Sofitel Hangzhou Westlake 5 stars

Sofitel Hangzhou Westlake Hotel buffet breakfast is delicious - food and drinks and staff are friendly, attentive and helpful. They have different juices, I particularly like the avocado and apple mix juice and they have Perrier water. They have many different varieties. Western and Chinese. The standard ones eggs they have fried sunshine up, both sides, boiled. More than one kind congees. Salad, fruits (cut or whole) cold cuts, cheeses. They have a staff called Sandy who is extremely helpful as I asked how to make Anericano double shots at the coffee machine, she then made the double expresso plus water. She remembered me the next day and offered to deliver the coffee to my table. Very good customer services even at buffet.

I had a wonderful stay at Sofitel Hangzhou Westlake. The staff were incredibly friendly and professional, making the experience even more enjoyable. The room was spacious and offered fabulous views. The hotel balcony on top level overlooking the beautiful West Lake. Highly recommended!

Every time I returned to Hangzhou, I would stay at this hotel. What I love about this hotel: 1. I could use my Accor Plus Suite Upgrade benefit here. When I requalify for Platinum membership every year, I receive 4 nights of complimentary suite upgrade. Not all hotels participate in Accor Live Limitless suite upgrade program. When deciding on which hotel to use my suite upgrade benefit, I compare the costs of booking 2 standard rooms versus upgrading to a suite room and pay for an extra bed. For most hotels, the cost of upgrading to a suite and request for an extra bed is more than booking 2 standard rooms. For Sofitel Hangzhou Westlake, the suite with extra bed costs less than 2 standard rooms. It's a no brainer to use the suite upgrade benefit here, right? This is the 4th or 5th time I stay at Sofitel Hangzhou Westlake. Two or three times before Covid-19, and twice after Covid-19. 2. The location is right by the Westlake! 3. The breakfast buffet is superb, the best I have ever experienced in China! It is sumptuous and has a wide variety of food and drinks. 4. The concierge service helped to receive my online purchase on Taobao, and kept it for me until I checked in. What I don't like about this hotel: 1. It's a bit dated and old. It looks exactly the same, with no renovation work, throughout the 4 or 5 times I stayed there, during the past decade. 2. The online reservation system does not accept foreign credit cards. I have to manually scan my credit card and email them the image file. The reservation team did advise me that I did not need to make advance payment. But I prefer to make an advance payment to secure my booking. 3. I spotted the chef transporting porridge from kitchen to the breakfast buffet spread in plastic jugs! So many scientific studies have revealed the danger of eating food and drinking drinks stored in plastic containers. Plastic is out, glass and stainless steel are in. It's scary to see how the chef put hot boiling porridge into a plastic jug and pour it out for diners to consume. Has he considered about the danger he was posing to diners as micro- and nano-plastics leach from the plastic jug into the porridge? 4. I have never stayed in a hotel in China which provides bottled drinking water in glass bottles. This issue is not just an issue for Sofitel Westlake, but for the whole country. In Indonesia where I am from, 4- and 5-star hotels provide drinking water in glass bottles, because of the danger of micro- and nano-plastic from plastic bottles to human health. These particles may cause cancers and many other chronic illnesses. China is such a big and rich country compared to Indonesia. But why haven't I come across glass bottled drinking water in China? Educated people don't drink from plastic bottles anymore today. I hope 5-star hotels like Sofitel take the issue of health more seriously. What water did we drink then, since all bottled water in China are packaged in plastic bottles? Well, I bought a waster distiller for less than RMB 400 on Taobao, have it delivered to the hotel, and make distilled water! I would like to shout out a few names who made our stay memorable and enjoyable: 1. Natasha Zhou and Icey Yao from the reservation department. I have been communicating with Natasha most of the time, even during the previous stay last year. Natasha has been a great help all this while. 2. Eric, Tina and Candy from the reception. Eric checked us in. During my previous 4 stays, none of the receptionist informed me that I could get a great view of the Westlake on 6th floor. Eric was the first person to tell me about 6th floor! Tina and Candy were gracious enough to help fund my sister's WeChat account. Without their help, my sister would have to use cash instead of WeChat. It's so much more convenient to use WeChat and Alipay to make payment instead of cash. But if you have cash, you need someone to take your cash and transfer his own money from his WeChat to your WeChat. Not many people are willing to help. But Tina and Candy were! 3. Tim and Anthony from the concierge. I remember them from last year. They are helpful as always. 4. Shifu Feng and Zhang, the chauffeurs whose service we engaged during our stay. We knew Shifu Feng from last year. When he bumped into us at the entrance, he greeted us. 5. Last, but not least, William from the executive lounge. He has bubbly personality, warm and friendly. When my sister and I went to the lounge at sunset, he pointed to the sun and asked us to quickly take some photos before the sun disappeared. It was indeed a lovely scene! When we saw William at the bar on the 1st floor again, he helped us take numerous photos. All the photos turned out great! I suspect William is a professional photographer. Overall, my mother, sister and I were very happy. I even made a video of the hotel facilities throughout our stay and posted the video on my WeChat channel, Linkedin account and soon will also post it on my newly created travel account on YouTube.

The set menu is truly a wonderful experience. Salmon salad, mushroom soup, bread, & main dish plus desert! Lovely ambiance , I would grab all of my friends to stop by before we left! This hotel located next to West Lake, just outside of the Golden Bull , so very convent!

Very nice hotel in a perfect and strategic location! But Allen in the restaurant was perfect! He was very polite and attentive with me and speak pretty good English!! Thank you Allen The hotel is a little bit dated and many amenities were close.