Review of Xian Skytel Hotel (Former City Lion International Hotel) by Robert

Very good location inside the city walls (close to the South Gate) We stayed 3 nights in September 2007. We took the airport shuttle bus which drops you in front of the Melody Hotel as recommended in previous review. This was indeed a cheap and comfortable way to go about $4.00 Australian each. Continue walking ahead, crossing the 1st small street same side and at the 2nd street corner which is South Street, passing the entrance to the under ground road crossing turn right and continue walking until you come to the hotel, still on your right. It is connected to some shops that you walk past first with the entrance at the end. A good 10 minute walk. We had an Executive suite at about $131 per night. Room 588 for memory. The room was very spacious, having a seperate bedroom, a kitchen, meals area, office area, comfortable lounge and 2 TV's - one being in the bedroom. Bathroom had a shower and seperate spa bath. Well worth the cost for roominess and location. The breakfast was good & offerred both western and chinese food. We dined in the restaurant and were the only ones there at 7.55 pm. We had concerns about the cold buffet as it had been out since 5 pm when we popped in to see if we needed to book ... was uncovered and no refridgeration. Two other guest came in at 9 pm and ate from it. A big selection on the A La Carte menu which we ordered from The down side for us was the bed was rock hard as was every bed in 4 hotels we stayed in throughout China. Bad necks and back pain was the end result of 3 weeks of traveling. Comfort was not an option. The marble bathroom floor was flaking apart in places making it a bit rough on the feet if you walked on those spots. The shower doors didn't quite meet in the middle so water on the floor meant wet shower mats. Also the loungeroom suite was grubby as was the dinning chairs and carpet. Again we found this in 3 out of the 4 hotels we stayed in... the other hotel had laminate floors much cleaner option. This spoilt the overall feel of what could have been an exceptional room for the price. On our departure the two young doormen organised a taxi to the airport for us and we were overcharged, we felt they may have been on the take and that we had been scammed. Couldn't say for sure but we did pay too much.