Hotel YX Lai Chi Kok

The $500 deposit caught us off guard because nobody mentioned it before we arrived, even though the hotel was already paid for. I paid through my World Wide Wallet, and since it was an international transaction, a month later we still hadn’t received the deposit back. We’ve stayed at hotels that don’t ask for a deposit, and that was a much better experience. The hotel itself is modern and clean, and the service was really good. When we felt cold in winter, they brought us a portable heater. But the room was so tiny we couldn’t even open our suitcases, and the poor insulation meant we heard the baby next door crying all night. There also weren’t many shops or good places to eat nearby, so the location wasn’t very convenient.

It’s around an 8-minute walk to the MTR and about 5 minutes to the bus stop. I don’t enjoy staying in busy neighborhoods, and this spot still made it easy to reach places like Mong Kok by MTR. I’d stay here again on my next trip to Hong Kong. The rooms are small, as the photos show, but for Hong Kong the price and surroundings felt well worth it. The place was clean, and the staff were friendly, especially the women at reception.

The staff were friendly, and for a short stay the room is okay if you can manage with little space and don’t mind noise. With two people and both suitcases open, there was hardly room to move. I could clearly hear people talking in the next room, so the soundproofing needs work.

The area’s pretty workable for getting around. Lai Chi Kok MTR is about a 10-minute walk, and there are lots of buses and minibuses. There’s a hospital within five minutes on foot, plenty of coin laundries nearby, and a lot of car garages around. It’s an industrial area, though, and you have to walk farther to find many restaurants. Noise carries badly through the walls. One night I heard a group of older mainland men chatting loudly, another time I could hear couples exercising, and even hangers being put on a rack came through. The rooms are extremely small too, with space to open just one suitcase wide. Housekeeping felt unpredictable: they might knock as early as 8 or 9 in the morning, or the room might still be untidy by 2pm. Sometimes they’d refill the toilet paper but leave the facial tissues empty, or the other way around. They didn’t always take all the rubbish, including the empty water bottles we left beside the bins after buying our own at the supermarket. There’s no bottled water or hand soap, though there are shampoo and body wash dispensers in the shower. I’d at least put water dispensers in the hallways. Towels are provided, but I bring my own anyway because the hotel towels had stains that wouldn’t come out. With a room this small, it’s frustrating to see housekeeping miss these things when there isn’t much to clean. I wouldn’t really call it a hotel, more like a pretty high-class “motel,” since you don’t get hotel services. Before coming here, I stayed at a hotel in Taiwan, and the difference between the two places was huge. Both Taiwan and Hong Kong have eco rules against providing disposables, but this place doesn’t even offer water bottles to guests. It wasn’t a bad stay overall, as long as you don’t expect hotel services.