Tangshan

Don't be fooled by the foyer. As it is the nicest part of the hotel. The rooms on level 4 were terrible. Carpet was rotten, a toxic burning rubber smell in the corridor, and rooms that permeate cigarette smoke into the corridor. The room was so dirty and dusty from new construction across the road that I had to wipe down the window sills before placing anything on it, and they wanted to charge me for dirtying their towel! The bathroom was filthy, damp, and mouldy, throughout. Reception staff were unhelpful and could not speak anything other than mandarin. The location is not convenient, with a 10 minute walk to a supermarket, although there are convenience stores and a few local eateries on the street corner. Overall, a terrible experience, and the rooms in particular need of a makeover.

We stayed at this hotel while waiting to join a tour of China. We upgraded to a common suite which consisted of a lounge, bedroom and kitchenette. The kitchen consisted of a sink and a kettle. The worktops were never wiped down during the whole of our stay, nor were the bins emptied and the towels in the bathroom were always damp. We couldn't use the fridge as the smell was so disgusting. We then joined our tour and moved to a standard room. This move took us nearly an hour of explaining to the front desk that we needed to book out and then in again with the tour. They insisted that they only had chinese names and it wasn't until we contacted the manager was this sorted out. We then went back to the Tang Shan at the end of our stay. We were due to fly in and had booked the hotel through an agent. Our plane was delayed and we rung the hotel to let them know that we would not be there before 18.00 hrs, The hotel then told us that they didn't have a booking for us. It took three chinese/english speaking people and £50 of mobile telephone calls to sort it out. All this time the front desk were extremely unhelpful. With regard to breakfast, if a certain food ran out you were really lucky to get any more. The bread was all cut in half so that you could only toast a little at a time and the coffee and tea was always cold. The location was terrible, it was in the middle of a really run down area. All in all this hotel does not deserve a one star let alone 3 or 4.