Hotel4Real!

For some weird reasons, there are not many luxury hotel options in Taiyuan, and even fewer options are available from the international chains. This has made the Taiyuan InterContinental a particularly appealing option when I decided to go on a little road trip.

I called the hotel pre-arrival and was able to connect with the manager on duty Mr. Zhang (张). He went through what he had on offer and took care of some pre-stay preps for us over the phone. Upon arrival he was also there to greet us and proactively offered his help and advice which we definitely appreciated. The room itself was fine, with all the typical amenities you’d expect plus some local touches, although if you ask me, the room could have been bigger or at least the utilization of space could be better – the bathroom and the toilet were separate and they literally took up more than half of the floor space.

View though was awesome, although not overly “historical” as Taiyuan is as a whole, it was still arguably as good as you can get in Taiyuan’s newer CBD centre.

We also enjoyed the extensive breakfast buffet each day. Food quality was good, although a bit more local touches would have been appreciated. Service however was consistently great, and the service in the lobby lounge was on point too.

If there’s anything the hotel could’ve done better it was how the doormen managed the front driveway. Every time we have our car there the doormen were very quick to tell us “no parking here” (in a not-so-nice way) without letting us know where to actually go – we literally encountered this every single time we had our car in the driveway even when there was plenty of space. We eventually decided to not bother with the car anymore just to avoid these weird interactions.

Another thing is that maybe it’s because of the lack of competition, even though we all enjoyed our stay, for the price we paid (very high for Taiyuan) I was not super convinced that I’d revisit – again it was a pleasant experience but I’m just not sure if it’s justified to pay the extra $$$ compared to the other options, especially considering the slightly out-of-the-way location.

RealScore

Service: 8.0

Design and Room Size: 8.0

In-room Amenities: 8

Bathroom Size and Layout: 10

View from (my) Room: 8

Hotel Location: 6

Available Guest Facilities: 10

Food Quality: 9

Food and Beverage Service: 8

Executive Lounge Quality: N/A

Final RealScore: 8.24

Final RealRating: AA

Hotel is built/opened: 2017

Total number of rooms: 330

Length of stay: 2 nights

Membership level at check-in: Diamond Ambassador

Room type experienced: Premium Room (better amenities)