“Disappointing stay in Kashgar, but with a silver lining solution”
I’m a happy traveller as long as the promise largely matches reality. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 5‑star hotel or a homestay like this one; I’m sorry to say that this property missed the mark on almost everything. The location, best accessed on foot from the Nth Gate (vehicles are not allowed into the Old Town environs), is quite good, but if you have a lot of big bags it will be challenging (ok if you’re a light traveller or a backpacker). The rest of our visit was poor, as you will see below. Perhaps we just got them on a crisis day, but I can only speak to what I see. Their problems are actually an easy fix, but it requires the right people and execution. I hope they can improve. Perhaps we picked a bad day to arrive, but there appeared to be only one staff member in the place when we checked in at around 5 pm (3 hrs after 2 pm check‑in). We met a pleasant young woman who seemed to be the receptionist/cleaner servicing the 7‑8 rooms in operation, all of them looking behind schedule, including the common area downstairs and the balcony upstairs. This was all clearly on view through open windows, doors, etc. This general air of untidiness extended into our room, which was not as clean as one would expect. So much so that I spent 5 minutes doing the bathroom myself, disposing used items off the vanity, wiping it down (and the toilet), and cleaning the mirror. Oh, and the fascia of the light switch had disconnected from the wall and was hanging by its wires, an electrocution waiting to happen. The main room was ok, but the floors had clearly not seen a mop before we moved in. You could see that from the accumulated dust under the beds. The beds were a thin hard mattress on a wood base, so basically rock hard. That might be fine for some, but it was a potential deal‑breaker for me. That and the fact that there were no external locks on the room doors. Apparently you were eventually going to give a combination padlock at some point to take care of that aspect. However, we thought to give it a night and see if we could tough it out. But after a miserable night’s sleep, and in conjunction with everything else, I thought “no, enough”, so cancelled the rest of our stay the next morning and moved to a fabulous property about 400 m away, just outside the Old City walls. The Jianguo Hidden Hotel, which is . It was a superb stay, felt almost Japanese in its building design & decoration. Zen‑like, cool, very clean & tidy, with a wonderful reception and sitting area, fantastic breakfast, and two sets of commercial‑sized washer/dryers in the laundry/gym area.
Te3 weeks ago