Aloft Zhengzhou Shangjie

The room was spacious, but the cigarette smell lingered. There were burns in the carpet and damage to the ceiling, and the shower wasn't well maintained.

The hotel feels dated, though the bed was very large and comfortable and the room a decent size. Check-in was straightforward as part of our package holiday. There are only two regular lifts serving the hotel, so they can be slow. Breakfast was average at best, the least good of the four hotels we've stayed at so far. The bathroom was small and the shower cubicle leaked. On the plus side, the Level 1 bar and restaurant share the floor with reception. The indoor pool on Level 2 was a nice temperature, though heavily chlorinated and more suited to training than a resort stay. There's a gym there too. The area seemed fine to us. There's an ATM about 100 metres away, and a night market plus plenty of shops and restaurants are a flat 15-minute walk. Some restaurants are closer.

The hotel was clean and generally OK, but it felt basic, more like a three-star place, and the breakfast was ordinary. Of all the hotels on our TripADeal tour, this was the worst. If you get back late, as we did, you can buy tubs of ice cream and instant noodles near reception. At breakfast, I'd go for the noodle soup, which was freshly made, hot, and delicious. We went out fairly late looking for a restaurant, and the area felt a bit seedy. The other hotels on our tour weren't in dodgy areas.

Our whole tour group was disappointed and complaining about this hotel. It looked worn out, as if it hadn't been maintained for 10 to 20 years. The room was dirty, with old, marked walls and furniture, and large black stained patches on the carpet. The bathroom had mould. Breakfast was badly prepared, greasy, and had very little choice. This was the worst hotel we've ever stayed in.