A some additional notes from my now 6 or 7 stays so far (the soft opening of this property has coincided nicely with my recent travel schedule). While I've been treated very well, I'm choosing to retain my business traveler's skepticism...but:
- Since my 2nd stay, I've been greeted by name upon checking (okay, by my 2nd stay I was probably already their most frequent guest).
- On a stay a few weeks ago, the hotel suffered a massive power outage that impacted most floors below the top 3 (24th floor is gym and spa, 23 floor is spa, 22nd floor is lobby/G restaurant/Guanxi lounge). The power didn't impact the electronic door locks (proximity sensor type) but did impact the A/C and lighting. The GC, on the 20th floor was also affected. They told me what happened, what they were doing about it, offered to take my bags to my room, and gave me free HSIA in the restaurant with a drink while I waited. I had some work to do so no problem.
- On my last stay, I had a flight out of CAN scheduled for 8:20am and assumed that I would need to catch a taxi at arouind 6-6:15am to allow sufficient time for traffic, checkin, immigration, security, etc... Since I had booked an "AWAKE" rate (formerly the "Bed and Breakfast" rate), I was asking about the opening time for the restaurant (GC will not be serving bkf until the official opening in August) and was told not to worry about the time that the AWAKE included in room dinning. I asked about the earliest time (the earlest time segment noted on the the door hanger for room service/free GP coffee is 6-6:16am) and they said 5am would be no problem.
- The staff doesn't hover nor try to fight me for control of my bag(s) when I get out of the elevator.
A couple of notes about transportation:
- The hotel comped me a ride in one of their MB's to the Guangzhou East Railway Station on one trip. On a trip from the GERS to the hotel, I took a taxi (had to stand in long line at the taxi stand that went pretty quickly - 'bout 10 minutes), even with the taxi driver taking a few wrong turns, the fare was 19RMB. Note that the enterprizing young men hawking taxi rides on the walk from immigration to the taxi stand will always try to get you to their car before quoting a rate (which will always be around 150RMB or more). Don't fall for it, even in very bad weather (I was there during some recent flooding...no problem).
- The taxi fare between the airport and hotel (and back) is 140-150 (with bags) for the 35 to 40 minute drive. For those who don't travel much within China, always be ready for those other enterprizing young men with the luggage carts waiting to pounce on your bags as soon as the taxi driver pops the trunk. Before you know it, you bags are wisked inside the terminal and by the time you catch up with them, you'll be charged at least 100RMB for their effort. This happened to me once my first time flying out of PVG and the same type of folks are waiting outside of CAN. Once, I had to physically overpower the dude to keep my bag off of his cart. When I went to get a cart of my own, he started yelling at me (the carts, like at PVG, HKG, PEK, HGH (my favorite IATA airport code
, and SZK are free of charge) something like, you have to pay! you have to pay!). When this happens, I just smile, shake my head, and count on the fact his yelling doesn't cancel out my 50 to 100lb weight advantage.
Oh, and the property is across the river (Pearl?) from the Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Taxi can get you there in 10 minutes or less.