Kempinski Hotel Chengdu China - Chengdu, China 

My first time in Chengdu and first stay at a Kempinski in China. I had the impression that Kempinski was a luxury chain but this is not a luxury hotel... basically a Chinese 3 star. Check In My co-workers arrived just prior to me checked me in... but afterwards they indicated that there was only 1 staff and a long queue in the lobby reception, and again only one incompetent, slow, and surly staff at the 19th floor executive check-in. I experienced her incompetence just in the few minutes I was there. Room No offense to the blind, but the decorators clearly were blind! The room was dark, but I think that's good or I would have seen how dirty the carpets were! Bed was typical Chinese firm mattress, pillows were unconfortably firm. Internet access was OK but for a fee. Bathrooms were poorly layed out, shower was very small, and the water pressure varied from none to jet-stream, with interesting temperature variations as well. No drinking water was provided for free, only expensive small bottles of evian in the minibar. Cleanliness was an issue... I accidently dropped a glass on my first day and it broke on the tile floor of the bathroom... and I was still walking on glass shards after the room was cleaned the next day. (the housekeeping clearly noticed the broken glass, howver because the hotel attempted to charge me for it!) Gym I had to argue with the hotel manager to get the gym open at 6am for a morning workout, it normally opens only at 7. I shouldn't have bothered, because it only has 5 machines, all of which are cheap Chinese imitations of actual exercise equipment. One was broken. What a joke! Laundry My laundry was returned un-finished. No idea why. Service The staff were mostly useless, with bad attitudes and careless service. Breakfast Breakfast at the Exec club on the 19th floor had very limited selections and was poorly presented. Coffee was cold and had to be sent back. Check Out Took 15 minutes per person. Two staff at 6:00 am couldn't really manage. There must be a better hotel in Chengdu... I'll definitely be trying a different one next time!

I have been travelling around China for the last 2 years and By now I know that in the lessknown cities you can't expect The western service that we all enjoy back home, but at Kempinski Chengdu they really did their best to make my stay as enjoyable as possible. Rooms were nice, large and most important, very clean. The food was really nice and there are several nice places to go out and have a nice diner or lunch. Kempinski is Located not far from the American consualte and other important venues and there are always taxi's on stand-by. Staff was always willing to help me and a lot of them speak or at least understand English I even received a Taxi-Book, a billingual booklet containing al the addresses you might need in Chengdu. I really thanked them for it. Finally i no longer have to ask the hotel staff to write down the addresses I need in Chinese. If you ever have to stay in Chengdu, choose Kempinski, I've stayed at other five star hotels here and found that I had to pay more for less.