Shantang Inn - Suzhou

The hotel is on Shantang Street, and the walk up to it looks like you’re entering a grand Chinese residence. Lots of people stop to take photos there. There’s a cafe in the hotel lobby, and the prices are pretty reasonable. The lobby restroom has a seated toilet and bidet, which surprised me. The restroom is clean, and the cafe is really pretty with good coffee.

The location is great, right in the middle of Shantang Street, and the entrance looks stylish. The person who answered the phone to confirm my booking was very nice. When I arrived, though, the older man who greeted me seemed barely motivated. I was also charged slightly more than the room rate for some reason. The small room looked stylish at first, but the cleaning was disappointing. The bin still had the previous guest’s rubbish, several large crushed mosquitoes were stuck to the wall, and the tissue box had crumpled pocket tissues inside. While lying on the bed and writing this review, I noticed a spiderweb on the ceiling too. For the price, it was about what I expected, though most of the cost seemed to be for the location. To put it kindly, the staff feel like family and the atmosphere isn’t bad. The room cleaning is just about good enough to keep guests from getting angry, though I was a little angry. The room looks stylish at first glance, but the poor cleaning ruins it. I wouldn’t recommend it.

The old town still has a nostalgic charm, and it looks beautiful through a foreign visitor’s eyes, but it was very crowded. I even tried stinky tofu and found it truly disgusting! 😆 Getting here from Shanghai took over two hours on the subway, then I transferred to the elevated train. It was a long journey, but the transport was relatively easy.

The location is nice, inside the scenic area and close to both subway and bus stops.