infection from any flies, though I saw none.||||A nice feature of the room was the torch. Not sure what to make of the packet of condoms though! There were excellent directional reading lights on each side of the bed.||||The room was always done before midday.||||I ate in the Chinese restaurant once and this was good. A very wide selection with a book for a menu which contains pictures of the dishes and English translations.||||The desk had a map of Xi'an which some might find helpful.||||Would be happy to...

If you have business meetings within the area, you may want to consider staying in ZTE hotel. The room is spacious considering the price and the bathroom has the basic needs. There is also free wi-fi and unsurprisingly, the connection is faster than any other location (ZTE manufactures network equipment). Even when you use VPN, the speed is fast.||||Another reason why you want to consider ZTE hotel is it's airport transfer at the lobby. This makes travel convenient and you don't need to rent a car or take a cab to the airport.||||Breakfast is so-so, most of the guests are locals so expect local buffet. We've also held annual parties before in one of their ballrooms, but the price is quite high. If you're not into local food, then it may be a challenge as there's really no decent western food within the area (other than Subway sandwiches right across...