Tai Ji

If you want to be treated like a wayward child, and you don't mind your well-behaved children being treated like lawbreakers, then this might be the place for you! If the staff wants to get your attention for a perceived infraction of some kind, they might simply disable your wifi. And the doorman felt no hesitation in walking over to some of your young children and commanding them to stand up at once. I guess they found it disgraceful for children to sit down quietly on the floor, right at our feet! They seem to fancy themselves to be a 4-star hotel, but it seemed more like a 2-star to us. Black mold in the shower stall, peeling molding trim, holes in the carpet. Not top-tier. And the staff were sometimes very rude. Avoid this hotel.

A 4-star 24-storey hotel conveniently located in the Chongqing Fuling Urban Area. It has 160 pretty tastefully furnished rooms, larger in size than other hotels. Beds come with at least 2 plushed pillows to satiate the weary travellers. We were given rooms on the 18th floor, a non-smoking floor. The hotel is a walking distance to some shops and a stadium is right next door to it. However, we didn't have the chance to use the hotel's other amenities nor explore the surrounding any further as we had to leave quite early for Baidicheng the next morning! We did have a good sleep on the comfortable beds though.

I showed up with my family with our written, confirmed reservation for 4 rooms for 3 days to check in on a quiet weekday. Total reservation was $880 U.S. for the entire stay (approx. $73/room). Admittedly, our Chinese language skills were not the best; their English was totally non-existent. But we all began with smiles and good intentions (at least on our part). Although they were agreeable to honor our reservation, they demanded a 16,000 RNB "deposit". That is equal to a deposit of over $2,600! Of course, we objected to this and tried to negotiate something more reasonable. Their next statement was that they would require 100% of the room payment and the $2,600 "deposit" in cash, up front. We pointed to the American Express card that they had displayed right on their counter next to the Visa and MasterCard. They just smiled and shook their heads. We then pulled up their hotel website on our iPad and pointed out their site showed credit cards accepted and we found that our $73 rooms were available for $43. When we questioned this, they made it clear that the rooms we had booked were upgraded, huge, fancy, top of the line rooms. I asked to go and see our assigned rooms. To make a long story short, I ascertained that our rooms were the 4 SMALLEST rooms on the 14th floor. A local Chinese friend joined us at this point, to help with what we assumed was just a language barrier. After our friend started clarifying and translating, the staff went back to insisting upon charging us our confirmed rate, but acknowledging that someone walking in without a reservation could get the $43 rate. Also, they went back to demanding the $2,600 "deposit" and all in cash. Our Chinese friend was as bewildered as we were. By this time, we had been there for over an hour. During this entire time, not one other patron or person entered the hotel. During this entire time, there were about 8 young ladies working with us. At the nearly 1 1/2 hour point, a man showed up across the lobby. Several of the young ladies scurried over and huddled in a conference with him. Our Chinese friend told us he was the hotel manager. Oh good we said, he will surely solve our problem. But no, he took a long hard look at us and walked away. At this point we gave up, left the hotel, and drove on to the Fuling hotel where we were welcomed with no deposit and cheaper, much nicer rooms. Sorry to be so wordy, but in all my extensive travels I have never encountered such treatment. In summary, DO NOT GO TO THIS HOTEL.