Happy

Just finished a 9 nights stay in Hong Kong split between 5 nights at JWM and 4 nights at Conrad - both booked pre-devaluation. Have Gold status at both chains.

Experiences:

Both hotels put us at executive floor with Conrad upgraded us to a harbor view room on 57th floor - directly in front of the Pacific Place and looking out several floors above the rooftop. Given the very hazy weather, really does not mean much having harbor view or not. Club is on 59th floor.
JWM assigned us room on the same floor of the club (2nd level). JWM's club is 2 levels with a narrow, spiral stair case linking the 2 levels. JWM's club is controlled by room key. I dont see Conrad has any control other than human at the door.

Conrad room is slightly bigger than JWM's but JWM has better bathroom. Yes, we dont like Conrad's bathroom. The Conrad shower stall really is much smaller, and as someone said, without ledge or seat or anything for you to put anything. On top of that, the shower is a fixture right above versus the much preferred handheld style at JWM, that can be hung or handheld. JWM bath tub does not have the handheld versus Conrad has. We prefer JWM's despite the double sinks at Conrad.

Both hotels are of older type when it comes to Shower stall as many hotels nowadays have rain showers or even multi-levels showers installed. At the level of JWM and Conrad Hong Kong, one would expect to see a better shower stall but they are the lowest ends during this trip except the Le Meridian at Borneo (Kota Kinabalu).

JWM has much better technology for their phone system which has a screen display and limited interactive that gives you weather, local events and even a google map for the hotel location. It takes some learning to use the functions but once you figure it out, it is really very nice system. Conrad is the old fashion type. It really takes us some getting use to Conrad's "behind the curve" system after experiencing the JWM's high tech version.

However, the most annoying part of Conrad is, it does not have access for guest folio. (May be it is purposely designed so!)

JWM has Guest Service in the TV system which you can check your folio versus Conrad (and also DoubleTree at Kuala Lumpur, Conrad at BKK), does not have any function for you to review your bill - a major MINUS given today's technology and how prevalent it is in most US hotels and large number of hotels in Europe and Asia. The only charges you could see would be services/goods purchased via the TV according to the description. We did not make any such purchase so no idea if it even works.

Both hotels do not offer restaurant breakfast for Gold member any more. JWM would not budge even we were accommodated to our floor by the GM who happened at the check in area. Conrad told me not any more restaurant brekkie since the lounge had remodeled but gave it to us anyway by the Japanese guest service gal who walked us to our room. Though honestly, the offerings in the Garden Cafe are nothing to write home about, especially when it comes to the Chinese dim sums - you would get much better products outside the hotel. On the contrary, JWM's lounge actually produced an OK beef meatball (Conrad served this 2 or 3 days in a row but not good) and quite acceptable Chinese bbq pork and roast duck at one evening.

The GM at JWM said they had a much nicer lounge than Conrad when we told him we would be at Conrad after finishing our stay at his property - and he was RIGHT. JWM lounge is 2 floors and 2 food service areas on the lower floor - FAR MORE food options at JWM during both breakfast and evening hours. Very nice and quiet in the upstairs which the only draw back would be table cleaning would be slower and navigating the stairs when there were traffic from both ends - one end needs to retreat in order for the other end to pass as the stair way is rather narrow.

Conrad lounge is very cramped, especially where the foods are served. It really is just a narrow strip of space - seem just a tiny bit bigger than the kitchen in my brother's home at the No.1 Braemar Hill complex. You would need to move really carefully in order not to bump at things or other people.

JWM's food service areas even have an island where in the morning a cook would take pancake/waffle order and at night serves cocktails as you wish with all the liquor bottles in display and you could also self-serve. At Conrad the liquor are hidden. You need to place order to get your drinks.

As mentioned above, food-wise, JWM lounge wins Conrad by a mile.

On a 10 pt scale, we would give an 8 to 8.5 to JWM's lounge and only a 6 to 6.5 to Conrad's. If both cost the same, JWM hands down for us.

JWM replaced our fruit plate twice a day with 1 each of nice gala or fuji apple, Asian pear, orange, banana and grape tomato for the good look of it so the fruit plate is pretty looking.

Conrad replaced our fruit plate once a day and one day the person responsible this did not come until 9pm (we thought there would be no replacement, on day 3), with wilted grapes, tiny lunchbox size red apple of unknow kind, a green, elongate shape pear that looks not ripe at all and a small orange, a small banana. We prefer JWM's fruit plate much more.

Both hotels use the same brand, Aromatherapy for amenities. JWM's look like smaller tubes but are filled full versus Conrad's tubes are only 1/2 filled even at brand new. I knew it because I squeezed the contents to small bottles for easier carrying. It took 2 Conrad's tubes to fill one bottle while only one JWM's tube is needed.

Overall, we prefer JWM than Conrad, especially with the current point level HHonor wants. The only minus part of JWM is the slightly smaller room size - everything else, JWM wins Conrad hands down.

Oh, at the entrance to the hotel at Pacific Place, JWM has a gentleman there all hours - it seems to me he is there not just to pull the door for you but a security personnel in suit. There is no one at Conrad's entrance at L3 (between Celine and Loews).