This is the second time we have stayed in the hotel, and again, it had it's highs and lows.
Its well placed, right next to Chinatown, fantastic, and next to Chinapoint shopping centre for easy purchase of necessities, breakfast (cheaper), etc.
the rooms are modern and the beds lovely and comfortable.
The driveway staff are charming, helpful, and professional.
The desk staff are not.
We found the young ladies at the desk extremely hard to understand, they speak too quietly and with strongly accented English, albeit excellent english, it made it so hard to understand and hear. We would have preferred them speak more slowly, and more loudly, since it's a lot of information to take in.
We also found them inauthentic and not believable, when we a) asked for late checkout b) mentioned renovation noises through our stay.
With what we felt was insincere smile and a wave of the hand, 'oh, I believe there was a plumbing leak', ....to explain the noise. No. I don't think so, not over 3 days and not over the entire weekend, and not hammering and banging. We didn't believe her. There was no apology. She 'blamed us', by saying 'did you come and tell us?' No, we didn't, as it was throughout the days, but we didn't expect her to wave it off, and expected at least some remorse. If there WAS a problem with the plumbing in the room above us, I would expect a rep to contact us to see if we WANTED to change rooms. That didn't occur.
When we checked in, we said no to late checkout. Merely 10 hours later, overnight, we asked if we could change our mind. "No,' she said. It's already booked. Again, we didn't believe her, but even if it was, why did she not offer another room? or change the other booking?
Instead, she said you can use Level 5 facilities.
Unfortunately, on the day, after checking out, and having 5 hours to wait before leaving for the airport, we went to L5 expecting to see a lounge, with a bathroom, perhaps some tea/coffee, and loungechairs, where we could just sit. That's what it 'sounded' like.
What we found was the pool and spa. So. We;'re not going to sit aroundthe pool area, in 35 degree heat, in our aeroplane clothes!
I found that absurdly unhelpful on many levels.
If it was a seat and a bathroom ...why didn't she just say sit in the foyer?
I still don't understand why we couldn't hire a room for half a day.
On the 'room' -
Tea and coffee- the tea is awful. 6 different types, and none of them normal black tea (like normal English Breakfast.)
The bed is lovely.
The soap/shampoo is lovely.
The bathroom itself, as I've said before, is ridiculous.
A sliding door cuts it off from themain room, but still, everything is glass, all walls. So the toilet has a glass wall between it and the shower.
The first thing I did was walk into it! I can imagine so many people do that....sure, it was THAT clean, but it's also THAT dangerous.
And so unprivate, it would make you cringe. You have to be extra careful with the blinds too, in the central part of the hotel, as people in the 'wing' sections look backwards ....right into the bathroom.
Pull down blinds would be a much better idea, the Up and down business of the electric one is just annoying.
Personally, I don't like staff coming in a second time, at night, to turn down, fluff up, or clean me up. Once is enough. I don't like having to tidy the room up before going out, for a second time. Again, lack of privacy.
The Television channels are fairly plentiful, with 5 or 6 english speaking ones. BUT there is no onscreen TV guide. So, you have no idea of what is on TV at any given time.
Not to have netflix or prime or other streaming service is also surprising for such an expensive room.
Overall, expensive stay, quite nice, but again, too many lows offsetting the highs.
