Xiamen Mandarin Hotel

Slightly bizarre but comfortable

The Xiamen Mandarin Hotel is certainly a strange place. It is a classic example of why ratings (in this case 5 stars) are based only upon number of facilities, not the more subjective issues of service, friendliness, or "classiness". In China, one has to choose 5-star and 4-star hotels very, very carefully in order not to pay 5- or 4-star prices for facilities that you will never need.
The Xiamen Mandarin is close to the airport, but some distance out of town.
The hotel is spread among a number of buildings, with different restaurants in different buildings. The huge (classic) lobby, all gold, gilt and marble is standard for 5-star hotels in China, but the multitude of rather helpless staff gives away its origins as a rather clueless 'work unit' hotel.
There is a large expanse of grass lawn in front of the hotel, with some really ugly 1960s residential tower-blocks very close behind it. Guess which way most of the rooms face. One part of the hotel actually has the corridor facing onto the lawn, and ALL the rooms in that part facing the tower blocks! I cannot, honestly, understand why the architect thought "now which way should guest rooms face....the towerblocks ten metres away, or the lawn with a distant view of the islands? I know! They will want to face the tower blocks so they don't get a view!!!" Right on.
The various facilities of the hotel are scattered aong the buildings, some 100 metres away from each other, involving a lot of walking around....lost.
The room was fine, but not really what I would expect from a 5-star hotel. I have stayed in 3 star hotels in China (for less than 25% of the price) that have everything that was in the room here.

Unique Quality: This hotel has moreorless everything...but the 'quality' of everything is "in the eye of the beholder". Empty sterile bar, empty sterile restaurants, empty sterile lobby. Yawn.
I really do wonder whether many hotel owners in China have looked at how hotels are run in Malaysia, Korea, Thailand and even Vietnam. Because I would bet that an increasing number of their *Chinese* guests have, and they will increasingly be looking for similar standards when they see "5 star" in China.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Xiamen Mandarin Hotel

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