Element Chongli — Hotel in Zhangjiakou

We've now stayed twice at this hotel, in November and December 2020 for a total of five nights (both stays booked in November before we'd sampled the standards). ||||After the first stay I gave the hotel the benefit of the doubt and offered the GM a right-to-reply via email, however I received no response at all from the management and experienced similar issues on the second stay, therefore please be aware of the following before you pay a premium to stay at Element (although nb the cleanliness at the hotel is fine): -||||1) Service standards are equivalent to a rural 2 or 3 star hotel - do not come expecting Westin-style treatment.||||2) Possibly due to Covid requirements, the check-in is an extremely slow, shambolic and arduous process. You have to provide a significant number of documents (e.g. covid test results, quarantine certificates, details of entry to China, flight numbers, visa stamps, quarantine hotels, etc) and you're given no warning in advance of the need for this. For the November stay it took us about an hour to check-in, for the December stay we were better prepared and sent all the details in advance by WeChat and it was a much smoother process - the hotel really should ask for all this in advance and it would be a much less frustrating experience.||||3) The room sizes and layouts vary significantly and what you're offered may be substantially different from the pictures on the website. We booked a "Mountain View Suite" on both trips, however on the first we were "upgraded" to a room with a view of the car park and no balcony. When we refused this room we were moved to a room with a view of the KFC opposite. On the second stay we were given a small suite with no balcony - when we tried to change we were told that the hotel was at "100% capacity" and no alternative was available (very unlikely for a midweek stay).||||4) There's an issue with the heating in the rooms - the first time we stayed the bedroom was hot but the living room was freezing - the second time we had to ask for a heating engineer to fix the heating as it was so cold in the whole room.||||5) The breakfast is a shambles. Food, plates, utensils, etc are constantly running out and the staff are very slow to replace them. A single poor-quality coffee machine is hopelessly inadequate for the volume of people. Tables are slow to be cleared and the staff don't appear to care. Food quality is average at best, it's a two or three star buffet.||||6) The pool is ok but there's no sauna or steam room - would be nice to have at a winter sports hotel. Also they ran out of wet-shoes for the pool but nobody bothered to replace them - typical of the lack of attention-to-detail at this hotel.||||7) The amenities in the room are poor - a kettle and a couple of cups. We had to request milk, glasses, tea, etc. And the staff were reluctant to provide, e.g. "we're only allowed to bring you two glasses per room".||||8) The default staff response is "no". We asked for a late check out (by 1 hour) so that we could ski in the morning - "no, you have to book an extra half day in the hotel". We said, ok, then asked if we could use the pool changing facilities after we'd skiied - "no". We asked for milk to be brought to the room "no". We asked for two extra glasses "no". ||||9) There's no real assistance with the skiing - there are actually a few benefits to staying at Element (e.g. reductions on ski hire and lift passes, use of lockers at the ski centre) however you have to figure everything out for yourself. It wouldn't take much to offer ski maps and advice at check-in, however the hotel does nothing like this to help out.||||It's such a shame because most of the points above would be relatively simple and low-cost to fix, however I suspect weak and inattentive management don't appear to care as the hotel will do a good trade in the winter regardless of the service offered. ||||If you decide to book this hotel then it likely won't be your worst travel experience, however if you can get a lower rate at one of the alternative hotels (Xueluju, Hyatt, Thaiwoo or even Genting) then you'll make a saving and you won't be missing out on...

I have never experienced something like this in over 8 years of frequent business travel in Europe, the US, and China. I really hope, my review helps other Western travellers to know what to expect from this place.||||1) It seems like hotel gave us intentionally a wrong room, even after complaining.|| We booked a suite with mountain view. In the first place, the receptionist gave us a studio with living room and bed room and view on the parking space. After complaining and a 15 minutes phone call of my partner's Chinese assistant with the hotel manager in Chinese, we received a studio with mountain view (yet still not a suite). ||||2) Hotel did not recompensate us for the lower booking level of our room||As we had booked the second highest room category (Element suite with mountin view) and only have received a studio with mountin view, we should have received a compensation for the lower booking category - but we did not even receive a "sorry". ||||3) Asking for a ton of documents at Checkin without prior information||Receptionist asked us upon arrival withour prior information per email or telephone that information from last 3 MONTHS is required inclduing flight numbers, number plates from cars, etc. It took us 1h to complete this demand standing at the reception and looking through emails, phoning people etc.. ||||4) Impolite and incompetent staff at reception||For all the inconvenience occurred to us, we have received no sorry, no smile. On top, through our entire stay, there was not one competent English speaker in the ENTIRE hotel.||||5) Horrible Christmas dinner showing little awareness/respect for foreign culture||The hotel informed us on 24th December that the same night, a Christmas dinner would be held. We happily accepted but only to learn that the element hotel Chongli had no respect and knowledge for/about Christmas. Plus, apparently the dinner was more for the staff doing selfies with themselves and the band playing there, making the atmosphere in the dining room similar to a train station hall with people coming and going and standing directly next to us and our table while we were trying to have a quiet and festive Christmas dinner. On top, the dinner was not even seated but a horrible buffet fight. And no water was available so that we had to bring our own water to the restaurant to drink something non-alcoholic. Besides, the wine served was not drinkable (already adjusted for the usually served table wines in China). Also the band contributed to the horrible atmoshphere by playing non-festive, loud rock music. This had nothing to do with a Christmas dinner but was only a noisy party with food for the hotel staff. ||||6) Breakfast not re-filled  ||In the morning, breakfast buffet was not filled up despite breakfast running still for more than one hour.||||7) Charging breakfast service fee despite early departure||Due to all the disappointments we had in the first three days of our stay, we decided to leave one day earlier. In the invoice, we were charged also after our departure, for the fourth day, the breakfast service fee despite the fact that there can be no service fee if the service has not been taken. I told the hotel to remove this item but they refused. Given that this fee is only 10 RMB, this refusal seems for me to reflect the same impolite and disrespectful attitude like at check-in. ||||This youth hostel like atmoshphere and unbelievable unfriendly treatment cost us ca. 390 EUR per night - a price where one usually can expect a 5-star hotel including all amenities, adequately trained staff and a...

We stayed 4 nights during Xmas.

Location and transportation: The hotel is in Thaiwoo town. Only 3 mins walk to the Ski Park but very very far away to Chongli town. It’s about CNY50 taxi(30min 25km) to Chongli town. There is no shuttle bus or bus. The shuttle bus is only for staffs, and don’t allow hotel guests to get in.

Reception: NO welcome drink! The website and app said this hotel has coffee in lobby. When we arrive, they told us there is no welcome drink nor coffee, they don’t even provide a cup of hot water! It is -10C degrees outside. We were only wearing 1 layer cloth when we arrive. It was so cold to wait for check in.

Room Amenities: The room is ok. Not as luxury as other Westin Hotels but good enough. Bed very comfortable.

Room Service: There is no room service for food. You have to get to the ground floor restaurant. The clean lady is very very careless. She only give me sanitation bag for the 1st night, and didn’t refill for the rest 3 nights. Didn’t refill tea bags for the 2nd and 4th night. Didn’t refill bottle water on the 3rd night. Didn’t change shower tower for the 2nd night(We left it on the table, she didn’t even fold it!). Didn’t give me shower tower for the 3rd night.

Fitness: There is a gym room and warm swimming pool on the ground floor. Good enough. BUT, there is no staff nor lifeguard at the swimming area! I went there two nights, and can’t find any staff. I had to go the the main entrance reception to get the locker key. It is very cold when you walk such a long distance in the hotel. And the swimming pool opening time is 0700-2200, not 24 hours. Marriott app and website said swimming pool is 24hrs, that’s wrong.

Food: There are two areas you can get food. 1st is the restaurant where we have breakfast. 2nd is the lobby bar. The restaurant has very little food options(only 8 options) at reasonable price. Lunch closes at 2pm, if you arrive late, hotel don’t provide 24hrs food. Breakfast is ok, not too many options and don’t change everyday, but they have enough basic items such as noodles, eggs, bread, salad, congee etc.

Gearing service: Hotel guests enjoy 40% discount for gearing rental. You rent snowboard at hotel, but you need to return it at the Ski Park. No one told us this! It is so cold to walk back to the park. -20C outdoor! We left gearing at the ski park locker, asked if we can call the park. The hotel staff said she doesn’t have ski park telephone number. She didn’t even try to search in the internet! So we need to walk back to the park to...