Ramada Plaza Xishuangbanna

Maybe it’s due to Covid. Maybe it has seen better days. But what you see in the pictures is not what you see when you arrive. The pool was badly maintained with stagnant water and debris. The room we were assigned had a musty smell though I have to admit the Ramada chain of hotels are very generous in size. Breakfast was a so-so affair. Yet with all these shortcomings, it wasn’t too bad after day 2 to come back to our room after a long tiring tour. Maybe, it’s the undeniably Ramada vibe that makes you feel you are coming back to something familiar.

I was thankful for a reasonably priced comfortable place to spend four nights in Banna. The breakfast was good and plentiful. Using the tickets for breakfast admittance was a little confusing due to my lack of language skills but staff was helpful. Great pool I would definitely stay again.

The hotel is huge and has good facilities. The rooms are quite big and seemingly well-equipped. I was happy with the number of hangers they provided, plus the hot-water boiler and hair dryer. But many things were missing, like wifi (some rooms had wifi while others did not), not enough lights in the room so it was always very dark, no safe in the room, phones that do not work, etc. In fact some things written in the guest information folder were not true, maybe they'd planned those things but hasn't got around to doing everything (e.g., no ATM in the lobby even though it was written there was!). I was very disappointed with the lack of shoe shine service (there was supposed to be free shoe shine service, but at the end of the day they were not cleaned). I found the room was not very well-cleaned, there were footprints in the bathroom that were clearly not mine! If you're not into Chinese food for breakfast you will be disappointed, I had a piece of toast and fruit for the whole time I was there (nice selection of fruit!). Go early as the breakfast buffet was almost empty by the time I went down after 8am. The staff was friendly enough and I found one guy who speaks English! Anyway, nice enough hotel considering its reasonable price.