King Home Hotel, Shenzhen  

Ok we fell into the trap of booking the cheapest hotel in Shenzhen for an overnight trip and really should have known better. But the website told us it was four star - ha! We had an amazing day in Shenzhen, doing all the touristy stuff in Spendid China and Wonders of the World and really just needed somewhere to put our head down. We arrived at the hotel by taxi - we thought the guy had just thrown us out onto the street because we could not see any sign for the hotel (not a good sign in itself) we walked towards the building he had pointed at to see that the glass door had letters about two inches high telling us that this was indeed the Kong Home Hotel - very impressive vacuous reception with a tiny girl behind it! The room was on the eleventh floor and initailly everything looked fine - like any other asian hotel I have stayed in - the room was spacious, clean on first impression until you started to notice the stains on the wall which suspiciously looked like blood or other bodily fluids, then the plastic box with non complimentary condoms beside the bed was really the first clue, then on reading the hotel information folder, it informed us that the nightclub on the fourth floor had twenty private rooms for your own personal relief! Seriously! Not really the most suitable hotel for two single western girls. We decided to investigate because we thought surely it cant be that bad - the two men who shared the lift with us never uttered a word but made us feel so uncomfortable that we didnt get out on the fourth floor with them but went to the third floor and managed in my limited cantonese to arrange a foot massage for 38rmb - very nice but clearly a front for other services as the flow of men and girls walking past us into individual rooms were not getting foot massages! The outside of the hotel had nothing to attract us, half demolished buildings, major roadworks, hardware stores, estate agents and apartment blocks - so Longgang district is not worth a visit. There was not even a shop to buy water from - we ended up buying extra bottles of water with our dinner to take back to the room. The restaurant was atypical of hotels in Asia, large warehouse, big families or groups, the only english speaking customer thrust at us because they got choi fan confused with choi sum - hmmmm I could make a fortune teaching phonics here - also their numbers were not up to scratch as the waiter was pointing at the bill showing 70rmb and asking for 60!!!! Wasnt the worst experience of my life and apart from the dodgy men in the lift we felt safe and the room was decent enough if you ignored the stains on the wall and the condoms beside the bed!