We visited China mostly for family duty. Earlier in the year, we visited the US for family duty. Last year, we visited the UK for family … well, really, for marmite and cheese. The point is that we’ve recently stayed in reasonable hotels in all three countries.
I can’t do an exact comparison, that would be unfair, the hotels were not like–for–like. The UK hotel was three star, the Chinese four star (they’re much cheaper there than here), and the Americans kindly upgraded us to a suite, which we didn’t deserve, and which I count as five star. In all cases, the rooms were clean and proper. It’s an unfair comparison, but the Americans won for the upgrade.
I can make some cultural comparisons, and they are rather interesting.
First of all, breakfast. The UK produced a classic English breakfast, with the hot stuff cooked to order. The Chinese had a magnificent buffet, full of absolute goodies: but I saw nothing to me about their food that said “breakfast”, except for an attempt to offer parts of an English traditiional, which I avoided because I was in China: when in Rome, eat what the Romans eat. This is merely a matter of cultural difference.
The American breakfast buffer wasn’t included in the upgrade, regretably. We tried it once, it was ok, but it was also far too pricey. Instead, we took advantage of the hotel’s location, and nipped out to nearby breakfast bars. They were ok, nothing to write home about, but they were most definitely American.
So, for me, the Chinese won the breakfast choice with their magnificant selections, followed by the Brits for cooking breakfast on the spot (an option in the Chinese hotel, but their cook on the spot choices were not vegetarian). The Americans, regretably, come a distance third.
In the common area of the hotel itself, outside the rooms, there were a number of options. The UK hotel basically had nothing, it was a three star. The Chinese hotel offered free black, green and camomile teas, coffee, and hot water, along with a space near the door for informal meetings, with chairs, tables, etc.. The American offered cold water, also with a common area. The decor of the two communal areas was good. This is a tie between the Americans and the Chinese: the Chinese had free tea, but I preferred the American decor.
All the hotels offered WiFi. The Americans were skinflint bastards and wanted to charge ridiculous money for the WiFi unless you joined their hotel loyalty programme. We joined their programme, but haven’t been in another such hotel since then. Technically, their WiFi was fine. The Chinese Wifi was slow an unreliable. The Brit was fine, without the loyalty programme nonsense, so the Brits win here.
I also stated in a four star Romanian hotel, for business reasons. Again, for the necessary stuff, it was fine. They also offered a thoroughly Romanian cum European breakfast buffet, which is perfectly good, but doesn’t come near the Chinese. The hotel had a small common area too, but it was a distant third to the American and the Chinese. The WiFi, like the British, was fine. I’m not inclucing it in the comparison, though, because I didn’t pay for it.
Overall, the Chinese win: their four star hotels are as good as the west, better when it comes to the breakfast, and they’re significantly cheaper outside of Beijing.