Best Western Plus Park Hotel Xiamen — Hotel in Xiamen

On a recent trip to Xiamen, we chose to stay at Best Western because of its location. It's a pretty good hotel for the price and location.

Location: Best Western has a really good location as it's not far away by taxi from places like ZhongShan Pedestrian Street, or Bailuzhou, or even SM. It's located in a fairly busy place (in the morning/afternoon) so there are quite a few taxis that pass by, and lots of fast food and small restaurants nearby that are easily walkable to. I liked how it's not in a very touristy area so you don't have that tourist noise wafting thru, or tourist prices. Just at night, it gets quiet and there aren't a lot of people walking around, but still it feels pretty safe.

Room: The Deluxe Executive is what we got for our stay. For around 100 usd, you get a room either a queen sized bed or two twin beds, and the bathroom has both a bathtub and a shower. The room is quite spacious, with a sala area, and even a table. There are a number of power outlets, and they even provide a multi-cable charger in case you forget to bring yours.

The layout in some rooms are not the same though, and in the room with two beds instead of one big one, the outlets are sometimes behind the bed (a little odd). The in-room table has a small nook for outlets and cables, but their usb ports weren't working. Also, some rooms have safes, and some don't (mine didn't). I also switched on the TV but the signal/visual wasn't very clear. I also found the layout for the TV a little odd as it's in the middle of the room and is kind of in the way when you walk around.

Probably one thing I could point out is that the switches for the lights are a little odd and not very clear (lots of trial and errors clicking away which lights react to which switch). Like in the bathroom, you have one switch for all the lights inside, so you have no choice for muted lighting when it's time for bed.

Food: The hotel offers a breakfast buffet at their cafe, but I feel like the buffet is quite limited in choice. They offer noodles and cooked eggs, and have a few Chinese dishes. They also have sparse choices for salad or cold cuts. There are a few Western choices like breads and jam, and egg tarts. We didn't try the restaurant in the building so I'm not sure about the quality.

Amenities: The hotel offers amenities like a gym (looked but didn't use), and one that I feel many would find really useful--its own self-service laundry area. I didn't get to use the laundry area but they offer washing machines and dryers, and you can even iron and steam your clothes. The service is free and part of the stay.

The rooms come with free slippers and bathrobes, and a fridge that has free water.

Service: I feel like the staff were really nice during our stay. While the breakfast buffet was not what I was hoping for, the staff who were there were really friendly and hospitable. Housekeeping was also really nice and thoughtful; when they noticed that we were heavy water-drinkers (and even bought our own bottled water since we weren't sure how many free bottles they'd give daily), they doubled the water bottles they would usually give us per day. Rooms were always clean and well-kept on our return, and sometimes they'd be done cleaning cleaning as soon as we finished breakfast!

Price: This hotel (and a lot of others in the city) underwent renovation during Covid, so I feel like this was pretty well done for its price point. Hotels nearer the CBD or ZhongShan Road are a lot more expensive than before, but Best Western was only about a 13rmb ride away by taxi from...

The Good:||- Location is very good. Easy to get a cab to get around. ||- Room is clean and well kept. Decent size.||- Responsive staff. The TV in my room was malfunctioning and they came and replaced it. AC was not working, they came and explained that the AC is not turned out during this time of the year (November) and asked that we open the window. ||- Wifi is free, but can be quite slow.||- Breakfast and lunch is ok.||||The Bad:||- Nobody speaks English. Good thing, I was traveling with someone who speaks the language.||- Dinner was awful because I noticed the food was from lunch! I had lunch earlier during that day and had dinner there the same day. Food was cold and I bet some of the food sat there for hours. I ended up getting a bad diarrhea for a couple days. ||- AC is not on, so during the day, it can get quite hot. ||||This is a franchise best western so I wasn't too surprised about the quality and...

I recently stayed 2 nights for a business trip. The hotel lobby had a nice contemporary look and front desk staff were friendly and helpful. The room looked great at first but closer inspection showed the wear and grime. The carpet was filthy and there were food crumbs and finger nail clippings under the desk. ||||The dinner buffet was had poor food selection and everything was barely warm enough to eat. I do not recommend eating here. The breakfast buffet was adequate. ||||The concierge was very helpful with directions around the area and for hailing taxis. The hotel is also close to the inner lake area which is a great place to walk around and the cafe street (by the Marco Polo Hotel) to experience the local...