City Inn - Jian Kang Road

My brief encounter with this hotel was an awful one. Upon entry to the hotel, I had my booking confirmation open and passport. One look at my booking confirmation and neither of the reception staff acknowledged my existence, one choosing to walk away, loitering behind her colleague whilst she booked others in. A phone call was made 10mins later. I was told that this hotel does not take reservations from Booking.com thus my room was never reserved. Due to it being National Day, no reservations were available. They made absolutely no effort to offer any sort of help, which left me scrambling around for a hotel at the very last minute. Advice: DO NOT BOOK THIS HOTEL THROUGH Booking.com! I’d hate for anyone to end up in the same situation as me.

Finally decide to check-in this hotel despite high price of RMB409 -think like double for peak season (after walking 2 hrs trying in Xin Jie Kou area trying to find hotel without success on 30 Apr during the Labor day long weekend as most hotels are for not for foreigners) Pros : Good location with mall directly opposite and there is a nice bakery shop at the corner upon turning right of hotel. abt 7min walk to Fuzi miao 夫子庙 (with lines of shopping like Sanfu, Miniso.... and local / fastfood (KFC, Haggen Daz...) abt 8-10min walk away from 三山街subway Line 1. One thing abt China subway is that not all have elevators so you must be prepared to carry the luggage. MRT from this subway to Lukou airport only cost RMB7 (change S1 line at Nanjing South station) Cons - Hotel is old and worn out. Window is facing back of other buildings. Ppl talking along corridor can be heard. the TV seem to be 1 channel only and doesnt work even i try to use button at side of tv to adjust channel or volume (not sure if because my control battery worn out). Wifi not stable, also stronger at certain part of room, L1 of hotel no free wifi. Will stay for 1 night again only if price is around RMB250 because of its convenient location.

In terms of location, this is great. Very close to the Fuzi miao area, very nice to walk around in the evening and perhaps try one of the street food stalls in the area. Also, in terms of price, I think its a deal. Very close [ 5 min] to the Sanshanjie metro station, so the city is accessible from here. Also, there was a bus station nearby, though didnt try the buses. Room is relatively ok, with some seating areas, wired internet [ no wireless], and a relatively clean bathroom. Now for the negatives: The hotel staff do not know much English, though they were helpful on occasions. On others, they just plain ignore you. As an example: My room aircon remote only worked magically [ the battery compartment was broken, pasted with some tape, and the buttons were marked in chinese, so I had no idea what I was pressing] and so on several occasions, it would take me 10 minutes to just switch it on. With Nanjing's summer temperatures, this is not pleasant. I complained about this, but they either could not understand, or just plain chose to ignore me. The bed groans with any movement, so I was actually afraid it might break one of the days I was there...but was otherwise comfortable. The room's windows open out into the inside of the building, not pretty. Well, thats that. Expect a lot of Chinese tour groups to stay here because of the nearby temple. Overall, not bad, but if I had another chance, would perhaps like to try something else.