St. Regis Tianjin, China [Master Thread]
 

SPG recently launched St. Regis Tianjin (China), but I did not see any recent news coverage or review on this property here.

Am heading Tianjin this weekend for a conference. Has anyone stayed in St. Regis Tianjin? Any suggestions?

http://www.concierge.com/tools/blogs...jin-china.html

Category 4

Anyone stayed here yet?

Yup, I had just stayed there last week and above all enjoyed my stay there despite there being some glitches in their service. (although everyone tried their best! )

Location
It is really close to the Beijing-Tianjin HSR railway station. If you exit from the railway station, you'll be on the Jiefang bridge where the Century clock is located, and if you turn to the right, you'll be able to see the St Regis Tianjin with its unique architecture ( a squarish building with a hole in the middle) You can either walk there or take a cab there for around 10 rmb, although the queue there is super long. (You can walk there from the station within 15-20 minutes with your lugguage)

Check in

We arrived around 3pm local time and although the check in was quick, our room wasn't ready yet as they had some maintenance problems pertaining to some "hot water issues" which their previous guest had, and they wanted to be sure that the problem had been resolved before they allow us to enter. So we were told to sit down at the lobby while they serve hot water for us.

The Room
We were upgraded to a St Regis Suite from a deluxe room.(we booked the opening package which included breakfast and a 3 course dinner for 2 which I will discuss later) The room in itself is huge and it was facing the Hai River. The welcome fruits and a plate of chocolates were there when we arrived. I will post photos of the room later after I recover from my jet lag. The bathroom is spacious, and I like the way they design the shower room with the rain shower as the shower knob is far away, the cold water won't splash on us the minute we turn it, and we can simply step into it once the water has warmed up. (which really comes in handy in winter since the water is icy cold before it is warmed!! ) The bathroom also had a mp3 player which reads the mp3s from a thumbdrive and play it in the bathroom. The bathtub comes with a rubber headrest attached to it so we can comfortable lie down and relax without worrying that it will get wet. We had no problems with the room during our stay there. Bathroom amenities are from Remede spa, which comes with the usual body wash, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion. In addition to that, they also have a Remede face wash.

Butler Service
When you press the butler service during the different time of the day, you'll get different kind of responses regarding the complimentary drinks. For instance, when we first checked in, we managed to get a cup of cappuccino and some peppermint tea for free. When we called at night, we were told that ONLY normal coffee and tea is complimentary which is rather awkward for a St Regis Standard. The operator insists that the other kind of coffee/ tea are chargeable as they are room service items... This is the first St Regis which I had stayed in which doesn't offer complimentary Cappuccinos or lattes , etc..

Also, I find that the butlers in china seldom bring sugar and spoon when they serve the drinks and they always open the cabinet to bring the sugar or spoons out from the coffee cups already in the room... and most of the time, they'll find out that the spoons had already been used up and the sugar consumed quite some time ago, and they'll get some sugar for you... This area needs improvement but of course, you can always inform them to bring extra sugar when you call the butler service...

There are no bubble bath service here....

Restaurants
We can choose between the chinese restaurant ( Yan Ting) on the 2nd floor or the western food (promenade) at the 1st floor for the 3 course dinner which comes with the opening package. The food at Yan Ting isn't tasty for chinese standards so I suggest that you go for the promenade instead. For the main course, you can choose either between a baked fish or pan fried chicken.(some sort of fusion cuisine) As it was on my birthday, the staff at the restaurant gave me a complimentary bowl of noodles in addition to the dinner items as it is customary for the chinese to eat it on their birthday so as to enhance their "longevity". After all the dishes were served, the staff gave me a huge birthday cake and sang a birthday song as well as presented me with a happy birthday card with their signatures on it. Above all, I find that the service at the restaurant is of St Regis standard and I could not fault them at all.

As for breakfast, they have an "interactive kitchen" concept where you can order the dim sum, noodle dishes or eggs from the menu which they listed there. Other than the usual breakfast items such as salad, fruits, yogurt, etc, they have goubuli baos (some sort of dumplings famous in Tianjin). As there aren't many people staying there when I was there, I find the breakfast selection somewhat limited but the food they have there is tasty...

Spa
They get their masseurs from an external company for your information,and thus, you'll have to book a reservation hours in advance.

Check Out
Didn't have any problems with check out and it was swift and fast.

Above all, they still have some software issues to fix such as the complimentary drinks issue (you can try your luck, sometimes you can get the gourmet coffee for free, sometimes they want you to pay for it)

That's a really comprehensive review, thank you.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...6784839&type=1

I had uploaded the pictures of the suite at my facebook page.. not so sure what is the best way to do this since I haven't done any picture uploadings before on a forum :(

Did you try their happy hour for platinum members?

I was told last week that they provide 2 hours of complimentary drinks in their bar for platinum members....

This hotel was yet to open when I was in Tianjin mid-last year. The building does look amazing however.

I would recommend the Astor, a Luxury Collection hotel, it's located further down on the same side of the river and is pretty fabulous.

I've just done 5 stays over the last two months at the St Regis Singapore and they don't give the premium coffees (although they have 8 types of TWG tea). Nor do they do the iced coffees.

I'm tossing up on a stay between this or the Astor, anyone have any recommendations?

I wasn't billed for 2 lattes, if that's even called premium.

I've stayed at the St Regis Singapore before as well and you can order lattes and cappuccinos for no charge like any good St Regis hotel would offer... (they even have a menu for what the complimentary drinks will be at the St Regis Singapore)

As for the Tianjin hotels, I had stayed at both the St Regis and the Astor, if this is the first time you're staying there, I would recommend the Astor due to it being rich in history (there is a museum at the ground floor and they will give you the complimentary ticket after you check in). Of course the rooms are tired at the Astor (even the new wings' suites have stains on the sofa for some of the rooms) and for the historic wing, the sound isolation is really bad you can hear people moving about outside at night accompanied by the sound of creaking wood. I did enjoy my stay there nevertheless since you don't get to stay in such classic hotels often nowadays :D And also, they had complimentary coffee and tea (basic ones) at the Astors' tea room next to the reception lobby for SPG members.

Of course, if you are into newer and more modern rooms, then the St Regis will be for you.

This was the case for St Regis Singapore, though on my last stay in Aug 2011, the butler actually mentioned they are stopping this service and in my next stay you can actually only order normal coffee or tea... A big downgrade in the St Regis experience IMO as it was what defined the brand and separates it from other top hotel brands like Park Hyatt/Ritz Carlton

What a let down this is since I never use the butler for anything else apart from bubble bath (if available) or the coffee service :( I guess that if this is the case I'd rather stay at a hotel with a club lounge where I can still get some decent "non-normal" coffee and costs way less than a St Regis....

Any new experiences at the St Regis Tiajin, I am on the fence between the St Regis Tiajin and Westin Tiajin any views anyone ( I am SPG plt)

Looks like the GM went to St. Regis Macao and the GM from Fairmont Nanjing took over.