2/10 Terrible
Crystal, London
16 Jun 2014
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Poorly maintained hotel - international a misnomer
None of the reception staff appeared to speak any English. Not a problem as I am fluent in Mandarin, however this did mean they took turns to act busy ignoring me because I looked foreign - only looking up from their vital tasks when admonished by the manager to "take care of that guest".
Language barrier aside, they were unwilling to help with basic things like booking transport to the airport (told us it was very difficult to book them), and were unable to offer any suggestions on alternative activities available beside Jiuzhaigou national park to spend the afternoon that we arrived. (Ended up taking up our cabbie on his offer to take us to neighbouring village for pony trekking - no thanks to them!)
The room was furnished as described - what was not described was the terrible smell coming from the headboards. The upholstery clearly has not been cleaned in years - I could smell a rubbish tip whenever I tried to lean against it - soon worked out what it was in horror. Housekeeping was low-effort, mostly seemed to consist of replacing towels, unclear whether they had made any effort to improve our "basic" bedmaking efforts.
Kept awake most of our last night by extremely loud karaoke which as far as we could tell was coming from inside the hotel.
No English channels, internet was touch and go, no IDD or DDD from the room, woeful breakfast (once again, not international - no cold drinks -- hot orange juice.)