Fulante Hotel Tianjin

Its not the best hotel to be in, but it surely was conveniently located. The rooms are fairly large, and with the double single beds, two arm chairs and a large writing desk there was ample space to walk around and place suitcases. The bathroom had a shower area but not all the health faucets functioned, and the degrading wood work of the cabinets screamed for a makeover that is perhaps long overdue. Cleanliness of the room was rather average. Funnily enough, we had to pay a deposit for the mini-bar at the time of check-in only to discover there was no minibar at all....hmmm. The hotel's restaurant is located on the 8th floor or so I presumed...its a level with a large hall of plastic prototypes of all local delicacies one could order while choosing their live sea food. The actual dining area is at another level - rooms cramped with multiple dining tables and filled with chatty smoking visitors. Definitely my choice for a vacation or a business meet. The breakfast hall is in the ground level and was perhaps the most disappointing part of my stay. On a Sunday morning, I found all the dishes empty by 9 am which the staff had no intentions of refilling. The dishes and cutlery were quite dirty and damp, while the tea cups were with chipped edges. My visit to Tianjin with a friend-cum-colleague was a last minute plan to spend a weekend exploring its historical district; looking back i wish we had been wiser choosing the hotel :(

positives; largish rooms, clean; super nice helpful staff, including the housekeeping; good bathroom and etc etc; bed good and comfortable neg; crap wifi; failed over and over and again; maintenance guy was saying ok but then dropped again; even when on, v v slow little English even at front desk....

The Friend Hotel in Tianjin certainly lives up to its name. Located in a great spot just off Tianjin's main street, Nanjing Rd, the staff at the Friend Hotel really worked hard to provide a high level of service for me. I'm a fussy traveller with limited Chinese, so it was important for me to make the service and reception staff understand what I wanted, especially extra douvets for the hard beds (this is China!). Once the staff knew what I wanted, which wasn't hard to do, the staff were most helpful. While the hotel is not new, its suites are huge. The widows also open, allowing fresh air into the rooms. I could hear renovations going on, so I asked to have a look and the completed rooms I saw looked very nice. Breakfast was included, and though it was plentiful, it was very basic. I would definitely recommend the Friend Hotel to holidaymakers. It's about a 10-minute taxi ride from the main Tianjin railway station, and all the taxi drivers I used while in Tianjin knew the address. Because it's a few hundred metres away from Nanjing Rd, the Friend Hotel is about as quiet as you'll find in China. The location is definitely a winner, it's about a 15-walk in one direction to the famous Kessling Restaurant area, and about the same in the other direction to one Tianjing's main CBD areas, including the usual shopping malls and restaurants For history buffs, I came across this article in the UK Telegraph about Eric Liddell, the real-life missionary featured in Chariots of Fire, who proposed to his wife at Kesslings. Definitely worth having a look at if you're in town, lots of Western restaurants in the immediate area http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/2436938/Eric-Liddells-story-to-set-Chinese-hearts-racing.html