I had the possibility to stay at Mandarin Hotel during a week in October of 2011. The hotel offered our group very good basic business rooms, relatively good service and all things necessary.

The hotel is situated a few blocks from the Guangzhou East Railway Station, so getting to the hotel is rather easy and fast if you are coming from Hong Kong by train. You still need to get a taxi though, it's not a walking distance.

The hotel has gone through a name change in the past history, since our reservation through travel agency was under a different name (Dongfang Hao Chen Hotel). But the address was the same and pictures on the website matched the Mandarin Hotel. This caused some confusion with the taxi driver though since I had the name written in Chinese as well.

The level of English skills was minimal in the hotel (which should not be a surprise to any China traveler), so be prepared to spend some extra time with check-in and out as well as when ordering food and doing pretty much everything. I did not mind the extra hassle, but please keep an open mind and lots of patience.

The Guangzhou exhibition facilities as well as the recreational river banks are 20-30 minutes form the hotel, but with taxi prices, this does not ruin your travel budged (3-4 euros per trip), but it's more of a hassle with the timelines if you have tight schedules.

My room was spacious, clean and everything worked. The only minor issues could be the fact that right next to the hotel is a military or police academy with their execise field. The groups start their training with marching songs rather early in the morning and this keeps on going through the day. If you need to work in your room, you will be entertained by their songs through the day.

One interesting discovery was the huge Karaoke service in the hotel. The concept of "Night club" which is advertised on the hotel wall means three floors or Karaoke rooms. Each floor has around 50 rooms which is rather impressive. No women hotel guests were allowed.

Helpful staff fortunately as they have to come to fix stuff often. Poor quality materials. Very smelly rooms. Few things on the website and even advertisement in the hotel are just not true eg. No swimming pool.
The list of things they could improve it's just too long to mention. Just try somewhere else.

Maybe its OK for locals

On the web pages i got the impression it was ha hotel well suited for Westerners, which is not the case at all. Ill give you a quick run through of what i did not like as thats the important.

1. Very expensive during the canton fair, not surprisingly. But still way to expensive for what you get.
2. Beds are very hard, only this is a very good reason not to stay
3. Breakfast: A joke, almost no western food, only Chinese.
The buffet pictures from the web page looked very different from the dining area. I felt cheated as they give the impression of having western food.
4. Shuttle to the Canton fair: They say 15 minutes but its around 30+ minutes. "On day even 45"
5. Staff: They want to help but most don't understands English.
This will grow as a thorn in your side as the days go by.
You have to explain yourself several times to several staff and you never know if they really get it. They say yes and then do something you did not ask for. It very frustrating.
6. Internet in the rooms are quite slow, sometimes it was very difficult connecting to the office.

For next years fair i will certainly not book at the Mandarin.