Hong Kong Hotel
 

I will be in HK May 17-20. Ideally, would like to stay in the Central district b/c I like to be CENTRAL. However $500/night is a bit too much for me! I'd prefer about $100 (but would would go up a bit for the right opportunity). Does anyone have any suggestions. The 2 things that are most important for me are: convenient location and not being a fleabag hotel. Two other things I really like are views and a pool.
Thanks

A couple I would suggest that you can get for around $125-$130/night in Kowloon. One is the Hotel Miramar, which is right across from Kowloon Park and the location is really superb:

http://www.miramarhk.com/

It's very decent.

Another that you can pick up in that range is the Holiday Inn Golden Mile, which is just a bit down Nathan Road from the Miramar:

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hd/hkgkl?irs=y

Want something right on the harbor for a reasonable rate? How about the Hong Kong YMCA? I'M NOT KIDDING!

http://www.ymcahk.org.hk/general_new_e/

Have a great trip, Susan!

Never mind - I moved across the water and have a reservation at the Kowloon Hotel for about $100.

I don't belive you will find any hotels in the Central District in Hong Kong with views and a pool for US$100. Some of the 5 star hotels there for $500 don't even have views or an outdoor pool (like the Landmark Mandarin).

I can recco two hotels in Mid-levels, the next district up from Central, which would have outdoor pools and views from most rooms, and which would be in your price range are:

Bishop Lei International House
4 Robinson Rd
Mid-levels, Hong Kong Island
Tel: 852-2868-0828
fax: 852-2525-1551.
bishopleihtl.com

The rooms are small but very nice, and the location is good, in a residential neighborhood near the top of the escalator and on a bus route. It is just above the zoo in the botanical gardens and you can hear the orang utans in the morning, quite unusual in the middle of the city. . . Many of the rooms have great views over the city and the harbor. They have a pool and restaurant, and there are other restaurants in the neighborhood. They have standard rooms from US$73 and suites from $96. The rooms tend to be small, so I would go for a suite if you can which will give you two rooms and you won't feel so cramped.

YWCA Garden View International House
1 Macdonnell Road
Mid-levels, Hong Kong Island
http://www.ywca.org.hk/hotel/Eng/home2.htm

Well located in midlevels on Hong Kong Island. This is a YWCA hotel. They are located near Bowen Road, an excellent flat pedestrian-only road in Hong Kong good for walking and jogging, with wonderful views. I have not seen the rooms, I think they are basic, but would be OK. They have a rooftop pool which is also a plus. They have standard double rooms starting at $85.

The "Hong Kong" YMCA , mentioned in the post above, is a great suggestion, it however is NOT in the Central District on Hong Kong Island, it is on the Kowloon side of the harbour. Perfectly fine, just not in Central. (I believe the poster is referring to the Salisbury Road YMCA, one of the 4 YMCA's in Hong Kong; there is no place called the "Hong Kong YMCA"). It is right on the harbour near the Star Ferry so it is an excellent location for views and tourist sites. I believe the harbour-view rooms would be above your $100 budget, but not by much. You might want to take a look at it. The website for all the YMCAs in Hong Kong is www.ymca-hotels.com

Just so you know, unless you pay for a harbour view room, none of the other rooms have a view at all, they are blocked by tall buildings on all sides, so you have essentially no views at all. There is also no pool at the hotel as far as I know. There is a very good dim sum restaurant in the basement, the Wan Loong Court Restaurant. The hotel is also close to the Star Ferry.

OK I booked at Kowloon Hotel for $103. I could get the Salisbury YMCA for $96. At essentially the same price, which one is better? I think Y may have pool and better views but Kowloon is overall nicer. Comments?

Well, you put views and pool as two of your must-haves, so a lot of this is up to you. At the $96 rate at the Y, I doubt you are getting a harbour view. I would not bother with the Y unless you pay for a habour view, or unless the pool is really important to you. IMO a view in Hong Kong is very important (I pay for a harbour view at my flat as I think it is so important) and the Y's views are really good. I would also ask about room size, that makes a big difference to me, and also you have to make sure you are comparing apples to apples between the hotels. For 3 nights I would take whichever offers the larger room, again unless the view or pool is very important to you. I would agree that the Kowloon Hotel is probably nicer in that it is a 4 star and the Y is probably a nice 3 star. I have not seen the rooms in either so can't comment. The outside deck area at the Y seems very nice and in May it would be a welcome feature if you wanted to take some time off, although the pool itself is indoors. (it's bloody hot and humid here today and will remain so until October). They are basically within yards of each other so are the same in terms of location.

We think alike - I also pay for a view in NYC! I can't tell if the Kowloon hotel has views or not - looks like it might be blocked by another hotel. Do you know? Thanks.

The hotel is surrounded on all sides by buildings; on their website, they indicate that the harbour view rooms are on the upper floors only, which make sense to me given the location, I didn't even think the building was tall enough to get any harbour view rooms at all but apparently it is. You would have to reserve and pay for these rooms to be sure to get a view, otherwise, you will be looking into the back of the Peninsula Hotel or another office building or hotel.

See some of their rooms at http://www.harbour-plaza.com/en/home.

Having just looked at their website myself, if you are considering in the 18 or 20 square meter room, that it REALLY REALLY SMALL, you might want to reconsider. For one person, IMO, you need at least 22 square meters, and really 25 is better, esp if you have anything more than an overnight bag. If you have 2 people, then 18 or 20 square meters is just plain too small. Drag your mouse around some of the photos to see how little floor space there is.

Because of earlier buidling heights regulation on the Kowloon peninsula, most buildlings are the same height in the area. The exception is The Peninsula Hotel, which sits immediately in front of the Kowloon Hotel. The two are seperated by a very narrow street.

The older part of The Peninsula is about half the height of the Kowloon, while the newer tower part is about twice as tall. The only view the upper floors the Kowloon Hotel can have is the gaps - either the larger gap between the Peninsula Tower and the Sheraton (facing SW) or the tiny between the Peninsula Tower and the YMCA. Both are just GAPS.

You can use maps.google.com or Google Earth to look at satellite images. The view between the Peninsula and the Sheraton is at most 30 degrees.

And the rooms facing north do not have any view. There isn't even a street between the hotel and the buildings behind it. All you'll see are windows and walls of that building behind you. It's also the case with many rooms at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile.

The Kowloon Hotel is very nice & managed by the Peninsular people. The rooms are quite small. One of our stays there we were able to see the water between some buildings. They also had an e-mail station in your room & provided you with a hotel e-mail address. Close to McDonalds & the Star ferry. We are staying at the Holiday Inn this time (4 times ) Rooms have 2 double beds & kids to 19 stay free, with parents of course.1200HK$

I did a survey (the online type, no in person) of room size in Tsimshatsui, for a thread on a difference website. Here are the results based on info from each hotel's official website. All are standard rooms.

Kowloon Hotel: 18 sq meter/194 sq feet

New World Renaissance: 22 sq meter

YMCA: 23.22 sq meter/250 sq feet

Sheraton & Holiday Inn Golden Mile: 28 sq meter

Marco Polo Gateway and Prince: 32 sq meter/350 sq feet

Intercontinental: 40 sq meter

Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel & Kowloon Shangri-La: 42 sq meter/450 sq feet

The Peninsula: 41-45 sq meter/441-484 sq feet

BTW, the Kowloon is no longer managed by The Peninsula. It's now part of the Harbour Plaza chain.

Stayed at the Salisbury 'Y' in HK and had an amazing view of the harbour. It is extra for a harbour view room but well worth it. The rooms are on the small size but very clean, nice bathrooms etc. We thought it was great value for money.

Thanks for all your advice. Just off the plane and jet lagged :). Left for Asia in such a hurry I didn't have time to deal with this before hand. Tried to change later and couldn't - all hotels were fully booked so stayed in Kowloon Hotel. Requested best available. Top 2 floors (17th/18th) are the ones which have the best views (also are a different price class then what I paid). However they did give me pretty good one in my price range - 16th floor at the end where the rooms jut out a bit so can get a bit of a view. Unfortunately, I couldn't get one facing the water but I at least had a decent Kowloon city view b/c room over looks the street and faces down the st (as opposed to a bldg which it sounds like most others have). So had A view as opposed to THE view. Next time (!) would do it differently but I was never in the room so it didn't matter too much. Yes, room was small but I don't care about that. I care about convenience (which was fantastic!) and views.

Yes, it is now affiliated w/ Harbourside. Also, they no longer have the free internet in the room. The terminal is there but I thought the price was pretty expensive compared to an internet cafe (BTW the Museum of Tea ware has free access!).

Thanks again.

SusanC - Sounds like you did you get one of the best "standard" room at the Kowloon.

As for internet access, I usually check my emails at Pacific Coffee which has free terminals for people to use. Or a public library.

Forgot to mention that I was able to check out a room in the Salisbury YMCA. It definitely was not as nice as the Kowloon Hotel but given the pool and view, I would say it is a better deal if you value those things. If you don't, then Kowloon Hotel is better for the money. I didn't think to check out the more expensive hotels (Pennisula, Intercontinental) to see if there were any deals - weekend, my corp discount etc that would have made them worthwhile.

My issue is that given that my apartment is more expensive than many hotel rooms, I just feel uncomfortable spending a lot of $$ on a hotel room unless it is really worthwhile. Since I'm rarely in the room as opposed to my apt (where I just watched a beautiful sunset over the Hudson), I usually can't justify it - but sometimes I do go for it!!

ttt