Crowne Plaza Chongqing Riverside

First off this is another of those hotels built in the 80's and 90's for foreigners that has been converted. Half is still, in fact, a spa. It seems Crowne Plaza does this sort of arrangement frequently.Your taxi driver may have a bit of trouble finding it for this reason. The hotel, despite its name, is not riverside but a good walk down to the river. Its also built on a hillside. In our case we had a spectacular view of-- bamboo trees. The hotel also does not have a proper executive lounge but they do have a very unique system for food. Basically they have 2 menus and you order your items. They prepare it fresh for you and bring it to the table. The food was actually quite decent, better than most of the IHG exec lounges I was in over December. The lounge only has one staffer - CICI -whom is friendly, quick and efficient despite doing it all herself The food in the restaurant was disappointing to be honest, it was cold The check in staff are hit a miss. The either dont fully comprehend English or play at not understanding to avoid dealing with issues. Another major issue is the lack of taxi's here. We had a lot of trouble getting taxi's waiting upwards of 1/2 hour one day. Overall the hotel is clean, and well staffed but its not a 5 star or even a 4 star by any means

More like 3 1/2 stars but not 4. Arriving at the hotel I had a problem with the taxi driver. There is a guy with an earpiece who calls for help. There is no one to greet you or help with luggage. I had to wait until someone with the from desk arrived. Since there are quite a few stairs to walk up the hotel should always have someone on hand to help with luggage. Not an earpiece guy to call and wait for someone. After checking in I asked for the concierge. They seemed confused. I said I was interested in a river tour. They handed me a brochure in Chinese. Enough said about that. The area was not what I expected, The river walk is mostly boring Chinese restaurants with no menus with photos. It seemed half of the store fronts were boarded up. The nearby restaurants that had menus with photos were 2 star at best. All low end places. The hotel restaurant's ala carte menu was also pretty boring. If you want to go out to eat for dinner you could be stuck in traffic for a long time. So better not to go back to the hotel. Now I know why this hotel was such a good deal. Location sucked. Luckily with daytime traffic a decent place to visit is only about 20 minutes away. Lunch at Paradise walk only cost 23 RMB in the low cost taxis. The nearest MTR is about an 8 minute drive. The room is the best part about the hotel. Decent size, comfortable bed and pillows. Clean. International channels on TV. Nice bathroom. Employees were always cheerful and friendly. When checking out at 5:30 AM there are plenty of taxis. Terminal 3 was only 25 minutes and 50 RMB. Next time though I'll try the Intercontinental and it's better location and service.

My second visit but last. I was assigned a smoking room, changed it but eventually room was again smoking. I left it there. Shower was flooding, breakfast very average and basic for the level. Hotel feels run down. This is nowhere near quite a few other Crowne Plaza hotels I visited.