No thread on this yet since I don’t believe it’s on many leisure travellers target list! I stayed two nights last week for business.

Guangzhou airport is phenomenal - huge, clean and well organised. We were met at the plane and escorted through the (massive) airport and various checkpoints - all the way to the waiting Conrad car.

On arriving at the hotel we were whisked up to the lounge to check in (I with gold status, and my colleagues with no status). I was not upgraded but was given use of the lounge (but not my colleagues - which I thoroughly enjoyed).

The attentiveness or staff throughout was extremely good - with managers giving business cards (which came in handy for reasons I won’t go into), but generally any more junior staff really did not have a working level of English. Even asking for the bill/check was met with confusion. Same with ordering food. If the hotel wants to serve international business travellers this needs to change.

The only other negative observation I would make is on pricing. There is some very odd pricing going on. The hotel room was fairly cheap, but the airport transfer was extremely dear (almost as much as another night). Another example in the Mediterranean restaurant - a steak was more than GBP 50, but a large chicken dish was less than GBP 15. I’m not quite sure what was going on but it was hard to navigate relative worth throughout.

Room was fantastic - very modern and well furnished. Conrad toy was brought up to my room on request (albeit they first brought me a laundry bag).

In sum I think the hotel is of high quality as a hard product. The language barrier is a challenge, but given I didn’t see any other western faces the whole time I was in the city it’s hardly surprising. I would probably go again as the staff are eager to please and get better.