Having stayed here 2 times this year and many other stays in the past, this time was a little different than last year. The staff was better than last year, and our second stay was PERFECT. First stay however I would have given a 3/5. The staff during the first stay were not as friendly as the second time.

During our two stays, we had one room that was on a really low floor near 40, and the second time had a harbour room that was on the 49th floor, which is relatively high.

Public Spaces- Very large and expansive. The main lobby area has a high atrium, and all areas have fresh floral arrangements in which change every few days. I also have to note that there is a huge atrium on the room floors in which showcases a large silk painting that goes for about 15 stories high- it is a Shangri-La trademark as you can see on commericals.

Room features: L'occtiane toiletries (although nice, they are smaller sized than other Shangri-La properties. Why???), a coffee/tea making station with several types of teabags, a water boiler, fresh complimentary fruit, a chandelier, 2 free bottles of Bonaqua water, welcome tea (usually jasmine), cutlery, plates, glasses and stirrers, minibar, slippers and robes, bathroom TV, and a separate shower and tub. Beds were the usual pillowtop, and electrical buttons were by le grand.

Color scheme is a red, gold, light olive like green, and dark wood. Also the bathrooms had reddish marble for our rooms. Everything is a little bit of old style and have a twist of oriental style- so if you like modern, this hotel isn't the right one for you!

Low room floor room: Somehow getting a room with a lower floor level also means getting lower quality stuff. And this was our first stay for this year. Big things that I just have to point out is that the carpet was not perfectly aligned- it popped up in some areas, which meant there was too much carpet cut for the area. The tableware was also a older version than last year (it was blue and pink instead of gold). Lastly, the TV was also a CRT version, while most of the rooms in the ISL have a Samsung LCD.

Harbour room: NICE! Not only everything was supposed to be what it was supposed to be, the view was better than our typical view that we keep getting out of a --13 room. The view was excellent and the harbour was nice to look at. Sunshine poured into our room which made our room bright. However, it was a bummer that later on the sky became greyish black, and the great view was out.

Service is what makes a five star hotel worth it's rating, and we got a little of hit and miss for service. Once, at night, during our first stay, we caught a bellboy just keeping the door open, standing in front of it so it would stay open, and then was talking and doing things on his cell phone. Although it was at night, his attitude was something that would make the hotel look "bad".

Our second problem during our first stay was that our welcome amenities as part of being in Golden Circle did not arrive at all! We actually had to call them 2 times. However, during the second time, about 2 minutes later, someone arrived to our room. Now that is what I call good service!

Our last problem with their people was one of the breakfast chefs at Cafe Too. They did not seem to mind me at all when I asked them to get me a pancake. Even much so was that they skipped me and went on to help the other customers. I had to even raise my voice and almost get mad at him until he would give me my pancake. This is certainly something in which was just BAD.

Even worse was that during one day, a pillow linen was actually ripped, and there were stains on the bed. How unusual! Never have encountered this before.

However, good times happened during our stay. Some of the staff were just really friendly. One man who was doing housekeeping always had a good smile, and when we told him we needed a rollaway and to clean up our room 30 minutes later, he was not only happy (unlike a typical housekeeping person), he gave us extra things just because he knew we needed a rollaway. In fact, what he gave us was aplenty! He gave: 3 more bottles of water, another set of toiletries, an extra glass, another pair of slippers, and another set of towels. That is certainly what a 5 star hotel should be like.

During our second stay, they also had a cup of smoked salted almonds in addition to our amenities, which was a very nice touch. We don't know why they did so though!

Food: We had one dinner and several breakfasts at Cafe Too, and both meals were good. The dinner came free as part of the package we used during our stay, which gave us 1000HKD credit for food (but in reality they just deduct 1000HKD at checkout), and we had free breakfast due to a benefit of GC membership. Cafe Too has a ton of cooking stations- at night it was very interesting as they actually had pizza as something they could make on the spot for you, as well as rice soup. Breakfast dim sum was very nice, although there wasn't anything that was out of the ordinary. At night they had dim sum and soups too! Very interesting.

Overall, it was a very good stay this year. Things got better as time passed- no problems the second time around! Try getting a really low price, and you will be happy- but if you get a rate over 3,100HKD for a regular room, you are truly getting ripped off. The rate for ISL is a little on the high side, and for the same price you could get a better stay at another five star hotel. Only stay here if you want older style decor or have a GC membership or have a really good rate.

I'll be posting photos and video, but I do need to find all of them so it looks complete- so the photos right now are just some of the photos!