Kunshan Newport

“"we 'll be happy to get out of town"”

On a long and winding business trip all over China, what you care most has nothing to do with gyms, pools and beauty parlors. It is warm politeness, consideration, an ice-cold Tsingdao (mainland Europe mistake, maybe) and a medium hard bed with a not foamy pillow to set your confused head (due to t… more

On a long and winding business trip all over China, what you care most has nothing to do with gyms, pools and beauty parlors. It is warm politeness, consideration, an ice-cold Tsingdao (mainland Europe mistake, maybe) and a medium hard bed with a not foamy pillow to set your confused head (due to too much cold). These are abso-bloody-lutely satisfied with Newport Pullman in Kunshan. The finest element though that makes the difference within you, is the city of Kunshan itself, as it doesn't remind to you that you are in the vicinity of a 24(?) million global mega-city as Shanghai. Not too many sky high buldings, wide streets and a ease-out positive energy feeling. Just to point out the difference between myself and the bad luck of the other traveller, I didn't have to make resrvation as everything was done by our Chinese connections. To get on with my reporting to you all, Kunshan will be my preference from here and on, simply because that Shanghai center city is only good when you are at a leasure trip and you care less of your time spent in the taxis or driving. Just to note that Newport hotel is very near to the free way to Pudong International and at times of rational traffic density, you only 1 and a half hour from or to Pudong airport. Breakfast was quite good and nobody claimed that we were the only customers drinking beer in the bar at 01.15 in the morning. They just waited on us to finish off and go to bed.. When the next night I had to check out at 23.00 and move to a Pudong hotel for the last night due to heavy snow (clear danger that free way to Pudong might be closed and I would miss my flight back home) they helped me out the soonest possible. Newport Kunshan is really a best choice for the west of Shanghai area to stay with. Last but not least piece of information: just adjacent to Newport there is a respectable Massage court. Makes you back feel much better and warm up your freezing feet...

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“Stayed for 3 nights. Quiet Hotel”

It is a quiet hotel located just a few Kms away from the downtown. It is modern in design and many staff members can understand and speak English. It is part of Pullman International chain. The rooms are good and well equipped and all the facilites are provided at a very reasonable room rate. Buffe… more

It is a quiet hotel located just a few Kms away from the downtown. It is modern in design and many staff members can understand and speak English. It is part of Pullman International chain. The rooms are good and well equipped and all the facilites are provided at a very reasonable room rate. Buffet Breakfast is elaborate but with very limited options for Vegetarians.

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“Watch out!”

I have stayed here quite a few times over the years. It is a nice enough hotel, but the problem is with reservations. In 2013 as an Accor member, I made my reservations through the Accor website. In order to get a good rate I pre-paid my room. Upon arrival, the hotel had my reservation, but … more

I have stayed here quite a few times over the years. It is a nice enough hotel, but the problem is with reservations. In 2013 as an Accor member, I made my reservations through the Accor website. In order to get a good rate I pre-paid my room. Upon arrival, the hotel had my reservation, but they said they "did not get the money from Accor" and would charge me again. We battled about this for the three days I was there, but in the end I had no choice but to pay again. Upon my return home I set about attempting to get back my original deposit, but Accor was not helpful – so I was out the money. At the hotel, the staff told me that while they used the Pullman Hotel name, they did not "have an agreement" with Accor for reservations. So for this visit to Kunshan I booked the hotel through Hotels.com via this very TripAdvisor website. Again, I pre-paid and received a confirmation from Hotels.com. Prior to my arrival in Kunshan I received a "reminder" from Hotels.com of my upcoming stay. When my wife and I arrived, the hotel had no reservation for us! I showed them my pre-paid confirmation from Hotels.com. We were left in the lobby for half an hour while they researched my reservation. They finally said that "they did not have an agreement" with Hotels.com for reservations! They said they did last year, but not this year. Since I had made my reservation in April, that didn't make sense. So, again, they wanted to charge me for the stay. I raised a ruckus and they agreed to allow me to stay with just a deposit while I contacted Hotels.com. Hotels.com has little in the way of contact information. There was one toll-free number but it was only good in the US – not from overseas. I tried accessing the number through the AT&T system but had no luck. Finally I contacted my secretary at the office to call Hotels.com at their 800 number. She was in a hold queue for 1 hour but finally got through. They took the information and said they would resolve the problem. And, to their credit, they did. By morning the hotel said they had received the money and everything was OK. In view of the ongoing problems I've encountered, I asked the desk what I can do to make reservations that will be honored. They said to use the Asian Pullman Hotels website (NOT Accor and not the general Pullman Hotels websites). Of course the Asian Pullman Hotel website gives only rack-rates, so that isn't much of an option. The manager did say that they "have an agreement" with both Agoda and CTrip for reservations and payments, so I would highly recommend using only those two companies if you plan to stay here. The other irritating issue we dealt with was the "included" breakfasts. When I made the reservations I asked for one room for two adults. The confirmation was for "Breakfasts included". At the hotel they attempted to charge me for my wife's breakfast – they said only 1 breakfast was included! I showed them my confirmation showing "Breakfasts included" and the reservation was for 2 people. Again we did battle and in order to get me out of the lobby they finally agreed to provide two breakfasts each day. Cheesy! There has to be another Kunshan hotel that doesn't have the issues and hassles of dealing with this management!

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