helvetic

The entrance by the elevator is always closed. Good to hear the bar is open.

helvetic

Update on another fantastic stay at my home in HK, the Centric!

They're running at 9% occupancy right now.

You can't make a reservation longer than 3 days online, but concierges can circumvent it by making a multi room booking. It's complicated.

武汉肺炎 (Wuhan flu) measures:
- temperature checks to enter hotel every time half the time (they're not consistent about enforcing it, like 25%)
- check-in temperature check and questionnaire
- all restaurants except cruise rooftop restaurant and bar closed
- club lounge closed, makeshift lounge service in Cruise
- breakfast is a la carte, menu ok. Pancakes are delicious actually
- free flow happy hour at Cruise is not from the bar, it's from a self serve station with the usual lounge offerings. Food offerings are same as usual and from a buffet
- staff is greatly reduced due to occupancy. Everyone is still paid their full salaries. The usual lounge attendents are working from the lounge only happy hour. Katy and Whitney are still here on alternating days and are still wonderful
- they will likely soon close the entire East tower
- pool / spa is closed
- gym is open

lsquare

Given the low occupancy, I'm surprised the Centric isn't priced any lower. I still see it in the HK$800 range.

helvetic

It's probably close to the limit on how low they can price sensibly. If they lowered the price it's not like it'd generate more bookings. The demand just isn't there. It would also make the unit economics of the incremental guest net negative I imagine.

The problem isn't the pricing on hotels like the Centric, it's on hotels like the St Regis. I spoke to them about it and they're also at sub-10% occupancy, but they're refusing to give me a deal better than 3000HKD/night ( BAR online is 3700 HKD). It's absurd.

lsquare

Gotcha. I think you're right and that there is a price floor for some of these properties. I've never stayed at the Ritz before and I've always wanted to stay there, but the cash rates have always been pretty high relative to the other Marriott HK properties. I've been checking the prices a lot over the past 6 months and it doesn't seem to go any lower than HK$2800. I might bite the bullet and try it at that price.

With the Centric, I could have swore I saw someone saying it was in the HK$700 range at one point. I still haven't seen that. The lowest that I saw was like HK$808 before tax.

helvetic

I'm on a corp rate that takes off 20% from BAR. You can get about $800 on a public rate at the moment.

Fly Me To The Moon

Bed & Breakfast rate at HKD 594 for the foreseeable future. That's a cheap rate for this hotel.

lsquare

I think that's a pretty cheap rate for any of the big US chain hotels.

helvetic

Epic! Absolutely can't to be allowed back into HK so I can move back in here.

Fly Me To The Moon

Cruise Restaurant is closed for breakfast. Farmhouse reopened today. Wow, it was crowded for breakfast this morning. It is semi-buffet, with hot dishes ordered off a menu (same menu as in Cruise before).

As well, the Centric is selling cash coupons for 30% off. If you buy more than 10 coupons, then it is 35% or 40% off (I cannot remember exactly). I think the denomination of each coupon is HKD 500, and can be used for dining (regardless of being in-house guest or not), and is valid up to some time in December.

helvetic

It can be used towards room rate? I'd probably stock up a bunch if so.

Fly Me To The Moon

I don't think so. IIRC, only for dining.

Breakfast at 9:00am this morning...Farmhouse was crowded again. I finished at about 10:00am, and there was a queue of 40+ in-house guests lining up to get in. The restaurant was turning away non-in-house guests.

sxc

What’s the current situation here for the lounge for globalists?

Fly Me To The Moon

As of now, the Victoria Harbour Lounge is still closed, so Globalists get their Lounge benefits in Cruise Restaurant.

Seems the restaurant is still open for lunch and dinner (and Lounge benefits).

By the way, on the signage throughout the hotel, the "and Bar" part of "Cruise Restaurant and Bar" has been covered with with tape. I guess this is so that the outlet can still operate as a restaurant as bars in Hong Kong have been forced to stop business for social distancing measures. The Cruise Restaurant is still serving alcoholic drinks, though.

cyberon

Very happy with this hotel. I booked the suite which is basically two standard rooms joined together with one room missing the bed.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves (these were taken approx 1 year ago).














afternoon tea





Some minor tips to share:
*Laundry: There are many cheap coin operated laundry services nearby. These are excellent value. I used Water Laundry which is just behind the small fruit market. the address is 406-408 Kings Rd.
$5 for a 30min wash and $15 for a 30min dry, TOTAL =$20HKD. What I would do is load the laundry then go to the club lounge for a snack/tea then come back to collect.




*Airport transfers, Klook Tesla transfer can't be beat. Costs around $66AUD per trip. Look out for various coupons/promos and cashbacks. I got the price down to about $55AUD with coupons etc.