Crowne Plaza Qidong by IHG

My husband and I signed an eight-month long-stay lease here, expecting a five-star hotel, and regretted it badly. In our 100 sqm executive suite, there were just three small air conditioners blowing toward the walls. With the setting at 16 degrees, the living area stayed at 28, the same as outside. An Engineering staff member pressed a few buttons and got it down to 25 almost at once. The bedroom had no windows. In the ##01 stack, the bathroom only had an air conditioner by the vanity, so it could be extremely cold in winter. Two shower windows didn't seal out the wind properly, and it took a month for the hotel to fix them. The bedroom carpet was filthy. We had to vacuum it ourselves every night before bed and replace the dust bag monthly. The VIP lounge food looked varied and tasted good during our self-paid trial. We then paid an extra 200 SGD per month, on top of 3000 SGD, for weekend access, but hardly used it after the good food disappeared. There were fried salmon bones instead of salmon. Later, after we'd earned many reward points, we got daily lounge access without paying, yet the hotel kept charging the extra 200 SGD each month without negotiation. We wanted to leave but stayed because of the contract. In the last few days, while some of our things were still in the room and before the lease expired, the hotel cleared our belongings and restored the room for the next guest. We never knew a hotel, especially a five-star IHG one, could do that. We have evidence of the contract breach and dated videos from before and after, but we're too exhausted to take it to a law firm. We found this corporate behavior appalling and a complete disgrace to an otherwise culturally respectful country, China. Stay away.

The rooms are spacious, breakfast is amazing, and service is excellent. Staff are very friendly and helpful. The location isn't great, but the area is quiet, and a Didi or scooter gets you to the center of Qidong in about 10 minutes.

There's nothing around the hotel, no convenience store, restaurant, or laundry machine. That makes a long stay very uncomfortable. One or two nights would be fine.

It's a beautiful, comfortable hotel with huge rooms and a good Chinese restaurant, though it's in the middle of nowhere.