The Newton Place Hotel, 165 Wai Yip St, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong is off the beaten track. It's not anywhere near places you will want to go shopping, dine, or visit for cultural purposes. Which, to my mind, makes it the perfect business hotel. All the riff-raff can jam themselves in to Central or Kowloon, while I'll be saving money and being productive far away from the maddening crowds.

The hotel is a medium-sized facility, probably 25-stories, adjacent to the old Hong Kong airport. It's three blocks from the MRT station, three blocks from the giant Millenium Center office complex, four blocks from the massive APM shopping center, and one block from McDonald's, if you like slumming. But in the general area there is nothing to see and little to do, so budget extra taxi fares or schedule for some MRT time.

But once in the hotel, things work fine. The rooms are smallish and spartan, but certainly clean enough and well-equipped. The view of the harbor is excellent, so be sure to request a water-front view. The bathrooms are small but perfectly servicable. Every room has a desk and free internet. All in all, everything the typical road warrior needs but a full "business center."

Service in the hotel is diffident, at best. English is clearly a third or fourth language. Most of the hotel visitors are Asian tourists. The hotel restaurant only serves Asia food, and while it's tasty it's over-priced comparatively. So, hey, it's not the Carlyle. The price isn't either. My room was US$90 a night, which is very fair for a modern, clean hotel in Hong Kong.

I have only two complaints, and they're minor. First, the hotel lobby is large and spacious. In fact, too spacious. There's absolutely no place to sit, talk, or wait for your visitors to arrive. It's just a big empty hall that needs a bit of warmth and comfort added.

Secondly, breakfast is awful. Do not pay the HK$89 to eat breakfast at the hotel, it simply is inedible. Instead, pop outside of the hotel, walk one or two blocks and enjoy any of the local restaurants with picture-pointing menus, and get decent local food for 1/8th the price. Or walk three blocks to Starbucks, visit my lovely friend "Shan" who works there most mornings, and get yourself a very respectable java jolt.

While on a tour, we stayed here. Clean and upscale for the price. Area is coming back from subway construction. Safe street at night, so it seemed. Nice family food around the corner.