Hong Kong
 

What's the best Hong Kong hotel for the last two nights of an asia honeymoon? Looking to spend around $400 or less. The Intercontinental seems to be completely sold out.

js1999--I believe you will be better served if I move your thread to the Flyertalk HKG Forum.
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Obscure2k
Moderator
Luxury Hotels

well, depending on dates, MO and LMO could fit that budget.

however, considering IC is sold out, i presume LMO is also sold out and the MO is priced substantially higher.

perhaps grand hyatt? its also virtuoso, and 549 rooms.

Try Langham in Mong Kok, it is true 5* luxury and has a great spa but at half the price of the other 5* hotels. The reason: location (Mong Kok is a poorer chinese part of the city). Think Times Square. The hotel is part of a really well done modern sky scraper (vertical shopping mall with a dizzying atrium and an escalator that almost qualifies for a Disneyland ride). Book a deluxe room or a suite (should be possible for USD 400) and you will be thrilled.

If money is no object, the Peninsula is the best hotel in HKG and maybe the best in the world (certainly in the top 10). But prices have gone way up recently, you are looking at USD 1000 per night for a nice stay at the Pen.

What date? See if any of these are available:

HK side: Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Landmark MO, Island Shangri-La, Conrad

Kowloon side: Peninsula, Kowloon Shangri-La

On the Kowloon side, another option will be the Marco Polo Hong Kong.

The Sheraton in the same vicinity is also good.

On the HK island side, JW Marriott may be another option.

Personally, I like the Parlour Room at the Metropark Causeway Bay and I have mentioned more than once in this Forum. This is a high 3-star hotel located at the eastern fringe of Causeway Bay in a predominantly residential neighbourhood. Excellent access to transportation though. The regular rooms are small and have no view. Some harbourview rooms are slightly bigger, not much. Go for the Parlour Room as it should be within your $400 all-in budget.

Conrad is under US$200 a night if you stay on weekends.

Want to elaborate a bit on Clipper801's point. In Hong Kong, most hotels, even 3* ones, have various levels of rooms, unlike here in the US. So, for the budget, you can choose to stay in a standard room of a 5* hotel, or an upgraded small suite in a 4*, or the largest suite of a 3*. You need to decide what to do.

For example, for about $250, you can get the largest Harbourview Suite at the YMCA Salisbury, which will have identical view as the Peninsula's harborview room, as they are side-by-side; and at 530 sq ft, it's larger than the Pen's standard "superior room" at 440-480 sq ft and which only faces the city.

Most of the 5* hotels are pretty good. I'd splurge the money on an Executive Suite (or whatever $400 gets you) rather than worrying about the property too much.

I'd suggest the Peninsula. I'm biased I got married there and the hotel has a special place in my heart.

I'd suggest the Peninsula too, as it's my favorite in Hong Kong. I have an upcoming stay booked there before the world tourism industry was knocked sideways by the financial crisis, and I'm paying far less than $1000 for a Harbour View Room in the tower. I've seen on their website all kinds of promotions with rates running under $500 for Deluxe rooms (city view, old building). Because service and atmosphere matter greatly to me, I'd go for the lower category of room in a higher-end hotel over a higher category in a mid-market hotel. Personal preference, but it has always served me well.

That said, if the IC is truly sold out, there must be something going on in town sucking up hotel rooms and leaving the few remaining at high rates. If that's the case, I'd suggest the OP check back as the honeymoon gets closer-- in the US, rooms sometimes get released onto the open market if demand for the big blocks of rooms reserved for whatever meeting or convention has reserved them doesn't materialize.

I'll throw out two other options not mentioned yet. First, the Excelsior, managed by the Mandarin Oriental group, is in Causeway Bay and may have rooms with at least partial harbour views in the range of the OP's budget. Second, isn't there a Renaissance or something like that in the same complex as the IC?

OP's budget is around $400 or less, not under $500. US$400 may get you the cheapest room at Peninsula without a view, depending on the season.

This is a personal choice whether to stay in the cheapest room at a top end 5 star hotel like the Peninsula and able to tell your friends that you stayed there, or one of the better rooms at a 4 star hotel, or the top suite at a 3 star hotel. rkkwan - thanks for your additional clarifications.

pen and FS start above $400. seem to recall something like $450 and $550, dont remember which was which.

and remember IC is sold out.

i meant langham (490 rooms) earlier, not grand hyatt. (thinking of GH tokyo)

also not sure why one would say hotels outside of HKG do NOT have various levels of rooms.. :confused:

Most 4* hotels in the US will have suites or corner rooms, but that's usually it. And many 3*s have usually one or two types of rooms. That's in contrast with Hong Kong where there are so many room types in all kinds of hotels. That's all I meant.

Many Japanese hotels have 400% variance in room size; US hotels often have 0 variance and at most 20%. In Japan the room size is critically tied to business status; the economy would collapse if a secretary stayed in the same size room as a manager. I've seen hotels with 20 different sizes of rooms -- just so everyone from the same company can maintain the hierarchy. It gets to be quite comical sometimes. Nikko built several hotels outside of Japan using this same style (aimed at Japanese business travelers), for example the Four Points in Sydney suffers from this (causing much dis-satisfaction as the room rates are not tiered to reflect the variance in room sizes). Hong Kong hotels have much less differential in room size, but 100% is common for non-suites, and that does affect the room choice and satisfaction for many people (particularly from the US who are accustomed to lots of wasted floor space).