Intercontinental Taiyuan by IHG

This hotel held up well, even though Taiyuan isn’t Shanghai. The rooms, amenities, and service all felt five-star to me. I’ll stay here again next time I’m in Taiyuan.

The breakfast buffet is outstanding, and this is one of the most beautiful hotels in China.

In November my room was close to 30 degrees Celsius, so I asked to move. I’ve changed rooms at hotels many times, and usually they move you to the same level, or sometimes upgrade if nothing else is open. Here at the Taiyuan InterContinental they downgraded me instead, which was bizarre and astonishing. It was my first time encountering anything like that. The room itself was decent, and the location and surroundings were good, with the Grand Theatre and MixC shopping mall not far away. But the hotel’s concierge service was really inadequate.

On my road trip from Guangzhou through Zhanjiang and Chongqing, then Xi’an and finally Taiyuan, this was the worst hotel of the whole trip. I’m an IHG member. The IHG app wouldn’t let me add breakfast when booking, so I called IHG and booked three rooms for August 10th-12th. I later realized adding breakfast would have been a mistake anyway. The trouble started at check-in on the 10th. Staff said breakfast wasn’t included, though I told them my confirmation email said it was. After a string of questions and ten minutes of back and forth, they finally confirmed it was included. Two of our three rooms were next to the elevator, so I went back down right after getting my key to request different rooms. I’d booked twin rooms, but none were available, and I had to ask for a double instead, with two grown men sharing one bed. They did eventually manage to change the rooms. When I went back upstairs for my luggage, a naked man was standing outside the room I was meant to have. I was terrified. A staff member noticed and gave me a bathrobe to put on, thankfully. The next day brought another ordeal of changing rooms. Breakfast was terrible and nowhere near what a hotel with this star rating should serve, even though the price was justified. It was an awful stay, and I’ll never return.