Ovolo Southside, Hong Kong, Design Hotel [Master Thread]
Wow, this is a nice hotel!
Got a good prepaid rate of HKD 765 for the basic "mini queen" room. Very good value!
This hotel is located on the South side of Hong Kong Island, past the Aberdeen Tunnel and in the Wong Chuk Hang area. The hotel has a very small footprint, but quite a tall building (23 floors, I think). Only nine rooms on my floor, and I assume similar for the other floors.
The hotel is supposedly the first hotel in Hong Kong converted from a warehouse building. The design is quite attractive IMHO, keeping some of the "industrial characteristics" of a warehouse. For example: exposed sprinklers, pipes, and ducts in the ceiling; industrial-type electric sockets; heavy wall tiles instead of marble in the bathroom; stainless steel cabinet in the room; rustic wood accents; concrete flooring; etc. All design elements combined into a very nice feel.
I actually called the hotel while driving there, and confirmed that they had parking space available for overnight parking (@ HKD 200/night). There are only two spaces available, so it is first-come, first-serve. Otherwise, overnight parking is available at the nearby new One Island South complex.
At check-in, it was noted that this was my first time staying at the hotel. Because of this, I would be given a free breakfast, and also an upgrade to a higher-category deluxe room. Turned out that this was a corner room.
The room is small, but perfectly cozy for a short stay. The room had a queen bed, a three-seater sofa with table, a clothes rack, two cabinets with drawers (and the minibar), and a small bathroom.
Many treats in the room:
- a "loot bag", which is complimentary: contained a bag of chips, Impact mints, M&M's chocolates, Haribo gummies, and a bag of almonds.
- complimentary minibar: bottle of coke, bottle of coke zero, two bottles of carlsberg, one can of Schweppes lemon soda, one tetrapack of orange juice, one tetrapack of ice tea, two bottles of still water, and two bottles of sparkling water.
- a cloth "recyclable" bag, which can be used a clothes bag or shoe bag
Bathroom is small, but the EXCELLENT thing is good water pressure and very hot water for a nice shower! Bath amenities are the Australian-made "Biology" brand: bath gel, body lotion, shampoo, conditioner, bar soap, and mouthwash. The room slippers and waffle bathrobe were very comfortable.
Corner room was facing the road, so a bit noisy with the cars passing by. And, my room was on the 19th floor....
The room has an LED TV mounted on the wall opposite the bed. Each room also has an Apple TV, for you to mirror whatever you are doing on your iOS device.
Check-in is on the Lobby floor (you need to take a lift from the G/F). This floor also has a 24-hour gym, and the Lo Lounge. The lounge has a billiard table, bench seating, and also some comfortable armchairs. Saw several guests relaxing there in the daytime. I also did some reading there at night. The Lounge is 24 hours. Has coffee machine and complimentary cookies.
Did not try room service, but some items on the menu looked tempting, and I will definitely try on a future stay.
Breakfast was served in the 4th Floor CIRQLE Restaurant. The basic continental offerings, plus scrambled eggs and congee. You could also order hot items off another menu, but these would need to be paid for, and not part of my free breakfast.
This hotel might seem "out of the way" but with the recent opening of the MTR South Island Line, has become easily-accessible, and IMHO, should be considered even for business travellers who usually stay in the Central, Admiralty, Wanchai, or CWB areas. For example, after I parked my car and checked in, I walked from the hotel to the Wong Chuk Hang MTR Station (a 4-5 min walk). Waited 2 min for the subway and took two stops to Admiralty, which was about a 5 min ride. Had dinner with friends at Pacific Place. After dinner, walked 6 min from the restaurant down to Platform 5 of Admiralty MTR Station, 4 min wait for the next train, 5 min train ride, and 5 min walk back to the hotel. SO CONVENIENT!!!!!
Around the hotel, there are some good choices for dining. At the One Island South Complex, there is:
- Pizza Express (quite crowded when I passed by at 6:30pm in the evening)
- Starbucks (closing up when I passed by at 6:30pm; closing early because of Sunday?)
- a deli (closed)
- a casual restaurant (closed)
- a 7-Eleven
- Lane Crawford Home Store
I am sure more retail establishments will open up on the near future.
Overall, a pleasantly-surprised stay at Ovolo Southside. Kudos to this hotel.