Overall, the experience was mixed, although skews slightly positive.
What I liked: I have to really commend the hotel staff for exceptional service: this is the one thing that really stood out for me. I was here for an anniversary celebration, and they decorated our room and also gave us an amazing tasting cheesecake (I am very picky with cheesecake by the way).
The food at IHG hotels is just exceptional from my own personal experience. Their dinner buffet was also really great cost performance. Great value and wide selection, and includes alcoholic drinks too (free flow). They also had hot pot, and we chose a Yunnan mushroom soup for ours (they had several choices from what I can remember).
Now the areas I thought were unfortunately what pulled down overall ranking for me. First, the furnishings/finishings of the rooms were not really top tier. I don’t recall what star hotel this was, but I have generally had slightly better experience in terms of the furnishings for IHG hotels, even the lower end ones like Holiday Inn etc. Maybe this one was just a bit older/dated? The lobby was nice though.
Second, location. I mean this is on me since I knew this was all the way in Bao An district, but I just feel like it was much further and worse traffic than I had anticipated (I checked maps for places I was going to - generally I wanted to go to places around Nanshan area which I thought weren’t that far but it turns out I was wrong). It is also not near any subway / metro station. I think the walk was 20-30 min to the closest metro station. And the road to getting into the hotel lobby car pick up and drop off area was extremely narrow, and if you didn’t point it out to the driver, they could miss it and not know how to get in. The narrow-ness of the path also makes it hard for drivers to drive in and out (if your car is too big it takes a while and maybe takes turns, almost like a one way street type of narrow).
Other neutral stuff: most other appliances etc., as well as spaciousness of the room, were broadly in-line with my expectations and also competitors (other hotels in Shenzhen around the same / similar price point).
Overall, I still enjoyed my experience, but unsure I’d stay here again unless 1) a new metro station opens up nearby, or 2) if I’m just going to stay in Bao An district for my future trips.
Still though, huge shoutout to the staff for exceptional service. I know service is pretty good throughout most of Shenzhen, but I do think this hotel’s staff goes above and beyond. And the cheesecake was the best I’ve had since December last year.
