Hot Spring Hotel

Great value, great location, friendly service, too bad that most of employees didn't speak much English.

Hot Spring Hotel does have in-room baths with Hot Spring Water which is a bug plus. The decor is clearly about 15 years old (when this may well have been a true "5-star" rated hotel. Food was very good , esp Seafood Chowder which was outstanding.

This hotel has obviously seen better days. It used to be the government guest house apparently for hosting of visiting dignitaries but now it seems to cater mainly to local travellers as evidenced by its breakfast arrangements. The table setting ( where it was set) were Chinese-style and we had daily to ask for knife and fork. The buffet spread was largely Chinese with basic Western breakfast offerings that included toast, pastries and sausages alternating with bacon. The buffet price at RMB 38 (approx US$ 6.50) per pax is a steal though. And why did we have to pay extra for breakfast? This was because we booked our room online through www.cntrip.com which got us an excellent deal of RMB 418 nett (approx US$ 71) plus breakfast for one. So for that price, we can't really complain. We got the trappings of a 5-star hotel with sufficiently roomy rooms, good housekeeping and things that worked. What was lacking was service both at the front desk and in the coffee house where breakfast was served. We arrived close to midnight and had to load our luggage onto the hotel's trolley before the bellman appeared. Like a previous reviewer said, they put down an authorization amount tonour credit card at check in which was almost double the room rate amount, and worse, when we checked out, they held on to one copy when they handed overthe authorization slip to us (at our request) claiming that that needed that in case there were unexpected extraneous charges to our room. "Trust us", they said. We were not having any of that, and insisted that they surrender that copy to us. We would not recommend this hotel for non-Mandarin speaking travelers. The front desk people were not proficient in English, and I doubt if we could have gotten our way of we could not have engaged them in Mandarin. The staff too did not have web access at the counter and so were not of much help in responding to our queries on location. Over at the breakfast area, it was obvious that the servers had not been trained to clear plates away when the diners left the table for more food. The hotel is desperately in need of a makeover if it is to compete with genuine 5-star hotels like the newly arrived Westin and the established Lakeview Hotel. And do not be deceived by the name. Its claim to being a hot spring hotel is on account of hot spring water piped to the rooms. It has nothing to do with it's location as it is in the heart of town, which is admittedly something in its favour.