Name: Gushu Inn
Address: No.19, Qingxi Alley, Fenghuang, Hunan, Xiangxi, Xiangxi, Xiangxi, 462000, China
Rating: 4

Air conditioning

24-hour reception

Washing machine

Express check-in/check-out

Terrace

Private check-in/check-out

General

Soundproof rooms

Cable TV

Hairdryer

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Slippers

Rooms

Laundry

Services and amenities

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Free parking nearby

Free Parking on Premises

Parking

Swimming pool

Outdoor pool

Pool and beach

Diving

Sports

Pets allowed

Pets

At the mini-hotel

Room amenities

Tongren Fenghuang Airport

Huaihua Zhijiang Airport

Gushu Inn

Xiangxi

While this place wasn't dirty or smelly or small, it certainly doesn't equate to a western standard of hospitality. Sure, the room functions exactly as a "hotel" room should, with clean(ish) sheets, a private (locking) room and your own bathroom, it didn't leave a great impression on us.

Firstly, the location that was listed for the property was Quingxi alley, which upon a google maps search could not be located. Moreover, the map location indicated when booking the hotel is completely the wrong place. And furthermore, you are only provided with the English address for the property and not the Chinese address, making it impossible to ask anyone to help you find the place. There is also no contact phone number listed which would allow you to call the place and ask where it is.

All of this results in a pair of tired, stressed backpackers wandering around Fenghuang at 8pm trying to find the place we had booked to sleep for the night. 

If it wasn't for a kind Chinese lady in a travel agent, we'd have never found it ourselves. She rang the booking company, spoke to their Chinese agent and was given a phone number for the hotel. The hotel was on the other side of town from where we were (and where the map from the booking website had directed us). She spoke not much English, but she put us into a taxi and sent us off to the other side of town where the taxi driver rang the owner (fleeced us out of $20) and arranged for him to come and get us from the nearest main road. The owner met us on the road and brought us to the accommodation, which had no sign anywhere indicating that it was in fact, a hotel of sorts. There is a drum shop downstairs and the accommodations were above. You would never find this place on your own....

Next we were introduced to the room which was fine by Chinese standards but discovered that there was no toilet paper provided in the room. Apparently it's against the local environment regulations to provide toilet paper. Although other hotels nearby do have toilet paper....

Also the booking had indicated that there was a swimming pool- there is not. When asking about the swimming pool, it was suggested that we go and swim in the nearby river.......

We were in dire need of doing some laundry and the booking had indicated that there were facilities for this. When we asked the owner about it however, he informed us that there was no facilities and that if we wanted to wash, we could hand wash in the bathroom in our room. I should mention that the bathroom was completely unsuitable for hand washing any clothes at all, let alone a week's worth. He directed us to the laundry powder on the 4th floor, which was located next to a washing machine. Again we asked about the machine and he, again, insisted that there wasn't one. So don't expect to do any washing here!

Also, if you want to use the air-conditioning, you will need to pay extra to access the remote, because this hotel is a "budget" hotel. There are no amenities included at all, not even towels or toilet paper.

So while the accommodation is technically "fine", it is not really suitable for westerners. I wouldn't recommend staying here.
The only reason we stayed 3 nights was because we had already paid for the booking and arrived at 9.30pm (after the difficulties finding the place) so finding another was out of the question. I didn't want to go through the the hassle of dealing with the owner to get a refund.

Consider whether all of this is worth the savings of $10 a night over another, nicer place.

Gushu Inn

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