Review: Sofitel Jinan Silver Plaza

We stayed in a Superior Club Room. The room was well appointed and had a walk-in closet. Wifi connection in the room was good and was available free of charge. Fresh fruits (apples and pears) and 2 bottles of water were provided free of charge every day.

There was a panoramic view of central Jinan from our room. Although visibility wasn't great during my stay (because of smog), we were able to see Quancheng Square, Liberation Pavilion and Daming Lake.

The Club Millesime executive lounge is situated on the 47th floor. There is a breakfast buffet (although the selection is quite limited compared with the one in the Silver Sky restaurant on the top floor). Happy Hour is between 5:30pm and 7:30pm (soup, snacks, cake etc are put out). Wine (sparkling white, white and red), spirits, beer, soft drinks, tea and coffee are available. The lounge staff were very friendly.

Silver Sky is the revolving restaurant located on the 49th floor at the top of the hotel with great views over Jinan. Lots of Chinese and Western food to choose from the breakfast buffet. Service was okay, but the quality of food was disappointing. However, there was a bottle of sparkling white wine which you could help yourself to freely! If the room rate which we had booked did not include breakfast, we would definintely not have paid 158 RMB per person for the buffet breakfast in Silver Sky.

We didn't have a chance to use the swimming pool, gym and spa on the 7th floor, though the pool and gym seemed quite small.

The hotel is very centrally located. You can walk through Quancheng Square to Baotu Spring in 15 minutes. There are many shopping centres nearby (including the Silver Plaza shopping centre adjoining the hotel). The central railway station is around 15-20 minutes away by taxi. The airport is around 1 hour away by taxi (taxi fare approx 150 RMB).

We were satisfied with our stay in Sofitel Jinan Silver Plaza. Our room was decent, service was generally good and the location was very convenient. However, the food both in the club lounge and the main restaurant was disappointing, and I would advise eating elsewhere instead.

Following our stay in Sofitel Jinan Silver Plaza, I discovered when I looked at the description for the Superior Club Room (the same room type that we had booked and stayed in) on booking.com that apparently club room guests enjoy express check-in and check-out at the club lounge reception desk, free late check-out until 4pm, the ability to bring 2 visitors free of charge to the club lounge, 1 hr free use of a club meeting room per day, free daily laundry and shoe shine service, 4 free drinks from the minibar per day and unlimited free local telephone calls. These benefits are not listed anywhere on the Sofitel website/booking page, nor were we informed of them at any point during our stay. If you are interested in staying in a club room at Sofitel Jinan Silver Plaza, I would suggest clarifying with the hotel as to what benefits are available.

Also, I didn't have Le Club AccorHotels elite membership status when I stayed in Sofitel Jinan Silver Plaza, so you may wish to refer to the review by gilbertaue 2 years ago for an idea on the type of treatment LCAH elite members receive.