FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - The Langbo Chengdu - REVIEW - MASTER THREAD
Old Apr 29, 2024 | 7:51 pm
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Sydneyberlin
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Posts: 428
This was by far the best property we stayed in during our entire trip to China, absolutely loved this place!

We generally really liked Chengdu as a city and would warmly recommend venturing over here on a first visit to China. It’s one of those huge mega cities with not one but two sparkling new airports, and masses of high rise buildings going up in all directions. Staying at the Langbo allowed us to fully take in the vastness of this place as the property is in the top part of one of these modern high rise buildings. We had used one of our Globalist suite upgrade awards and hence had a fabulous roomy suite on the 58th floor. All suites are on the top 4 or 5 floors here so that alone is a reason making an upgrade worthwhile. And the hotel is in a great location- right in the centre of town with plenty of sights and lots and lots of shopping and (sometimes quite scary!) food within walking distance.

We very much liked the modern fittings in this property including a beautiful bathtub with views, and a very comfortable bed.





The air condition luckily worked well in this hotel (which isn’t guaranteed in China, even in 5 Star hotels) so that was definitely a plus. We also received plenty of free waters (fancy Voss, no less) and the first round in the mini bar (coke, sprite, some snacks) was free too as well as a dry cleaning or pressing for three laundry items which was a very nice and welcome bonus. Service all around was amazing and there was always someone around who could help in English (with the exception of the pool area but I’ll get to this shortly).




The lobby and all public areas are stunning and we particularly liked the club lounge which we could access as Globalists (and I believe suite guests of any variety can access too). It had feee booze in the evening, some decent wines, beer, soft drinks. And a whole selection of food which was definitely meant for the Chinese taste so very exciting to us (think chicken feet, rabbit meat, all sorts of stuff). My partner was a bit more adventurous with all that than I was but I was very happy to find a small but nice salad buffet. Having eaten no lettuce for almost two weeks, I totally loved this “Western choice”. Oh- and they had delicious little sweet desert pastries, and the one supervisor lady who spoke excellent English was great! We also had the buffet breakfast included as Globalists and while not the best breakfast we had in China (that would have been at the Andaz in Shanghai), it was still plentiful. It’s definitely also more geared at Chinese tastes but we enjoyed our bowls of noodle soup- the hotel is in China, after all.



Some less adventurous guests might miss a little more of a Westen selection which is admittedly pretty limited.

The ONLY problem with this property is the pool set up, for two reasons:

Problem one: The general chinese attitude towards pools and swimming appears to be that the pool is for exercise only (not relaxing) and that everyone must wear a swimming cap. This pissed my partner off majorly as we really wanted to wind down after a busy day, and the latter caused a real issue when the two young attendants at the front desk who did not sie an a wird of English insisted that we wear a cap, and then tried to force us to purchase caps from them! It was only me getting angry and using my raised voice in the best Mandarin I could muster that convinced them to lend us two spare caps in lieu if us having to purchase. Needless to say, this wasn’t a relaxing trip to the pool!

Problem two: When you get to the pool area (you are welcomed at a desk and led through the gym), it becomes obvious the hotel has sold/commissioned/delegated responsibility for the pool and gym to an external provider, meaning: This facility is not really part of the hotel and hence open for all so you will see local gym members everywhere and feeling out of place as a hotel guest; mandarin speaking only; the already non relaxing pool environment spoilt further with noisy swimming lessons and the usual Chinese parents shouting at their children. When you look at the pool (in person and on the hotel website), it looks to me like the hotel used to be officially part of the hotel: its curvy sides, shallow depth, even a starry display installed into the ceiling! It’s now out of place as a gym pool AND the hotel is trying to have it’s cake and eat it too by having the gym staff service hotel guests. Very disappointing and extremely misleading on the hotel website- I absolutely hate it when properties do this and advertise their so-called“facilities” which in the end are shared with the mess from the streets.

So: don’t go to the pool. Otherwise, a perfect property!
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