Holiday Inn Hotels in Hefei

Before check-in, I communicated online with the hotel, and they kindly upgraded me to an Executive King Room, for which I'd like to extend a special thanks to hotel customer service, Ketty. The hotel's Superior and Deluxe rooms are quite old and lack separate shower stalls, requiring you to shower inside the bathtub. However, the Executive Rooms have been renovated and come with independent shower stalls. I particularly loved the layout of this Executive King Room. Each floor of the hotel has four Executive King Rooms. The ceilings aren't particularly high, but what truly amazed me was the window. While not a floor-to-ceiling window, it's like a perfect picture frame, capturing the outdoor scenery beautifully, especially at sunset. (I was lucky during my stay; perhaps because it had rained for a few days prior, there was a stunning sunset that evening.) If you catch good weather, you can wake up and enjoy breathtaking views right from your bed. It truly made me appreciate the ingenious design. Furthermore, the Executive Rooms were renovated in 2016. Even though it's been 10 years, they already had control switches for the curtains and sheers, which I think was quite advanced for its time. Although the switches look a bit dated now, they are refreshingly simple and easy to understand, unlike some newly opened hotels today where you sometimes stare at switches for ages, not knowing what each one does. I believe this is something current hotels could learn from. Given the hotel's age (I believe it was Anhui Province's first five-star hotel), it's understandable that the hallway carpets might have a slight odor. However, air freshener was sprayed in the room, so it wasn't an issue. Regarding hygiene, I found the basic cleanliness to be acceptable, though there were quite a few long hairs on the luggage rack and sofa. Also, the hand soap dispenser felt sticky when I first entered the room (I suspect a previous guest might have touched it after applying lotion), and there were some water stains in the kettle. I think the housekeeping department could pay a bit more attention to these details in the future. Breakfast is served in the revolving restaurant on the 29th floor, offering changing views from the window, which is quite unique. The food quality was decent, including some meat dishes like roasted chicken. Overall, it was good. However, one point I think needs improvement: I tried to find a waiter to clear my table, but three different staff members told me it wasn't their responsibility and that I needed to wait for the designated table clearer. After I finished getting all my food, the table clearer still hadn't arrived, and I couldn't even see where they were. Eventually, I had no choice but to ask for help a fourth time before someone came to clear the table. I suspect there might have only been one staff member responsible for clearing tables at the time, and they were overwhelmed. I suggest the hotel consider increasing staffing levels. (On that note, this also applies to nighttime service staff. It seems that at night, the concierge, housekeeping, and F&B departments are all off-duty, with only the front desk online. Sometimes, when the front desk staff deliver items to rooms, the phone might go unanswered. I once tried to call the front desk at night and it rang for two minutes with no answer, which I suspect was due to this very reason.) Overall, I think this hotel offers excellent value for money. Although it's older, it still performs well in certain aspects, giving off the vibe of an 'old Ferrari is still a Ferrari.' Its location is also fantastic, just a few hundred meters walk from Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street. Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street at night is bustling with life, where you can not only visit local favorites like KaWangKa and ZhanJi but also enjoy delicious food at specialty shops like Luzhou Roast Duck Restaurant and Huajiawang, making for a very pleasant experience. While there might be room for improvement in some hygiene details and staffing levels, it doesn't detract from it being a hotel worth staying at.