House

I stayed a couple of nights there last week and was impressed with the hotel.

The location is not the most central, though Suzhou is a small city and the tourist sites are spread out in any case (the main street, Ren Min Road, is not very attractive in any event!). I took (inexpensive and plentiful) taxis some of the time and walked for the rest.

The location is next to the former city walls and the hotel is modelled to fit in with the gates and gardens that survive there. There is even an impressive Pagoda round the corner from the hotel that you are allowed to explore (with some good views). Definitely an impressive building.

Suzhou itself is definitely worth visiting for the gardens and its relatively human scale - a real contrast to nearby Shanghai though Suzhou also seems to be a place with plenty of money and industry. The hotel clearly has a fair few business guests.

Front desk staff and concierge were very helpful. As Gold I got allocated a Preferred Guest room which was in a wing close to reception, retaurants, etc and had a nice view of the pool.

Bar staff were generally helpful but were not very proactive (i.e. if you want a drink, go up to the bar and order). I did not eat anything other than breakfast in the hotel but the restaurant looked to be of a good standard.

Rooms very nice, good size and have both CNN and BBC on the TV as well as Pay-TV. There are also broadband ethernet connections in the rooms (I had to pay extra to use this if I recall correctly).

There were a couple of nice touches. For example they have produced a pocket map and guide booklet to the major sites (complete with names in Mandarin for showing to taxi drivers).

In all I would not hesitate to stay again.