Silver Star

From the moment we drew up at the hotel and struggled with our luggage across the dirty and tatty carpet in the lobby before the large entrance, without any of the staff attempting in any way to help us, we knew that the hotel was not going to be great. The hotel refers to itself as an international one, but there is no other indication of this in any part of the hotel. None of the staff speak English, none of the hotel information was in English and the breakfast menu was almost entirely Chinese, bar some yoghurt and a selection of two types of cereals. The coffee machines were only labelled in chinese, which led to a number of false starts getting a cup of coffee. When, having tried 5 out of the possible 6 options and had everything from hot chocolate to plain hot water, we did finally it the right button, the coffee was not too bad to be positive about one thing! Our room, at the rear of the building, was a reasonable size, but was tired, with peeling and mouldy ceiling in the bathroom and scruffy carpet. Our daughters had a twin to the front of the building which was much smaller, and stank of smoke, although was supposed to be a non smoking room. The occupants of the next door room were having a party, and noise and cigarette smoke everywhere was appalling. On both nights prostitutes prowled the corridors banging on doors for custom. I am sure there are better options in Urumqi. Five star this was not.

The hotel itself was OK, however the service leaves more than a lot to be desired. Upon arriving, we asked for some suggestions of where to go to see some Urumqi sights. Two parks were recommended. When I asked about the mosques, they could only direct me to one. I had to ask where the Grand Bazaar was - that wasn't offered as a sightseeing option. We checked out early at 6:30 a.m. We had asked the previous night about getting a car to the airport and were told we could call for a taxi in the morning. Upon check out, we discovered two attendants FAST asleep, whom we had to rouse. While I understand that the night shift is boring and nodding off is common, I do expect that when a customer shows up, you need to hop to it and look alive. It seemed as if these two had been drugged and were in a stupor. They looked at us as if we were a major nuisance, then put their heads back down. We had to cajole them to check us out, open our safe deposit box, call a cab and return the RMB 1,500 deposit to my credit card. It took three requests before they actually did make a call to the taxi. While we were waiting for a car, however, they were unable to process my deposit return. A major reason was that they refused to turn on any lights (the lobby was near pitch black) and they could not read the information to input. Check out took almost 40 minutes. We arrived at the airport with only 1 minute to spare, stressed out that we might miss our flight altogether. Additionally, we had checked out the massage facility thinking it would be a relaxing end to our day. The odour eminating from the spa was a mixture of rotten food, fish and dirty feet. Disgusting! My friend and I couldn't imagine spending 50 minutes in that stench, so we took a pass. The "Muslim" restaurant offers nothing resembling Chinese Muslim food. My advice, go somewhere else.

This hotel brags a 5-star rating (given in 2003), however any resemblance to that rating 5 star rating ends at the first floor. The room allocated for our first night (reasonably sized) was tired and old, with cracking plaster and peeling paint in bathroom. Cleaning had been minimal: the carpet was poorly vaccuumed & stained, and the paintwork dirty around ceiling air vents dirty. The primitive plumbing was obvious by the following morning as the toilet was leaking across the floor into the shower drain. After complaining were were given another (smaller) room which was a little cleaner. The service ethic amoung staff doe not exist. Just seeking smaller change at reception appeared a major effort while the attendant at breakfast appeared to resent being present.