I stayed at the hotel for a single night and used a suite upgrade voucher to guarantee a better room (confirmed 5 days out) as it was an anniversary. I communicated in advance via the butler email to get some flowers arranged, and communication was smooth and had no language problems of using English.

Titanium benefits were confirmed by email and very basic: welcome fruit on the day you arrive; one complimentary cocktail in The St. Regis Bar on 49th floor (per person in room) and 2 complimentary laundry normal service per stay. In theory I could have claimed compensation as they didn’t offer me a welcome gift choice and instead I just received points, however I was very happy overall. This is as the room set-up was excellent, they had put in a personal welcome note, cake, bunch of roses, bed decoration and rose petals in the bath, for free, as my other flowers arrived as I did and were good (paid for separately via cash, and unnecessary considering the rest of the room set-up). The suite itself was a St Regis standard, spacious and with a large bath, 1.5 baths and we were on the top floor of guest rooms (62nd), which meant an expansive view of the surrounding area (river, houses, buildings, some greenery).

• We ate dinner in the Chinese restaurant, which was rated top restaurant on tripadvisor in the city, it was good quality food but very expensive, our meal cost more than the room and we didn’t have that many dishes nor any wine. Service was attentive and quick. There was a smoking room here but it didn’t affect us apart from an occasional whiff
• Had breakfast in the main restaurant, it was a fairly standard fare with the only “different” thing that made this a premium breakfast (for China) being some “North Korean octopus”, which was nice. By standard I mean egg chef, pastries, fruit, American and Chinese breakfast items and so on.
• Location of the hotel is good for the high speed railway station (how we got there) as it was less than 15 minutes by taxi or two stops on the metro line, which was literally under the hotel and could be accessed easily. The hotel itself is in a shopping complex so there were restaurants and cafes around. It is however a long way (30 minutes on the metro or a bit longer by taxi) from the main tourist city centre. I knew this when booking so I was fine as Changsha is not exactly filled with tourist sites and we intended to spend more time in the hotel.
• We used the hotel pool / sauna area. The main pool was long and deep enough (not for diving), though had very strict and enforced hygiene rules (i.e. wear slippers when walking, wear a hairnet in the pool, shower before entering), plus also a smaller pool for children. The sauna and stream rooms were relaxing and gender segregated and I enjoyed heating myself up a bit as the pool was a little chilly for me.
• Also had a couple of drinks in the main bar, our rate had some complimentary cocktails. Service was quick and pleasant, the cocktails list was interesting, but the prices were very high, international standards of around 100RMB / 15USD per cocktail or glass of wine. We were the only people in the bar so can’t comment on any smoking, we just enjoyed the sunset.
• The butlers were helpful and smiley, with varying degrees of English spoken, but always keen to help and we could manage just fine with it. I had a minor rate issue (I chose a summer package rate that the hotel retrospectively added an ID requirement to) that they dealt with nicely and honoured the original rate without me having to escalate or dig out my original email confirmation for example.

So overall my view was, nice building (the hotel has floors 48 to 63 in the largest tower for miles around), good quality room, generous welcome and good transport links. Negatives would be that the hotel doesn’t really seem to have a reason for being where it is, so the location just appeared odd and I felt the prices in the hotel were far too high. The room rate itself was very reasonable though for the quality. I probably won’t be going back to Changsha, but if I do I’d probably come back here again and just eat out, though I could be tempted to try the Sheraton if it was more central.