Crowne Plaza Hotel Lanzhou by IHG

Perfect breakfast.

Room with good river view

I bragged to my friends that I spent 3 days at a nice hotel by the Yellow River. The room was spacious and clean, and the service was good. I was satisfied because there were many kinds of breakfast. I used the bar after dinner and I was impressed by the kindness of the waitress. However, I had no choice but to use a taxi to get out of town, so that was a shame. But the staff call a taxi quickly I didn't have any difficulties. Even if I went back to Lanzhou I will be using the Crown Plaza Hotel.

The property overall was very nice. However, even if you request and receive a non-smoking room guests are permitted to smoke on your floor. There are ashtrays near the elevator that are used. The smoke smell will certainly leak into your room a bit. We paid for the breakfast through our Expedia booking upfront. However, every morning at the breakfast I was the only one out of our large travel group of 31 (who are mainly of Chinese origin but not living in China) who got hassled every morning to pay. I couldn’t help, but wonder if it was because I am only part Chinese and don’t present as Asian to most. The last breakfast was quite embarrassing in the way that I was treated. But that said we had a really good experience with our room service person for dinner one night. Also, we had hot pot one evening in the hotel restaurant, which we enjoyed and were told we were going to be given a small discount for a reason I am not sure of. I probably would not stay here again given the smoke smell, the distance from night markets, and the breakfast hassle every morning to double pay.

Lanzhou is the land of smokers and the hotel does little to control people who choose to smoke in the lobby, the elevators, the rooms. Great hotel but just can’t get away from the smoke.