Zense

I had stayed at this hotel last two years as very close to office of business associate in Luohu. The positives: * free shuttle back and forth hotel to Luohu border crossing * location- Luohu busy area with lots of shopping, eating * price - under 300RMB ( about US$50) a night * Free buffet breakfast ( eggs, sausage, leftover from kitchen night before) * Free wired & wireless internet * Clean bed The BAD: * Tired- carpet stained, windows do not shut properly ( make it noisy inside), furniture is dinged and faded *Dirty- check behind the desk, behind the TV- mountains of dust, looks like it had not been vacuumed in weeks *No Coffee- even the most budget of lodgings includes some instant coffee, branded or not branded. Rooms lack instant coffee. To make matters worse, the three days I stayed NO COFFEE at breakfast buffet. Their excuse was " machine broken." Maybe they want you to buy US$5/cup coffee at the Illy Cafe downstairs next to lobby? *Rip Off Credit Card Charge- BEWARE! It might be legal with Visa, but I did not pay close attention to the yellow slip reads " I HAVE BEEN OFFERED CHOICE OF CURRENCIES" Not true. I expected to get billed in RMB at daily rate for my no-fee credit card. Instead they billed me at a RIP OFF rate in US$. My bill was 399RMB, which should work out at 6.05RMB/$ of $65.95, instead they charge the US$ rate on the right of $67.80 or 5.88RMB/$- means you LOSE almost 20cents RMB per $, or 3 cents per very dollar you spend. 3% extra charge for nothing. * Bad Service- seems front desk is understaffed, no dedicated bell or concierge service. Told the person who was in charge of concierge I was taking hour train from Luohu station. They neglected to remind me I must have passport to buy ticket at the station. I locked up my passport in room safe when I left in morning. When I got to train station called front desk asked them to help. They did not get my mobile phone number, advise me my passport number ( they had it for check-in) or tell me other way to reach my destination. No attitude to help their guests. I ended up taking bus ( do not need any ID) with no help of hotel staff. I did speak with executive housekeeper regarding the items above.She made sure I had coffee the next morning and vacuumed the dusty areas in the room. However, when I requested before my check out at 9:30AM in the morning I was told " the hotel manager is not available."

Stayed in this hotel for 2 nights last week. There were some sort of conference going on, the hotels I normally stayed in Shenzhen were all fully booked. Pros: - Location is quite good - Breakfast ok for the price - Big bathroom with separate shower - Seems to have a nice spa but I did not use Cons: - Internet very slow - Booked a room for 2 person but the hotel can only give me 1 keycard when I checked in. Was told the hotel do not have enough keycards, totally unacceptable - Minibar use the same plug as kettle, have to unplug the minibar when I need to make a cup of tea - Did not replenish toiletries - Did not put in a new roll of toilet paper despite less than half left

We arrived at Zense on the 2nd day of their New Year. Among the staff - 1 barely speaking English girl. Air conditioning didnt work for heating, 2 sockets out of 4 were broken in the room. Thanks god,they brought us 2 heaters to warm up the room. We had free sauna and breakfast included in our package. As it turned out we had to fight for our right for free sauna (also because of the language barrier) for half an hour and breakfast was cancelled coz of New Year holidays. We stayed there till 15th Feb. I expected some complimentary presents from the staff for Valentines day (as we stayed there together with my boyfriend)...nothing. Not a single thing reminding that it was the All Beloveds' Day. Sooo disappointed.