Crowne Plaza City Centre

It should have been 4 stars for the rooms and 3 stars for the facilities, but the "razor story" cannot be forgotten. In a country where nobody speaks English in a reasonable way, not even the information desk at the airport, the good English speaking lady at the messy check in hall gave me an instruction sheet full of korean words and some enlglish ones here and there. For two days I enjoyed the confrotable room, a bit less the breakfast and not much the hall. Then, at check out I was given a bill where I was charged 10 USD for 2 razors and 2 toothbrushes. The clerk (who was obviously used and ready for the reaction of the astonished guests) explained that the toiletry in the room was not free. Of I course had my own one, but since the hotel one was in the room I obviouskly used it. For sure somewhere in the instruction card there was a notice, but the show is slyly set up for guests who do not have time to waste reading cards (the toiletry is free in any other hotel in the world, some times I have found the notice "if you need toiletry call abc", but nothing more). For miserable 10 USD, this hotel has lost a guest for the future and I hope many more through Tripadvisor.

This is a late posting from June 2018, Lobby of hotel was undergoing a major renovation, perhaps ready by now. This hotel used to be the Crowne Plaza, IHG group, and changed brand to Mercure in 2018. While the hotel was going through renovations in their lobby on second floor and ground floor, their rooms are dated and would need to be refurbished as well. As I have been here while the hotel was a Crowne Plaza, the room comfort is still similar but there was a lot of heavy traffic noises at their temporary hotel entrance. I'm certain it would be much better by now. This hotel is also a short walk to the new IFC office building and mall which is probably the best shopping venue in Changsha.

The Hotel is located downtown a little bit too crowded around the hotel so the taxi drivers will drop you on the Main Street. The hotel needs good management. The service is very poor and the breakfast is terrible, not only that they sometimes don’t even have coffee but the whole restaurant needs to be clean. The higiene is not good at all. Could be a good hotel.