Canton Landmark Hotel (Guangzhou)
We stayed at the Canton Landmark Hotel for 4 nights from March 18-22, 2008. As we had 6 people in our group, we booked 2 rooms on the “business floor” as this provided us with a larger room to put a cot into. Booking 2 rooms on the business floor was cheaper than booking 3 standard rooms.
The room was very large with a sitting area, full washroom and 2 single beds and included a buffet breakfast and full use of the business center. The nice things about the hotel include the fact it is modern, English is spoken at the business center and at the front desk, the location is right on the Pearl River in the older part of the city, complementary breakfast and evening snacks at the business center, HSBC ATM in the lobby, travel agent next door, decent chinese food served in the restaurant on the 2nd floor (but expensive),
The departure pier for the Pearl River cruise is only a 5 minute walk from the hotel, the view of the Pearl River at night is a highlight, Beijing Road and it’s shopping is only a 15 minute walk. The not so nice things about the hotel (and Guangzhou) include the fact that smoking occurs everywhere (which is the case in all of Guangzhou),
The prices in the hotel restaurants are expensive (for example, the price for the buffet breakfast was around 100 RMB. You can get a bowl of take out noodles with beef brisket around the corner from the hotel for 5 RMB), the air quality is very poor, it is chaos in front of the hotel because of the small area where taxi drop off and pick up passengers. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant just around the corner from the hotel directly across the street from the Pearl River- the food is excellant and seafood so fresh.
Summary: 4 hours of misery even though my wife is a native of Guangzhou speaking fluent Cantonese and Mandarin.
After standing in a chaotic line at registration (Sept is not a busy season), we were waved to an unsmiling clerk who seemed to know only the words “reservation?” and “passport”. They found the travel agent’s reservation quickly (yea!). Coached by travel sites to never pay for a room before examining it, we tried to explain we wanted to see the room first. We had asked for a single large bed and after a bit of denial we got a “Yes, yes” and our spirits rebounded as we left the marble lobby. As we left the tiny elevator, Oh my… but maybe the room was ok?
As we squeezed into the room, my wife’s face explained it all. Filthy stained carpet, ruined flee market furniture, the “large bed” was actually two twin beds strapped together. Now I like a firm bed, but my carpet at home is softer. Even the guest booklet proclaiming their many splendid charms was stained. Then there was the note about the construction noise… The bathroom was so enormous it could easily fit my dog, but not a person. A quick finger wipe proved that my garage is washed more frequently. We called down to registration where it seemed no one would talk to us. Eventually, we were told that they had a refurbished room (yea!) but it was being cleaned, if we would wait and they would call us. Ok, as my wife washed the plastic chair seat before sitting down. After discussing our options for over an hour we called registration, where again no one seemed to know about the new room but eventually we got a new room number. A very busy (overworked?) maid was very confused but tried to be so helpful (bless her!) and let us see a “new” room. New carpet! New furniture! Same dirty tiny bathroom! Same twin rock beds! Ok, back to registration, we can’t stay here.
The concept of canceling the reservation couldn’t be understood in any language. (even for a filthy room) “You must pay for the room the travel agent reserved it.” After an hour conversation with the on-duty manager “Grace” she agreed to cancel our charges. Yea! Time to go! But upon more questioning we learned that the travel agent would still charge us?!! For another hour, (my wife nearly in tears as she had to do all the talking) we called various levels of management at the travel agency and learned that there is an arrangement where no one will admit to billing anyone although no one will cancel any charges. Clever.
Thank goodness for US credit card companies as we threatened to call them to help us. The agent relented only if we could get a signed letter that the hotel won’t charge them. Another hour with our favorite useless manager who agreed to not charge us but refused to put it in writing. At this point it was laughable (but not if you saw my wife’s face!) as we made a quiet but firm disturbance at the main registration. Even the employees smiled as Grace made a fool of herself spouting policy, as I caught all the excitement on video. Eventually, we got our letter, but she fought every detail, like the date! our names! her name! her title! and the big one — she refused to write down the reservation number the letter applied to! Eventually satisfied, I suggested she photocopy the letter for her records, then she didn’t want us to have the signed original.
We left for the Regal Riviera Hotel where we were *overwhelmed* with the quality of service, friendly staff and beautiful room. They wouldn’t stop helping us! The pleasure on my wife’s face said it all. I’ll add that review later!