Ascott Raffles City Chongqing

The room was extremely clean and tidy, equipped with a washing machine and a large fridge, which was more than enough. You can directly see the stunning confluence of the two rivers (known as the 'Yuanyang Hotpot' view) right from the room. It's very convenient for dining at Raffles City, and overall, it was a fantastic experience.

The hotel's location is quite inconvenient. No matter where you want to go by taxi, you get stuck in traffic right outside. There is no view to speak of; the window looks directly into another hotel, and you can see right into their rooms. Downstairs, starting around 8 PM every evening, loud singing begins—not sure if it's from a bar or a KTV—and it is very noisy. The heavily marketed drone show location is not good either; you only see it from the back-side angle. Overall, the room looks relatively clean. Thumbs up for the kitchen, and thumbs up for the daily housekeeping by the cleaning staff. However, the bathroom wall is leaking and damp. There are large, mysterious stains all around the bathtub, and black mold in many of the bathroom corners. We visited the heavily promoted kids' playroom twice. The first time was in the afternoon, and the floor was extremely dirty—it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in ages. The second time, we went right after it had been cleaned, so it was reasonably tidy. Regarding the marketed luggage butler service, we only found out when confirming with the front desk on our last day that it cannot be used for flights departing before 4:30 PM. The property plays games with words in their service description: they state that it needs to be booked 6 hours in advance and that the service is available 24 hours, but they bury this 4:30 PM restriction deep within the fine print, which requires very careful reading. Thumbs down! Service levels are mediocre. The overall team falls completely short of 5-star standards.

Stayed at this hotel again. This time on a road trip during the National Day holiday, yet the hotel parking lot was surprisingly quite empty. Entering through the Raffles City underground parking entrance, there is a dedicated parking area on B2. The elevators from the parking lot go directly to the LG level and the lobby. The hotel has a viewing deck with the exact same view as Chaotianmen, which is fantastic for watching drone shows and the night view. Late-night snacks are available, food deliveries can be brought right up to the room, and the breakfast is quite refined and uncrowded. During breakfast this time, I met an elderly Korean couple; they were very polite and warm. A great experience overall.