Starwood Lurker II

Dear members,

This might be two months late but since there aren't any posts on this property yet, I thought I should share more and hopefully I can upload some photos as well.

Being the first international luxury hotel in Nan’an district, Chongqing, Le Méridien Chongqing, Nan’an offers some of the finest facilities in the city, with 319 refined rooms and suites featuring unique art pieces and showcasing views of vibrant Chongqing city. Built within Chongqing's newest residential, shopping and entertainment destination-Wanda Plaza, on the upper Yangtze River, the hotel is an 8-minute walk to the new Chongqing Convention & Exhibition Centre and 10-minute drive away from the Liberation Square a central business district area of Chongqing and just 30 mins away from Chongqing Jiangbei Airport.

GUESTROOM AMENITIES

Offering ultra modern facilities with chic design, our guestrooms provide city view through floor-to-ceiling windows, 37″ LCD TV, high speed internet access and individually controlled air conditioning. Our suites feature Cinq Mondes Soins Du Spa Luxury Amenities, DVD Player, two 42″ LCD TVs and 20″ bath LCD TV.

GUEST ROOMS

319 guestrooms including:
167 Deluxe King
83 Deluxe Twin
03 Room for Disabled
27 Royal Club King
14 Royal Club Twin
16 Deluxe Suite
06 Royal Club Suite
02 Royal Suite
01 Presidential Suite

Suites measure from 76 to 216 square meters and including living room, bedroom, spacious bathroom and working area.

CONFERENCE CENTRE

The contemporary and understand décor of the meeting and function rooms at Le Méridien Chongqing, Nan’an is enhanced by the personal and forward-thinking service of our banquet team, to ensure a successful event.

Offering 9 meeting or function rooms totaling 1,694㎡, our themes, menus and function room setups are limited only by your imagination.

CUISINE

Le Mei - dine in style at the hotel’s signature restaurant, and experience the passion and culinary traditions of Chinese cuisine. With their innovative presentation, all dishes will delight even the most discerning palate.

Latest Recipe - provides guests with delicious all-day dinning in a sophisticated setting. Discover international delights or local flavours, and a choice of buffet or á la carte, for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Akebono - let our creative chefs take you on a cultural journey of Japanese cuisine. Popular for business lunches and dinners with friends or family.

Latitude 29 - our lobby lounge is a haven of modern chic- the ideal place to relax and savour a selection of specialty coffees, fine wines, exotic cocktails and unique bar creations.

Hotel's website.

Will try to get more information, hopefully some offers or promotions if there are any.

[email protected]

Thyetus Lee | Online Forum Coordinator(AP)
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd

imz14u

Any idea what sort of perks one will get as a SPG Gold member? Am considering a short trip this wkend, pending flight confirmation. Thanks.

KENNECTED

Starwood
FAQ: SPG gold benefits - what are they?

td_in_training

Thanks for the update... Chongqing is such an amazing city - and at cat2 I could probably spend a few months living here

jackrussellterrier

stayed there last week for 1 night on the exec floor. SPG gold so no real upgrade expected although the lounge check in lady did remark that I was an SPG gold which I thought was nice PR for both of us. Really impressed. The decor is very similar to Le Meridien Bangkok Surawong - very nice. Its so new that my driver had problems finding it and we ended up in the basement carpark where I thought whats going on here? but he very kindly led me to the lift to reception where the concierge staff didn't bat an eyelid and came downstairs to the carpark to collect the luggage. On the night I was there I was the only person in the Exec lounge - I enjoyed myself but still the lady on the exec floor check in was very friendly and helpful. I genuinely felt very relaxed. Nice hi tech room - excellent bathroom. For breakfast, I took it downstairs as the exec floor was quiet but again very nice in "secret recipe" and really exceptional service from the staff. They had apparently been full the previous few nights and as apparently the airport train link will terminate just outside this hotel should do well in the future. I had stayed the previous night at Sofitel which had exceptional rooms but somehow Le Meridien gave me a warmer feeling.

tncjoey

anybody with recent experience here?

how about the location?

is the airport train terminating here yet?

TIA

imz14u

The Le Meridian Chongqing Nanan has been in operations for about a year since its opening in 2009. Have recently completed a two night stay at a Royal Club room, including club benefits internet and breakfast for 2, booked via SPG promotional 50% off rack rate price; amazing value!

Arrival
Arrived at Chongqing, highlighted to the Taxi driver the hotel name, he had absolutely no idea where it was. A simple trick I have learnt over the stay was to mention the Wanda mall in Nan-Ping, the drivers will know of the general location. The entire city block where LM and Wanda is located, is largish with a very odd street system, commonly one would need to make a trip all around the block to get to the entrance/drop off foyer. Suggest anyone whom is planning a stay at the hotel to consider printing out the detailed hotel directions and maps from LM’s web site.

Check in
Was greeted by the door man and asked if I was Mr.imz by the concierge upon arrival, very impressive, immediately escorted to the lift towards the 22nd floor for club lounge check in. Greeted by name again by the check in counter staff and was offered a drink but declined as we were eager to get to the room for a much needed shower. Several moments later the Guest relations manager came by to offer his warm welcome and assist with the check in process. Allocated a regular Royal Club room a floor below the club, tried the key card several times and lock did not respond. Had to go back up to the 22nd to get this sorted out, guest relations manager still at the desk, checked the key cards, appeared to be working based on his system, he escorted us back down again, indeed keys were truly faulty. Used his own master key to unlock the room, showed us the basic features and mentioned that he will be back with a new set of keys and apologized for the problem. He came back with a new set swiftly and apologized again before he left.

Room
Been to several new LMs in the past year, this perhaps had the nicest room, as the attention to detail to complete the design theme was superb with gunmetal silver metal fittings and smoke grey glass, brushed metal type cups compliment the theme, interesting selection of fabrics and coverings throughout the room with accents of china, table top vanity box, closet and mimicking a Chinese scroll, acts as an enclosure for the flat screen TV. Huge bed with oversized down pillows provided us with superior comfort, room was well kept and clean. Perhaps due to the culture of Chongqing, the housekeepers are very loud when speaking to each other, to the extent where it might come across as screaming or arguing, able to hear them 2 rooms away.

Room only came with one wired LAN port, complementary internet service, very odd for a LM, expected wireless to be available everywhere including all rooms at a new hotel. We had two laptops to hook up, picked up the phone and requested for assistance, once again Guest relations manager was of fantastic client orientated service, he mentioned an additional port in the desk area, looked high and low, found a faceplate without any LAN socket. He apologized and offered to swap us to another room tomorrow morning on the 22nd closer to the lounge where likely Wi-Fi coverage is available. Took up his offer knowing that I would be engaged in meetings and my wife would have to conduct the move, after dinner she gave me a lecture as to having nothing better to do than to create an issue for her. Did not move eventually and settled for fighting over a single internet connection instead.

Club Lounge
We made the most of this comfortable lounge on a daily basis, always offered a drink upon entry. During cocktail hour, finger food was okay but made interesting with spicy dishes allowing one to savor the local flavor. Wine selection was tastefully chosen with a very wide range of alcohol and spirits; coffee was very good for a hotel lounge in china via a fully automatic Latte brewing WMF machine but can’t compare to the various illy creations crafted by pros at the other F&B outlets in the hotel. Views were reasonable in a well styled lounge with two internet stations, looking out one does feel like being in Hong Kong.

Dining
This might sound odd, but managed to F&B crawl every single outlet during our first evening/night.

Latest Recipe- On the first floor next to the lifts. Well laid out café/western venue, wanted to try out the half price weekend dinner buffet as we did not have much to eat the entire day, sold out train from Chengdu to Chongqing, ended up 5 hours on a bus. Unfortunately the venue was reserved for an event, where it was packed with students from a university celebrating some sort of a party.

Akebono- Had an ala-carte all you can order/eat Japanese buffet with sake/beer and soft beverages inclusive. Not a bad deal, sat down and ordered our drinks and food. Waited for 45mins while only sipping orange juice and sake; driving me to the brink of boredom, very tempted to create my very own Japanese screwdriver. It seemed that the venue was understaffed or have no clue of what they are doing. You do not need to cook raw sashimi/sushi, the guys manning the station were young and looked like they were having an exciting conversation while totally ignoring the order chit in front of their counter. Rushed our order twice over the time we were there, but when every time wait staff went over to the highly conversation engrossed gentlemen to remind them of the pending orders, they did not stop talking to each other. That did really piss me off and looked around us for any signs of food being served to other tables, no food is fine enough for such a long wait while not even serving entrees. Could not contain myself any longer and decided to inform the wait staff politely as it was a total waste of our time sitting around watching sushi/sashimi chefs chat and wait staff hanging around an empty serving counter having another small meeting of their own; this simply will not do and not a cent will be paid to watch this silly fiasco. They agreed without kicking up a fuss.

Le Mei- Very hungry and not at all pleased, had to settle for whatever available, although having had too much spicy food over the past couple of days in Sichuan province. Attempted or order foods as mild as possible but could not resist and tried some dishes which looked good or interesting. We ordered excessive portions, spicy beef in chilly oil, spicy marinated chicken, Chinese cold vegetable dipped in sesame sauce, haw fruit cold jello, dan dan noodles, batter coated scallops and garlic stir fried broccoli. Food and service wasn’t impressive nor disappointing, just plan average but presentation was top notch.

Latitude 24
To complete the crawl, visited the ground floor café/bar, had an impressive bottle looking bar back drop and nice design touches throughout the venue. Unfortunately there weren’t any world cup football matches on that night, a pity, am sure it would have been a pleasure to watch on the large projected screen in a tasteful but yet very cozy setting. Had two coffees, this time in true illy standards by a professional barista.

Breakfast
As with most other latest recipes, those odd wake up shots were available, but did not try any out as I was rushed for time to head out to a meeting. Went straight for the mediocre spread, started my meal with a badly done, fully cooked poached egg Benedict, unsatisfied wanted to get an omelet instead, but found an unmanned egg station with pancake style stacks of stale looking eggs over easy. Bircher yoghurt looked okay but was mixed with sweet milk which was a little odd, juices and cold cuts were okay but the fresh fruits, various pastries and breads were above average. Freshly made waffles were not bad but was a little dry, the manned station offered great service, which might have explained the empty egg station. Coffee from illy was perhaps the highlight of the meal, best thus far from china.

Check out
Had a good experience at the executive lounge check out, the girl was new but was very polite and efficient. Local Chinese credit card, deposit off set against charges, no fuss.

Summary
A very impressive stay as I loved the nice touches they put into the smoked glass and matching gun metal fittings in the bath rooms; innovative choice of fabrics in the room and well styled and very chic hotel. Compared to LM Xiamen with cheap items placed all over the suite, I favored LM Chongqing, in line with international standards. Apart from the slightly odd no-Wi-Fi issue in the rooms, main issue would be staff service quality at the F&B outlets. Director in charge needs to consider serious re-training or get them simply trained before setting them out to serve clients. Been a solid year since opening, I find this un-acceptable, but service is lacking across most parts of china with service staff having a highly limited understanding of what true customer service should be.

imz14u

Please update as in Master thread hotel list.

Niteize

I recently stayed at the Le Meridien Chongqing duriong December. When I entered my room I proceeded to turn the air conditioning on, after a few hours my room temperature had not changed. I went to the lobby to request a change of room due to air con not working, and explained to the staff. I was told that this hotel turns the cooling part of the air con off during winter! and the only option I had was to open the windows.

It puzzles me why a 5 star hotel just over a year old switches off the air con to save a few dollars. I had a terrible sleep both nights in a 25.5 Degree room with both windows open and blinds closed. As a platinum guest this is the first time I have had a no air con room and I am extremely disappointed in this hotel.

Has anyone else had come across a similar thing?

dw

Unfortunately I have experienced this several times at European properties. It was especially frustrating this past March during a particularly warm week in Amsterdam (though I'll point out I was at a Marriott property, not a SPG one).

I've also had the reverse in Hong Kong and Macau where properties (including the old MO in Macau) were simply not built with heat. During cold periods, the hotels would bring space heaters to my room.

HOTguy

Congratulations! You have just experienced what real estate and HVAC professionals refer to as a "2-Pipe system", the most common form of fancoil heating and cooling in commercial buildings all over the world!

Land-of-Miles

I had exactly the same issue at the Sheraton Park Tower in London this weekend (and in a Panoramic Suite too). I suppose I should be grateful that most hotels actually turn the AC on in summer (with the notable exception of the Sheraton Heathrow that is). The problem with the UK properties is that selecting minimum temperature via the AC seems to result in actually heating the room, the best option it would seem is to turn the entire system off.

I rarely seem to come across this problem at IC or Hilton properties.

tkyoshi

It's because the HVAC unit in your room doesn't actually contain an Air Conditioning compressor or Heating Element. Basically Hot or Cold water is pumped through the unit and that's how you get air con or heat.

It is quieter and more energy efficient however the heat/cool portion can't co-exist at the same time and that the building controls what mode it is in.

If you have a more traditional unit that has the equipment housed inside, then yes you can get A/C and Heat whenever you want and it can't be centrally controlled by the hotel.

Taiwaned

This is nothing special in China.

Just be grateful the windows open, thus you have an option and at least you were warm. A couple of years ago, were in a city where there was no SPG presence. It was soooooooooo cold inside and they said heating will be turned on next week so until then we had to wait. We complained so much that they got us an portable electric heater which was not good enough.

sthubbar

Just had an enjoyable stay here over the past three nights, used cash and points.

As Platinum SPG members were were automatically upgraded to a suite and we were pleased with the facility. The room once was one of the nicest SPG suites we have stayed in.

- True suite with doors separating sleeping and living areas.
- 3 TVs, including one built into the bathroom mirror, nice.
- Two bathrobes, one large one small for me and missus, nice touch
- Waterfall + hand held showerhead, plus separate bathtub which the son enjoyed playing in.
- Two sinks in master bathroom
- Two separate toilets
- Convenient location next to Wanda shopping mall

There were a few average aspects.

- Restaurant and room service food was average
- The pool has a minimum 4 year old requirement, though with the full tub, our son played there and was happy as ever.

We would stay here again even compared to the Sheraton's location on Nan Bin Road.