Xinjiang Autonomous Region hotels & places to stay

Beautiful Hotel with all the facilities. Next to Expo center, but 30 mins from downtown. Food and restaurants great with excellent service. Rooms are big and modern. Views are great. Hotel was very full, with Reception staff not being able to match and cope with the pressure. Although my Agoda booking specified a non-smoking room, I was provided with a room that has been smoked in, by a serious smoker. There were no other rooms available and they provided an air cleaner, which did n othting to get the thick cigarette smoke smell out of the bedding, towels, curtains and furniture. The next morning before breakfast I requested another room, which was promised to be ready by the time I return from breakfast. However, when I returned, they had staff shift change and nobody knew about the arrangement. Eventuaslly the front Desk manager was called who provided an upgraded, smoke free room. The rest of the stay was pleasant.

Silk Road Lodge is a delightful 5-room boutique hotel. The property is a local-style building in the middle of the vines. It has unusually clean and comfortable rooms for Xinjiang, with good beds and thick carpeting. Furthermore, a reasonably fast Wi-Fi access is available throughout the hotel which adds to convenience. In the evening, one can have a drink on the roof terrace watching the stars. Chinese red wine is reasonably priced at RMB 90 a bottle for a fair quality bottle. The fact that the hotel is located on the side of town is a huge plus provided one has their own transport, as this is a quiet area which guarantees an excellent sleep quality. The manager permanently cares about the wellbeing of his guests in an efficient and friendly way. His outstanding command of English makes communication easy –a rare thing in this part of China! However, there is still some room for improvement in this property for it to become perfect: - Breakfast was a disappointment. It offered much too little choice and eggs could not be cooked properly. - Though my room was close to Western standards, the bathroom had approximate finishings and a bad quality shower. This is a pity and gives a bad impression. This being said, Silk Road Lodge is a wonderful property with a soul –a one of a kind boutique hotel in Xinjiang which makes a nice difference with the usual large impersonal Chinese-style hotels.

Clean and comfortable room and bedding. But beware little coffee sachet is not free like all hotels in the world. Reception charged us $2 even though cleaning lady said it was free. There were also tons of drinks and stuff on sale in the room so beware. Even a tissue box costs $8. Room had a weird 'cabbage/vegetable-like stench coming from the toilet and we had to have the window and toilet fan on to reduce the smell (which took a while to get use to every time we came into the room.) Staff were friendly and kind to help with questions, but none were able to speak english during our week's stay. Hotel is in a good location close to train station and central. Good security in hotel building and we did not feel unsafe once in Urumqi as there were security guards and police in public areas. Wifi worked well in room except it prompted us to log in with a password each time we needed to log on. Cleaning lady was awkward as she would come into room despite the DND sign switched on and saying no- just to replace bin and 'check' the room...A little annoying for guests who just want to stay in. Water not replaced each day which was included and we had to ask once for bottles in the 4 days we were staying, and then nothing again after.

It is a good hotel, well managed and kept than most of the other hotels managed locally. The surrounds of the hotel is clean, so are the rooms. The clients seems to be more cultured type as compared to some of the other type of hotels with loud mouth clients and spitting all over the place !!! The staff are friendly and speak English ! The room is well provided for. The location is good with many taxis and public transports around. Many shopping outlets and eateries with walking distance from the hotel. However, doubt it can be rated as a 5 stars standing. Check with SHERATON, MARRIOTS. SHANGARILA.....and understand rating standard !!!

Good selection for breakfast. Large rooms. Lovely lavender scented toiletries, most appropriate for Xinjiang where Lavender is grown. Tasteful interior design which celebrates Uyger culture. Efficient, friendly service staff (though slightly too strict for this to be a family-oriented, holiday fun-loving hotel) Flat sink was rather odd though - I believe it was about a degree off so water kept pooling to the side of the sink. Struck me as being unhygienic.

The hotel is about 1/2 hour by taxi from the airport and is centrally located. When we got there the reception staff did not have the best english but a waitress was brought from the restaurant who was able to help us out. She was fantastic and would be better suited behind reception to be honest. The room was very comfortable and the bed was the best I have ever slpet in. The hotel has recenly been rebranded as the Music hotel and there are lots of little touchs relating to this. All in all it was a very good stay and I would recommend it.

The hotel has not been completely ready for taking guests when I were staying in the August of 2012. The room was quite spacious and clean. The hotel is the only 5 star hotel (or one of the few) in the city. The lobby and room service staff were very friendly. It has a great Chinese restaurant which is nicely furnished and provides fine Chinese cuisines. I will like to stay at the hotel in the next time of visiting the city.

Everything is fine except that the hotel lacks professional management. Evidence 1: front desk cannot confirm Agoda booking at check in; on day 3 after several phone calls between me, the front desk, and Agoda, the hotel finally confirms the payment has been made; then another staff at front desk questions the payment again at check out the next day. Evidence 2: the dining room manager promised to deliver breakfast boxes to the concierge for my early morning check out the next day, but the concierge has no boxes nor any idea when I check out next morning. This hotel has very nice structure, but management is lagging behind. Better communication between departments is in need.

On checkin they were not aware of my booking. I showed them the voucher and then despite the fact that the stay was fully paid in advance they insisted that I had to pay again. The manager was away for a few days and only he had accessed to the Agoda website. I told them to call the manager and after 30 minutes they finally got hold of him. But as he was not there he also could not access the website and confirmed that I had to pay my stay in cash on check in. I agreed to pay 1 night to give them time to sort it out. Next day I had to go many times to the front desk asking the process and of course no progress. We called the hotline of Agoda and they were very helpful. Finally at the end of my 3 nights stay the front desk told me I would get back my money next morning on check out. As we would check out at 5 am I told the front desk to make sure that the person on duty at the front desk would know about this. And on check out the person on duty didnot know anything about it. We insisted to call the evening front desk, the agreement was confirmed and we got our money back. I was lucky to travel with a chinese because the front desk can't speak one word English. DONT stay there

To say that English is spoken at the hotel is a gross overstatement. The staff I encountered had no or limited English which at times greatly impeded arrangements. Hotel transfers were advertised but owing to unclear instructions about which digits of the phone number to use in the Agoda booking sheet I was unable to arrange for an airport pickup. Return to airport was smooth and hassle-free. Staff took the initiative to check that the flight was on schedule before sending me to the airport.

As far as we could tell there were not many (or any?) other hotels of this caliber in Kashgar. The rooms are lovely, the staff are extremely friendly and helpful and the breakfast buffet was fabulous! The dinner buffet is also very good, especially if, like me, you're not a big fan of mutton, which is the predominant meat served in most restaurants in town - here you have a great choice of local, Chinese and Western food. A fabulous haven to get back to at the end of our days out exploring. We would definitely go back.

This place is a 2 hour taxi ride from Urumqi so far away that you have to pay double because the cab driver cant get a fair back. the 2.5km from the city is a total lie. We were so angry they gave us an upgrade to club and free meals. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. They promised that they would change the description on Agoda but 3 months later still the same lies. Do not go there

After traveling along the Silk Road hitting many towns and many hotels, most hotels I stayed were with low quality and standard. Exhausted from the long travel and sleepless nights in room filled with stink of cigarette at previous hotels. Finally I found this hotel. It is not an extreme luxury but certainly an oasis when you need it the most. With good standard and 'no smoking' floor (godsend!), spacious room, soft bed, clean bahtroom, acceptable breakfast, polite and friendly staff; Such contrast of what I experienced in other hotels, I did not feel like continue traveling to the next unknown hotel in the next town. If you are looking for a hotel with standard in Turpan, this is it. Member or not, they even left a generous welcome fruit in the room. I wish there was this chain in every town along the Silk Road and I would have sworn by it.