Starway Hotel Grand 0773 Guilin

Location is good and the tour desk efficient. There is a cantonese restaurant nearby with good food at reasonable prices. Walking distance to Elephant hill and Pagodas.

Great location, within walking distance to most of the sites and very central. The hotel is is basic and spacious but not overly clean. The travel desk is really helpful and speaks good English but the hotel staff speaks very little English.

The Starway Grand Hotel 0773 is a tired old building from the outside, and the lobby is showing the wear and tear of the years, despite the addition of some retro furniture; however, the rooms have been renovated, the furniture is new (albeit it very retro 80's!) and the room size reasonable. Both the room and bathroom were clean, and made up daily. The airconditioner worked a treat and was welcome. The bed firm (expected in China) but not uncomfortable. Extra pillows provided.

The hotel offers free transfers from the airport. They also have a very helpful tour desk. If you're there, ask for Lily, she will help you and is full of good advice. She arranged two tours for me; Longji terraced rice fields and Yao village, and a Li River cruise on bamboo boat. Both tours were very good, with English speaking guides. Lily was also very helpful regarding the immediate area ie where the nearest bank ATM was, the twin pagodas, and general safety advice (like hanging on to your bag in front, not on your back, always recommended for tourists in a strange city).

The Twin Pagodas are very, very nearby (less than 5 minutes walk). Same goes for the main road of Guilin (including a KFC and MacDonalds if you need an escape from rice and noodles).

My only negative observation would be that the area is clearly geared to the Chinese tourists. Eating options were few. Somewhere down near Binjiangnan Road (by the river) seems better set up for the Western tourist. If you're looking to ease yourself into your China trip, or have children with you who need a more subtle approach, then the down near the Sheraton and Back Street Backpackers may better suit your needs.

Stayed - October 2011
Duration - two nights
Room - Superior Business Queen Room

The hotel is located next to the river and close to many travel agencies. Also nearby, 5 minutes walking, from the night market. The room was nice and clean, with a particular decoration. Our room was facing the street on a 6th floor and you can her some noise from the street because the windows are thin, that makes also the room little bit cold.
The breakfast is an small chinese buffet or a western dish. Both are good and not expensive.
They have a free pickup from the airport.
Only some negative points:

- You can hear noise from the corridor, specially when the doors of the room in front of you closes or the people is passing by speaking.
- It's a chinese hotel, so they will have chinese traditions like throwing fireworks in the entrance door of the hotel when there is a wedding and having to run out because you can not breath there due to the smoke. Makes you wonder were are the smoke detectors.
- There is a CITS travel agency in the hotel, but is overpriced and the service is not good even the girl in charge, Yvonne, is nice and try to makes her job. But as an example, we hired a trip to go down to Yangshuo by boat and she forgot to book it to the provider. At the time of pickup we were left in the hotel because they hadn't our datas. They solved it after one hour and some car-chasing-the-bus-service.

In any case, good quality/price hotel to pass a pair of nights in Guilin.

1 night for 198 ¥. At first super free pickupservice from AirPort. Reasonable Price including breakfast. Chic interior. Friendly english speaking staff. Would go there again.

nice hotel, it has clearn rooms, good beds and great location. receptionals are friendly and help us in all questions.

The room was dirty, the staff was a little bit unfriendly. Furthermore, we had just a chinese breakfast included, we had to pay for the western one! We will not go back there for sure!

Change of flight and short notice, my trip to Guilin started as a mess, but the moment I landed in Guilin, everything went smooth with driver awaiting there.

就是一个经济型连锁酒店，价格确比经济型酒店贵过了，性价比不高，周边环境一般，前台服务太一般，房间隔音恨差，门口走个人说个话，房间里面听的一清二楚

就在象鼻山的对面，出门100米走到桥头就可以看到象鼻山和漓江，非常适合旅游居住。我是出差路过桂林，想看一眼漓江，就选了这家，房间挺明亮、清新、干净的。在市区，出门吃饭、购物、旅游都很方便，地接、旅行社很多。就是早餐一般。