Lanzhou Hotel

no availability of english speaking staff. mosquito bites

ツインで一部屋6000円程度、空港行きシャトルバス駅に近くて便利。本館と東西の建物とは繋がっておらず、一度外に出る必要あり。西楼の一階に宿泊したが、入り口には誰もおらず、無人状態。誰でも侵入できそう。部屋はそれなりに清潔だが、お湯が出なかった。

Good service and attention.

The place is supposed to be 4 star but just about makes a 3star. The rooms are small and in need of redecoration. The one saving grace was the reasonable range of food at breakfast. They make their own noodles while you watch for breakfast.

Old hotel but renovated recently, location is good close to the central train station and many shops, restaurants closeby. The main building is better but more expensive, the east building and the west building rooms are smaller but good. The restaurant is on the main building, so is the reception. We stayed on the west building and it was okay, only we had to check in and later check out in the main building, a little inconvenient

This hotel was recommended by the organization that invited me to give a lecture at the First Hospital of Lanzhou University. Reportedly, it has special arrangement with this hotel. OK, no problem. The main building appeared clean and elegant. However, the room that was assigned to me was in adjacent building. Surprise, surprise...when I opened the door, the first thing I noticed was the cigarette smoke and I was told that there wasn't really any difference in the room odor whether it is non smoking room or not. The next thing that caught my eyes was the dirty bathroom. The floor tiles, the wall tiles, the toilet bowl, the sink all have brownish stains! Next are the power outlets- only 1 was working and I had 4 devices to charge. The top of the round coffee table was covered with cut out round plastic to cover a table cloth that is actually made of plastic! The bed- oh my, very uncomfortable, only had a mattress no box spring. The A/C was set too high and cannot be adjusted, so I ended up opening the windows (I was on 3rd floor); there were mosquitoes flying around my ears that woke me up and started chasing them (fortunately I killed them), I closed the windows immediately.
Thanks god, I only stayed 2 nights as complaining in English will not take you anywhere as they are extremely poor communicators. My advise...stay elsewhere.
On a positive note- nice location,

I really like staying in the '50s era hotels in China. But, it's always a crap shoot on what things will be like. If you adjust your thinking about the Lanzhou Hotel to three stars instead of four, your expectations will line up better with delivery. The design of the hotel harkens back historically and has been minimal upgrading. I could imagine Mao and his henchmen walking the corridors but not sure he was ever there.

Breakfast was very traditionally Chinese, bacon and egg lovers will come up short. But from that perspective it wasn't bad. Baozi, lots of vegetables and noodle soups were featured. Boiled eggs too. The room was okay but our tub was stuck in the shower position. Beds hard, room clean. Men's sauna building attached to the main hotel and it seemed very, very busy as we arrived off the train at midnight.

Stayed in the west building in an average room. Nothing to rave about. Buffet breakfast was included and the hand pulled noodle was a standout as we watched the noodles being made. Room was ok and decent. Staff was friendly in spite of language barrier. The location was ok as you can taxi anywhere anyway.

The Lanzhou Hotel is basically the old Gansu Provincial Government guesthouse, which is now trying hard to make itself a luxury hotel. It is a classic 1950s Chinese building that looks quite grand from the outside; it was refurbished nearly ten years ago - so there are some good features and some pretty awful ones. My Chinese hosts put me on the 5th Floor; check in was very efficient, but warning - if you speak no Chinese, you will have great difficulty in being understood. That said, the staff do try to be helpful. The rooms are old fashioned with heavy dark but cheapish-looking furniture. The bed was very hard and I had difficulty sleeping, especially as the air conditioning controls are almost incomprehensible. The bathrooms clearly got the main refurbishing treatment and they are functional and well kitted out. You get all the nice touches of a luxury hotel such as comb, toothbrush, hairdryer (working), kettle (but bring your own tea bags if you want black tea) and bath-robe - but all in a decor and ambiance of a governemnt guesthoue, heavy Chinese communist-style. It all made a strange mix. But the hotel is centrally situated in the downtown business area, it is fairly clean, the staff are willing and friendly, and the food is fairly good. I used the meeting rooms in the hotel - uncomfortable chairs and rather cramped but all the gadgetry worked such as Powerpoint projector.