Name: Kai Li Lai Hotel- Xiamen Zhongshan Road Branch
Address: No. 318 Zhongshan Road, Siming District, Xiamen, Xiamen, Xiamen, 361000, China
Rating: 8

Location

Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport

Kinmen Airport

Kai Li Lai Hotel- Xiamen Zhongshan Road Branch

The previous review states nearly everything I was going to note!

Check-in was fine, as the Chinese-speaking man quickly called for the English-speaking one, who, by the way, was fabulous and marvelously helpful in a multitude of aspects.  

As was the case with another individual, they could not find my reservation, but I was accommodated at the same price (which was lower than the previous review).

Housekeeping was kind, friendly, and did the job well.

The beds were comfortable; not hard like the floor.  

They have laundry, and not only is it free, but they also supply the laundry supplies - quite handy for an extended trip  

It's not a luxury hotel, but it's no junkie.  You can hear noise from the hallway quite well.  I had loud individuals near me; not the hotel's fault.  

If I were to return, I'd certainly consider this place for another stay.

This review is specifically for expats living in China since those are pretty much the only foreigners traveling in China presently.  I stayed at the Ibis from November 24 - 27 (Tuesday - Friday).  

The hotel is excellently located on Zhongshan Pedestrian Road.  There are actually two entrances to the hotel, the first is on Zhongshan Road and taxis cannot drop off here.  But the second entrance on Renan Alley is the taxi entrance.  Take the elevator up to the second floor to check in.  Ask for a map when you check in, on the flip side is a map of Gulangyu. I found all three shifts of reception staff to be very nice and helpful.

Ibis is Accor’s basic/budget hotel.  The rooms are minimalist but well laid out and clean.  (Hotel website phots are accurate representations of the rooms.) Bathroom toiletries include toothbrushes, toothpaste, comb, shower caps, liquid hand soap in a large pump bottle, shampoo/shower gel in a pump mechanism, and an individual container of conditioner.  There are slippers, as well as tea bags and Nescafé instant 2+1 coffee.  I stayed in a Memory Foam king room.  My first room was a corner room on the 4th floor facing out towards Zhongshan Pedestrian Street and very large.  The bed is comfortable but I don’t know that the extra for the memory foam is necessarily worth it.  I moved to a different room on the 5th floor the following day and it faced out towards the alley where the taxi point is.  This room was also very spacious.  In the mornings, the cleaning staff opens the doors to the unoccupied rooms (presumably for inspection) so I saw the interior of numerous rooms on the Zhongshan side and they were all bright, clean, and spacious.  I also saw a few of the rooms with no windows.  They were also clean but the rooms are small and close.  (Presumably if you don’t want to pay for a window, then room size is also a negligible factor.)

The lobby is on the second floor and there is a seating/meeting area, small bar (that I never saw anyone at), breakfast room, and small gym.  The gym has a bike and treadmill along with some weight machines; I never saw anyone in it.  The breakfast was more extensive than I would have expected of a budget hotel.  There was coffee, soy milk, and hot milk, cereals, a salad bar, fruits, breads (western and steamed buns), boiled eggs (and sometimes fried also), vegetables.  It is a dinner for breakfast sort of meal (in the Chinese way) so you can eat very heartily and is worth it at 40 RMB if you would otherwise go to one of the nearby cafes for a roll and coffee (which would cost about the same or more).  Many of the  room rates include the breakfast.

There is only one elevator that services the hotel so you’ll need to wait for it. However, since no one is traveling in China at present except Chinese retirees, there are no queues or crowds for anything (in Xiamen, Gulangyu, or the Fujian Tuluos).  This is a western budget hotel so you should be managing your expectations.  While it’s true that there are other Chinese hotels around here that might be cheaper (or provide more for the same price), I think the point of staying at the Ibis is that you know exactly what you are getting for what you are paying for and removing that layer of uncertainty of what you might be getting at a no-name Chinese hotel.  I don’t really understand what people thought they were going to get paying $50 USD a night for a room in a city with generally pretty high room rates at the international hotels.  (I booked through Trip.com.). I feel like I got more value for the room than expected, all things considered.  I would certainly stay here again.

I will note one problem, which is temporary and nothing the hotel can do anything about.  There is massive construction on Zhongshan Pedestrian Road that will run until Lunar New Year 2021 (which is February 12).  On my first day, there was non-stop jackhammering right outside my window until 11:30 PM, and although that stopped, there was still other heavy construction taking place that didn’t end until 6 AM. This is the reason I moved rooms after the first night.  (The front desk gave me ear plugs but that’s not enough for the jackhammering.)  However, the next day/night, there was no heavy construction work taking place.  The final night, the construction work commenced in the middle of the night and continued into the morning.  So if booking before CNY, I would ask for a room that does not face Zhongshan Pedestrian Road (other rooms will get construction noise, but not as much.). However, once that construction is done, those rooms facing Zhongshan will have incredible views of the Pedestrian Street (and will actually be quieter since no vehicles are allowed.)

There is a travel desk associated with the hotel (but independent of the Ibis) right outside the lobby by the escalator.  Ms. Xiao Hong has absolutely no idea what she’s talking about so don’t ask for her advice as it is useless, but you can book day trips through her.  Ferry tickets to Gulangyu are 35 RMB but she will charge 118 RMB for hotel pick up (you’ll need to walk 5 minutes to to the designated collection point since it’s a big bus that picks up at various places), take you to the cruise terminal where you have to sit through a “free” 30 minute tea tasting, and then when you finally get to Gulangyu, the guide takes you on an informationally useless tour involving a lot of overpriced shopping.  If you are able to reserve ferry tickets in advance online, then do that because it is a lot cheaper and time efficient.  You do not need a tour guide for Gulangyu, just a map (use the one from the hotel or buy one for 5 RMB on the ferry or to the Organ Museum on Gulangyu where there is a tourist info desk in front of the museum and buy a map for 1 RMB plus get great advice on where to go).  If you want to go to the Fujian Tulou, you can do a one day large group tour (about 30 people) for 188 RMB that will take you to Gaobei Tulou in Yongding County.  Instead, pay the 1000 RMB for a private tour, which will allow you to see up to four Tulou (Hongkeng, Gaobei, Tianluokeng, and Yunshuili).  Ms. Xiao Hong will tell you that Gaobei is the only Tulou worth seeing.  She is dead wrong!  (This was the cheapest quoted private tour I could find.)

Stayed for one night last week and hotel is very good. Location is great. Walking street is on back side. Reception is on 2nd floor. Service is good. Room was very big as per the ibis standards. Bathroom was nice.
Breakfast was good.
All good... except..WiFi....my both phones were not connected.

Great location, direct access to Zhongshan road for evening walk. There is access for vehicle directly to hotel doorstep. 

Pro: Self laundry, awesome location, adequate room size, comfy bed and pillow, clean and polite staff 

Cons: could not see any as I am happy with the service and the place. One of the best Ibis I ever stayed.

What I like
. Perfect location - its in the middle ZhongShan Lu pedestrian walk which means that u r in the middle of all the happenings.
. Great eatery around - many many highly rated eateries within 100m of walk.
. Western standard hotel - new, safe with clean rooms, clean floor - very important to me.
. Friendly people - friendly front office ppl.

What I din like
. Slow elevator if u r staying higher floors - but still ok to me.

The front desk speaks chinese only - and I am chinese but for non-chinese guests, please be prepared to use a translating app at least.

Stayed in oct, booked the 2 bedroom garden suite.
The suite is more like an extension from the hotel, access is thru an fire escape door, onto a roof terrace then on to a terrace if there is a rain, you would get wet, room decor us really sub par compare to the standard room. 
They shd renovate the suite before letting it out.
The standard rooms were much nicer.
Hotel staff were excellent  go all out of the way to help u. Great job, very much appreciated.
Location wise you cant ask for any where better.
I would defintely come back but will never book the garden suite again. 


Xiamen

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"Ditto"

Review for expats resident in China

Good hotel but dont book the garden suite

Excellent location with self laundry

Recommended Hotel - U cant go wrong

Good hotel

There are tonnes of hotels in Xiamen around Zhongshan Road and Iblis Styles is one of them. Location wise, its perfect as all Zhongshan Road and malls are very close by (around 5-10mins of walking). The price is very affordable compared to other hotels in the region. Room is decent for 2 person, nothing much to complain about. The breakfast is okay (not much selections - just some porridge, rice, vegetables, sausages, hard-boiled egg and breads). They do have a very small gym though - good for those who wants to workout.

Service from front-desk is good, all of the hotel staff were friendly except for when I asked for mineral waters I was questioned and frowned upon, which is something that I feel should not be experienced by guests. Yes there were 2 bottles of waters, and we have finished it soon upon arrival and asked for more at night. The hotel should provide without asking questions like: "aren't there 2 bottles in the room already?", and when a uniformed guy sends the water to my room, he gave me a judgy look which left me stunned. Well, maybe I'm just being sensitive. 

Will I ever try them again? Most probably not as there are tonnes of other options in Xiamen, and this is not one hotel which will make me feel like re-visiting.

Not a bad place - strategic location, decent room and good price.

A bit disappointed with this place - some very good points, but a couple of really bad too. I’d probably go somewhere else next time. 

The Good:
+ Staff were extremely friendly and helpful. They helped me book a second night at a good discount and were really smiley 
+ location is excellent. Very central. 
+ breakfast was better than most in China at this budget 

The Bad: 
- there’s only one elevator. It makes no sense for the number of people staying there. This photo was the queue from my fourth floor waiting for the elevator to go to breakfast. 
- the gym is basically unusable and the equipment is so badly maintained that it’s actually dangerous. The treadmill is a health hazard in itself. 
- the no-smoking room... smelt faintly of smoke and the hotel is pretty scruffy and badly maintained in parts 

Some good, some very bad 

This hotel is located in Zhongshan Road, arguably the busiest road in Xiamen.  Cars cannot get in there, and the place is forever jammed packed with pedestrians.  If you carry heavy luggages, you would need to wiggle through the crowd to find the hotel, which is located on the first floor.  The hotel is actually retrofitted from an old building and so, it is all done hotch potch.  There are lots of hotel rooms, and almost all of them are inward looking.  It's a bit strange to have rooms looking into artificial gardens with artificial sunlight.  The worst part is that the windows cannot be closed and that your privacy is compromised as other rooms would be able to hear any conversation that you are having with your spouse.  There is also a tinge of cigarette smell (which is rather natural for Chinese hotels noting that many people there smoke).  Facilities are adequate, and WiFi does the job.  Should you want to book taxi to the train station, the hotel shall pay for it.  Despite that this is a part of the IBIS hotel group, you cannot redeem the Accor points here due to its popularity.  Being in Zhongshan Road, you are in the middle of the action, and so, you won't have any difficulty finding food to eat.  Commendable stay but no doubt there are better choice out there.

Good if you are lightly packed

We got a taxi from Xiamen station quite quickly and the driver dropped us off at the wrong Huazhu hotel, but the correct one, the Ji hotel was just across the road.

Xiamen seems an interesting city and the centre of Siming area has plenty of places to eat, Carrefore supermarket and plenty of attractive streets. I wish we’d booked longer here, instead of 3 days in Nanchang. We’re only here for 2 nights and have booked a day trip tomorrow, to some antique village where people live together in large round houses. I think there’s 4 in the village and the 4 are connected. The next day we’re going on a river trip, round an island, with a massive port area, for people going to Taiwan.
We’d booked into a Huazhu Group JI hotel, which at first sight looked clean and newly built or decorated, but had a massive problem at reception, because my Chinese visa was on a recently expired passport, so I had to show them my old one and the new one valid from January 2019.

Then there was another issue, because they maintained my visa had expired on 1st March. I had actually arrived in Beijing, China on 22nd January-before my visa was due to expire on 1st March. 

However, because I had arrived before the expiry date, I was entitled to stay 120 days, from the date of entry, which takes me into May.
All 4 of the staff at reception were unable to grasp this and even refused to phone someone higher up. However, my Chinese wife eventually got talking to someone on the telephone and he explained to them it was OK to let me into the hotel, otherwise, where I was I supposed to sleep the night? This was the first time I’d had this problem, after staying in half a dozen hotels since 1st March.

After we were let in, my wife received a feedback call and she suggested they train their front staff, if they’re supposed to call themselves an International hotel.
After we’d been out shopping, they phoned to apologise and gave us a free breakfast tomorrow and the promise of some fruit, as compensation.
 They brought a pack of fruit to our room 9.00 pm.
There was an excellent shopping mall across the road, where I had a fantastic Kung Po chicken, in Grandma's Kitchen, for about 26 yuan. Then there was a Carrefore supermarket in the basement, where we bought some milk and snacks, for the hotel room and trip tomorrow.

Kai Li Lai Hotel- Xiamen Zhongshan Road Branch

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