Very good hotel and staff excellent. Warning, we can't change traveller check or take money with VIsa card in Pingyao. good breakfast. Nice room on two floors with straight stairs.

My husband and I stayed at this hotel in Pingyao recently for 2 nights. It was said to be the most luxurious of all the courtyard guesthouses in the old town and the website photos made the place look magical. Upon first impressions, I have to say that the place looked quite spectacular, very David Tang in it's reception/breakfast area with good mood lighting and decoration. The complex itself is quite lovely also, however we were a bit disappointed with our room and staff service.

We had been charged 880rmb per room per night with breakfast just for a standard room (and apparently this was a reduced rate!) which for Chinese standards is very expensive, and as we have stayed in various high end 5 star hotels in China this year at 600rmb and less per night, we thought this was overpriced to say the least. The room, although mostly authentic, was very dark and a bit gloomy, so you did not feel comfortable just sitting and relaxing in the room

We also felt that we were one of very few guests, maybe even the only ones in the hotel, however the room given to us was right above the staff toilets and utility room - so quite unpleasant smells would waft above to our room and come through our pipes in the bathroom, together with staff mingling about outside our room talking all the time (so avoid room 116!!). There was also a litter of about 6 undernourished kittens and a dirty kitty litter situated right near our door, which we thought was a bit unhygienic.

There was no complimentary bottled water for guests, and considering you cant even brush your teeth in the water in Pingyao, we felt this was rude....when we approached staff and asked for some water, we were told to boil hot water in our room kettle and wait for it to cool!

There were 2 television sets in our room with at least 40 channels, however not one in english for international tourists which after a hard day sightseeing, sometimes you need when you completely relax.

No hotel staff gave us any information about the hotel, nor was there anything in the room to advise us of hotel services and facilities, not even a number to call if we needed assistance at front desk.....no map or information was provided about the ancient town and when we asked staff at front desk we were told to purchase a local map from them..more expense!

Breakfast was very average and on one occasion our whole order was mixed up

The hotel only serves western food and not Chinese, and if you want Chinese food, which we did, you had to walk about 10mins to another main street to their 'sister' restaurant (food and setting was pretty good here, although on two occasions when we walked by there was not one single person in there - we went Saturday lunch and it was packed, but Saturday night and Sunday lunch was empty - so no atmosphere)

All round, if you have the spare cash then this is the place to stay and I am sure it is the best hotel in Pingyao, it is certainly attractive on the outside, however if you peel away the layers, there certainly needs to be some work done to improve on staff service and maybe update a few things in the hotel rooms to make them more comfortable for the outrageous prices you have to pay.