Chengdu Old Congde Alley

The property is a design location. So, as such it has a very striking design concept which was great. The room was big, with separate dining area and a huge area devoted to the bathroom. Walk-in shower/wet room area and stand alone bath. I liked the location which was a ‘heritage’ spot in the middle of modern Chengdu.

The room had windows on 2 sides that were overlooked by the neighbouring appartment block, as in a shared central atrium. The blinds in the room were fixed shut because of this. So essentially you were in a windowless room. Although the room was stocked with things like 2 combs and a jewellery box in a drawer, there were certain omissions, soap being one and we ran out of toilet roll on the 2nd night and there wasn’t a spare in the room. There was a nespresso machine in the room but we were left 2 pods a day and 2 small coffee creamers. There were 4 teabags each of a different tea, so you had to rock, paper, stone to get the earl grey. The thing is, the property isn’t really a hotel, as such. It is really a gallery cum ‘work space’ that has converted it’s upper floor into 12 bedrooms. I honestly think they would be better advertising it as an apparthotel as it lacks the basic amenities that a hotel offers and really you are hiring a room from them rather than staying in a hotel. For example, there is no information about the hotel policies including check-out or emergency evacuation, surrounding areas, places of interest or even what channel is what on the tv in the room. I finally found out how to contact reception by reading it off the phone. The breakfast is served next door in the restaurant affiliated with the hotel that specialises in sezchuan fine dining. So there is an element of that creeping into the breakfast service. So one has to preorder from a menu that is a bit vague and has no means of specifying any dietry preference. When you get to breakfast there is a nespresso machine and some coffee creamer and a couple of jugs of hot water...no fresh milk, no juice, no fresh water. Forget about yoghurts, pastries or cakes. The food is then brought to you in dribs and drabs as the chef makes it. So you have a random succession where you get given a fried egg. Then afterwards a sausage, then after that some noodles.