Harbour Grand Kowloon

We arrived at Hong Kong airport following a 13hr flight from London Heathrow and felt like zombies, we decided to take a taxi to the Grand Harbour in kowloon, which cost £35. On arrival, we were greeted by very smart doormen that helped us with our luggage and placed us, with our luggage at the end of the reception queue. We spent 35 minutes just standing and waiting for a kiosk to become free, we passed this time yawning and sighing heavily along with our fellow queue guests. Eventually we arrived at a free kiosk and were greeted by a friendly young man, he immediately apologised for the long wait. (It felt way to soon for an apology but being British, we did the normal of "that's ok" through gritted teeth), we eventually were given our key cards and proceeded to our room, in the tower block. It's a odd set up, one lift to floor 20, then down a corridor to another lift which takes you to the floor your staying on. A handy tip 😉 if your desperate to use the loo and your downstairs, set off for your room immediately!!! After waiting for a lift, it stopping on every floor and then having to change lifts, it can take a while. We were very impressed with our room, the harbour view was spectacular, the room was clean with a nice layout. My husband immediately laid on the bed, whilst I decided to check out the bathroom. 😳 I immediately saw the lovely walk in shower, turned around and to my horror, my husband was staring at me, from the bed, through the glass window! I thought it might be a one way mirror etc... so I asked him if he could see me? He nodded trying desperately not to laugh, sensing I was about to have a hissy fit. I was just getting ready to take the long trip back downstairs to moan at the manager, when my husband pressed a button, and a screen came down that covered most of the window! The air conditioning works a treat. The queen sized bed was extremely comfortable and felt clean and fresh. There's tea and coffee facilities provided, dressing gowns and slippers, hair dryer, shampoo, hand-wash etc, shoe horns and a fridge which is handy for milk and storing locally made cream cakes! There's also a torch incase of emergencies. There's a fire plan on the back of the door. We had booked a 9 night stay with breakfast. Breakfast is 7am to 10.30am. The buffet style breakfast offers a large selection that caters for most needs. There's an outdoor swimming pool and jacuzzi, there is a life guard on duty, however, everytime we looked at them from our room, they were constantly on their phone or taking selfies. This did concern us as out of their view, even if they hadn't been on their phone, there were two very small children, unsupervised playing in the jacuzzi. Their parent looked asleep on a sunbed, Unaware of where her children were, she clearly felt reassured thinking the life guard would be watching her children. Despite the few negatives I've mentioned, this was a great hotel. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. Checkout is 11.30am, there is somewhere to store luggage if you have a late flight. The hotel is very close to shops and a shopping mall, a large cruise ship! There's a underground station about 200 metres. Not far from ferry terminal to get across to Hong Kong island. We would recommend this hotel on the basis that we would stay again. Read less

This is a very nice clean hotel with excellent staff (reception, concierge, doormen, housekeeping) but not the 5* experience we were looking forward to. Pro's * The staff are fantastic * There is a constant stream of taxis to the hotel so you are never waiting long for one * While the location is not in the hustle and bustle of things there are restaurants and shops nearby and there is public transport via MTR, Ferry and bus. We chose the hotel knowing the location was not central as we were cruising out of Kai Tak, if we had not been we would have chosen a different location. * The room (we were on 25th floor in the tower with a harbour view) was a good size and clean and there was a bath in the bathroom (plus a shower within the bath) Con's * The main lobby area looks very impressive in photos but doesn't really have anywhere comfortable to sit or to meet up. * Our major disappointment was breakfast. The venue was not that comfortable and the food was rarely hot (usually luke warm). Due to the location of the dining room (semi open to lobby) it was very loud and in no way relaxing and it was open seating with no wait staff. The breakfast selection was not great and items were mislabeled quite a bit (sausages in the container saying bacon etc). Juices like the Orange juice were not freshly squeezed and the hot drink selection was very poor. Compared to everywhere else we stayed on our trip the breakfast fell very short and as a result we did not eat any other meals in the restaurant * Another reason for choosing the hotel was the swimming pool (we booked in July) but received notification in January that the pool would not be available. The notification said the reason was for maintenance but there was no maintenance in place while we were there. If it was just a seasonal closure this should be notified to anyone booking during the closure season (if we had known last July when booking we would have looked for a different hotel) Read less