My partner and I stayed at Soffitel Hangzhou west lake 8 days for business travel. Considering the large majority of reviews rating this hotel as great and a positive experience we thought we couldn't go wrong. Lets take you through our experience...
Day One arrival- We were told we hadn't put a deposit for booking although we did..once she came to realise this we were then told our room is not ready despite arriving after check in time and we had to wait and hour and a half for our room. When we expressed we have travelled for over 18hrs to be here and would appreciate access to a room. she then decided to give us another room which we thought was good until we spent the first night in it.
We first open up the curtains to a view of other residences rooms looking right back at us no view of scenery as pictured or advertised. We then attempt to cool the room as it was a humid day but we came to realise the temperature would not reduce beyond 26.5 degrees. We went to reception then asked why we cant reduce the temperature. They said we couldn't reduce it below 20 due to china policy. We reconfirmed that we don't wish to have it below 20 but simply lower than 26.5 which appeared to be acknowledged, although the room had remained the same temperature for hours ..so here we are hot and sweating in a 5 star hotel when we are having to look professional and presentable for business let alone try and have a decent night sleep.
We attempted to eat a meal at Le Bar one of the restaurants/bars in the hotel which the waitress had no english so to order was extremely difficult. We all opted for a burger which we thought was a safe choice but unfortunately this would of had to be the worst burger we have ever experienced. I wouldn't even say the meat was beef it had the consistency of rubber which we took one mouthful spat it out and had just the chips to eat. Half the cocktails listed were not available only 5 of them were available for order not sure why that was when the bar had all liquors presented?
We mentioned AGAIN to reception can we have the room temperature reduced below 26.5 as we need sleep. it got cool to 24 but would not go lower throughout our first night which kept us up all night.
The bed also was incredibly uncomfortable like laying on an iron board so unless your into that, enjoy. We had to use the pillows ontop of the maitress throughout our stay to provide some sort of cushioning.
We went down to reception the next morning and spoke to the first English speaking staff member and mentioned we need the air conditioning to work below 24 degrees and it hadn't worked since check in. He offered to relocate us which was great, although we walked into find the room used and dirty from previous guests. So we had to call up reception and have them clean it before we could even get comfortable there. Again same view no scenery in this room also.
THANKFULLY this room was able to have a functioning air conditioner so this problem was rectified.
STAFF:The house keeping staff have been friendly and welcoming and do a good job at cleaning the rooms, so credit to them. Reception staff were a hit or miss either quite avoidant and don't want to acknowledge you or unable to provide information we were asking. There was a select few that were decent. THE AMENITIES: what is listed in the room is not accurate or upto date there is NO SPA despite it being listed on the phone in the room and in the book of services no massages no foot reflexology even though a list of them again in the book. We only get given 1x robe despite a king room for 2x so needed to request 2x. The drinks that are stored in the fridge which is hardly cold has what appears to be expired beer and drinks inside. ROOM SERVICE: had to go through 4 people before I was able to order over the phone, other times management had to come to the room and we had to read out what we want in order to get room service. This is quite the process for something that's meant to be convient. Again food average. We came across a scan Qr code form which was a taskkkk to work out as nothing is in English and then has to be put through weechat or whatever to work and good luck having certain reception staff show you how to use it a specific mention to the rude female receptionist on monday night 28th of October around 9.30pm who was unhelpful and showed no interest or explaination of how to use it. THE POOL & GYM less than diserable in Basement 1 which we had to work out was only accessible through the middle and left elevator again asking how to get to it was a task had to figure that out on our own. The pool you require a cap to swim which appeared I was meant to know about as the attendant looked at me and said I need it to swim and I said where do I get from? And she then appeared not to know what to do and pulled out one from a storage room. The pool is very basic, no atmosphere, dead silence and small. The pictures advertised are deceiving. Gym is small and basic. SKY GARDEN- quite hidden down a side door and up stairs which was hard to locate,not as pictured just some tables and chairs on broken wood flooring a considerable safety issue thats been disregarded. Terrace is nice and has a lovely view though.
Laundry service was good although a task to intially sort out or no where to drop it off and organise as it's not listed in room services/hotel services book.
CONCIEGE: tried to help with questions we asked although unfortunately alot of the time due to the language barrier we found it hard to gather correct information or able to do certain activities such as: we were interested to catch a boat on west lake and they didn't know of this service or how to explain it so we had to seek out others to gather this information.
Buffet breakfast was good although everything was luke warm not hot.
A positive was management, i came down with sickness whilst staying at Soffitel and we requested to get a taxi to go to a doctor or hospital.. the manager that was working on the 27th of October (Sunday night- early hours Monday morning around 2am) was incredibly helpful and caring to our situation he was the best experience we had of Soffitel so a big thankyou to him.
To summarise this review our stay here has been ADDITIONAL WORK for us and HARDLY A RELAXING EXPERIENCE. Soffitel is a global company, we would of expected there to more English speaking staff and English on hotel information/services and amenities so visitors from other countries can enjoy their time without struggling and going through a headache to get things done or addressed.
We won't be returning and we won't be considering Soffitel for any other trips in future.
Please refer to attached pictures for reference of the above issues.