A great place to stay (Harbour View International House Hong Kong)

Member Name: avacarrdo

Product:	Harbour View International House Hong Kong
Date:	29/02/08 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean, great service

Disadvantages: A little out of the way

I spent the Christmas period in Hong Kong, and although I stayed with friends for some of the period, I also needed to find a hotel to stay at for 9 nights. I booked the "Harbour View International House" from the 15th-24th December.

HOTEL OVERVIEW:

The hotel is owned and operated by the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong. It is a 320-room, four star hotel located in the Wanchai district on Hong Kong Island. Hotel facilities are what you'd expect of most mid-range hotels, and the place has both a restaurant and a tea house.

LOCATION:

The hotel is located right on the waterfront in the district of Wanchai. Some of you, especially anybody familiar with the "Suzy Wong" movies might know of the seedy reputation of Wanchai. It's home to a number of bars frequented by affluent expatriates, and a number of girly bars frequented by ladies who can, I believe, be rented by the hour if you so desire. It's kind of seedy, but not as explicit as, say Amsterdam (Although, what is?) There are a number of bars and restaurants in Wanchai as well, some of which do pretty amazing food.
The good news (Or bad, depending on how you look at it), is that this hotel is in a fairly benign part of Wanchai, right next door to the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Although, walk ten minutes and you'll be smack bang in the bar area.

To get to the hotel you can take the MTR (Subway) to Wanchai which is located on the Island (blue) line. Then, it's about a 7/8 minute walk to the hotel, although you do have to go over a busy road by traversing a raised footpath, and there is no way to avoid the stairs. If you're coming from the airport, then you can take the Airport Express train system to Hong Kong station, and then jump in a cab. You can also take Airport bus number A11 which stops outside the Performing Arts Academy. The hotel may be a little difficult to find the first time, but once you've found it you shouldn't find any problems for the rest of your stay.

THE LOBBY:

The lobby is...adequate. There's a nice big desk for checking in, and the staff are very good at making sure you're seen ASAP. There's a concierge desk, a couple of couches and a 'computer corner'. There's also always a supply of free newspapers, and a printout giving the weather for the next 5 days. There are always staff members standing around hoping to assist you if there's anything you need. Checking in was fine and fast, as I'd booked through HotelClub, so just needed to show them a voucher.

THE ROOM:

I was given a room on the 20th floor. Although some rooms do have a harbour view, I had gotten the cheapest room available, and so I knew there was a snowball's chance in hell of having one myself. Sure enough, I had a view of an office block. There was literally nothing to look at, except for the mirrored panes of glass. I knew that I would be getting a twin room, as they don't offer singles and for some reason I hadn't been given the choice of a double room. The beds were an OK size for a Westerner, certainly my feet weren't hanging over the edge, which has been known to happen. The beds were very, very hard so I simply slept on top of one duvet, and under the duvet from the second bed.

There was a small writing desk and chair, along with an armchair and side table with a complimentary bottle of water (replaced each day), a kettle and two coffee cups. There was no tea or coffee, which was a pain. Because I was staying there for so long, I bought myself some cup noodles, instant tea and small snacks so I could have something to eat in the room rather than have to go out for a full meal. There was a TV with an okay selection of local English channels, along with Discovery, BBC and CNN. A small minibar (with nothing inside) was built into the suitcase stand, and there was a cupboard with proper clothes hangers, not those terrible ones that seem to be glued to the clothes rack. There was a thermostat so you could adjust the air-conditioning.

The bathroom was small, very small. There was the normal "shower in the bath" setup, although the bath was only half as long as a normal bath, so you couldn't really have a soak in the tub. Believe me, I tried. And I ended up squashed in there for about fifteen minutes before I realised that I looked ridiculous and got out. The things I will do for research. There were shower caps, little soaps and cotton squares provided each day. And yes, I did steal them all. I now have a supply of shower caps that should last me for about 30 trillion years.

The room was quite new and aesthetically pleasing, as the hotel has just recently completed a refurbishment of their bedrooms. The carpet was clean (See my Ibis hotel review if you'd like to hear me rant about a hotel with unclean carpets!) and the colour scheme was nice, with a couple of prints on the wall. The rooms were scrupulously clean, with a turndown service each evening.


AMENITIES:
FOOD:

The hotel has a restaurant and a tea house. The tea house specialises in....Coffee. No, not really. You have a wide range of Chinese and Western tea there, along with basic snacks. I didn't go, but I have heard good things about it from a couple of friends who work in the area.
The restaurant is basically a big room (You could almost imagine it being easily converted into a conference room) with lots of tables and chairs. I had breakfast there a couple of mornings, and there was a massive buffet breakfast featuring both Asian and Western food for about HK$80/£6 which was worth it, as I absolutely stuffed myself. They are also open for lunch and dinner, but there are so many good eating places around that I wouldn't bother unless you have to.

COMMUNICATIONS:

There is no business centre, per se, which seems weird as a large number of guests were obviously business people. The hotel is equipped with wireless internet hotel-wide, as well as some fixed computers in the lobby, The downside is, however, you have to pay, and rates are not cheap (about £2.50 for half an hour). There are photocopying and fax facilities, but you would have to ask the staff about that as there is no dedicated business centre. There are also function rooms that can be rented out for conferences and banquets.

STAFF:

I'm a pretty low-key hotel guest, and so usually I don't interact much with hotel staff beyond checking in and out. This time, however, there were a couple of occasions when I needed to speak to them. One evening, my phone rang and it was the assistant manager asking me how I liked the room, as it had recently been refurbished. I mentioned to her that there was no alarm clock in the room (You can ring for a wakeup call, but there is no clock radio, indeed, no clock at all.) but I wasn't too bothered myself as I was using my mobile as an alarm clock. She rang back five minutes later, telling me that the staff would bring up a desk clock for me when I went out for dinner. Lovely.
My mum was coming up for the last 2 nights, and we both suspected that there would be an additional supplement to pay for a second person. I asked the desk about it, and they graciously told me that there would be no charge. I was going to be out when she arrived at the hotel, but they took her name and my room number, and everything went smoothly when she did arrive. A bag of hers had been lost on the flight up, but the airport delivered it to the hotel, who kept it at reception and informed us the second it arrived.

Overall, I found the service to be excellent. The staff had obviously all received hospitality training through the YMCA itself, and it showed. They were polite and attentive all the time. Occasionally, it was a bit too much, but if the worst thing about a hotel is that the staff are TOO polite, well, then, you don't have anything to complain about, really.

COST:

I paid about £540 for 9 nights, which is probably below average for that length of time and that standard of hotel in HK. It was just before Christmas, so rates would be a bit less at low season, especially if you go through a hotel booking portal. You'll also have to pay more if that harbour view room is important to you, but it would be less than a similar view in a more upmarket hotel.

OVERALL:

I really, really enjoyed my stay at the Harbour View International House. The staff were excellent, and the hotel was perfectly fine. This would be a great place to stay for businessmen who will be at the Convention centre alot, or those who are already familiar with HK. If you are a first-time visitor with limited time, just make sure you've got a good map and a good sense of direction, and it will be easy enough to find. This is on my list of places to stay again if I need to, and I've recommended it to several friends who live in HK as a place for their families and friends to stay when they visit. My advice would be to stay there, enjoy it, and enjoy all that Hong Kong has to offer.
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Harbour View International House
4 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2802 0111
harbour@ymca.org.hk
www.harbour.ymca.org.hk/e_index.php

(This review also published on Ciao under the same user name)

Summary: A good place to stay whether you're in Hong Kong for business or leisure