Royalty

Travelled to Shenzhen on business and stayed in the Royalty Hotel for 7 nights. Our client chose the hotel for its close proximity to their office at Hubei Road (about 5 minutes by car) The hotel is in a prominent and convenient location. It is only because of its location that it got an average rating. Otherwise, I would have been quite generous to rate it "poor"(!) As there were three persons in my travel party so we were assigned 2 rooms. My colleagues shared a deluxe twin room (#906) while I was assigned the deluxe single room (#925), all located on the 9th floor. The first thing that "jumped out" at me was the carpet in my room. It was gawdy and dated. On top of that, the area around the nightstand was damp and when my colleague knelt to use the phone, she came away with wet patches on her pants. There was a faint odour but not too bad. The room was rather small and the queen bed took up most of the space. There was really not much room to move between the work table, minibar, armchair and coffee table arranged along the walls of the room. There was no wardrobe nor suitcase stand to place my suitcase so I had to resort to placing my suitcase on top of the minibar. My colleagues' room had newer carpeting and plenty more space but also had a smell coming from the bathroom. So we chalked it down to problematic plumbing and drainage then bedded down for the night. The next evening when we got back to the hotel after work and dinner, my room stank to the high heavens. I couldn't determine whether it was the toilet or the carpet that stank more. I called front desk for assistance. On closer inspection, I saw that the carpet near the bed had a suspicious dark-coloured stain on it. I recalled horror stories of hotel guests finding dead bodies in the box springs... It stank so much that I had to stand by the open the window. The housekeeper came armed with an air freshener (yeah, like that was going to help) and did all the things I did, i.e. flushed the toilet, hosed down the shower enclosure and surrounding floor, run the water in the sink and proceeded to sniff around the room. I requested for a room change but she said that they were full that night and can only assign me a new room on the morrow once guests have checked out. Needless to say the air freshener effect wore off after 20 minutes so the bathroom became a no-go zone with the door shut and I was left with a smelly carpet. Fortunately, I had a bottle of talcum powder which was sprinkled liberally on the exposed areas of the carpet. That helped a little and I decided to sleep with my head away from the source of the stink, which was later determined to be coming from area under the nightstand. The next day, I was assigned another deluxe single room but decided to pay an extra RMB60 for a deluxe double room for the extra space. The deluxe double room had a bathtub as opposed to a shower enclosure in the deluxe single. On my third morning at the Royalty Hotel, I witnessed a terrible travesty. The housekeeper came to clean my room before I could leave for breakfast (8.30am). I was pottering around the room while she was cleaning the bathroom and happened to glance in. At that precise moment, she was nonchalantly wiping the bathroom floor, toilet rim and underside of the toilet seat with the bath towel that I was using 15 minutes ago! Now I truly understand why mama always said, "bring your own towel when staying in hotels". Fortunately, there was a departmental store (with McDonald's) a short 5-minute walk away where I bought myself a new towel. Across the street from McDonald's is the subway station . 1 subway stop away is Coco Park which has a decent array of shops selling middle-class merchandise and restaurants. No worries if you missed the last train back. A 30-minute south-ward walk will take you back to the hotel. Be sure to have a compass and map on hand. We felt quite safe walking by ourselves (two ladies) close to midnight. There is a morning market on the parallel street behind the hotel which sells an assortment of goods. A good place to stock up on local fruits, snacks and daily essentials. My colleagues and I went crazy purchasing fresh dates and an assortment of nuts which come into season around October / autumn.

My friend arranged me to stay at Royalty hotel for 3 nights in this business trip. This is a local 4-star hotel. The hotel looked rather old. However, staffs were quite friendly. I requested a king bed room because it was the same price for twin bed room when I was check-in. I was given a room at 12th floor, which is highest floor of this hotel. Room seems to be renovated. It was clean but rather small. There was no wardrobe and no proper place to put my luggage. The hotel provided free internet in guest rooms and free Wi-Fi in the lobby and cafeteria. Food in the Fortune Moon Seafood restaurant was average but rather expensive. This hotel is near to a few shopping malls, within walking distance. It is also near to Shenzhen Conventional Hall, about 10 to 15 minutes by car. There were a few Chinese restaurants near to the hotel that provides good food and reasonable price. Those who did not like Chinese food could get McDonald and Pizza Hut within walking distance. I visited my friend twin bed room which was in 8th floor. His room was not as new as mine but a lot bigger. Overall, this hotel meets my requirement, near to Shenzhen Conventional Hall, reasonable room rate, near to Huangang where I could get back to Hong Kong to take my flight.

Royalty Hotel was a last minute choice because Expedia screwed my reservation once again with another hotel and I was homeless for the evening. So I booked this hotel right on the spot when I was crossing the street. - The people working there were very friendly and attentive- from the girls at front desk to the bell boy and the cleaning lady. - The hotel surroundings are good- very convenient to a few convenience stores, smalls local restaurants - Complimentary breakfast was Old Chinese Style, simple but with an ok variety of veggies, fried rice, noodles, bums and eggs - Price was reasonable- 450 rmb a night- thats around USD 75 last minute- nothing to complain about The main problem is that the room didnt seem clean enough- the smell was not good at all, the sheets felt hard and weir (not properly washed), carpet was sticky and the bathroom was hyper claustrophobic. Because hygiene is the main attribute to chose a room, if we can (not this case) I would downgrade my total perception of the hotel