We had a confirmation for two nights at 196 per night. They refused to honour the reservation when we got there. But had a room for 400+ per night. We went elsewhere.

Please be careful. It seems there is a New Century Hotel in Guilin and also in nearby Yangshuo. We stayed in New Century Guilin, and although they claimed to be "new", there was nothing close to new. It is a short bus trip from the centre of the city. It was clean with reasonable service, however somewhat out of town. Computer access at extra cost, few local restaurants for tourists. Yangshuo New Century may well be quite different.

We stayed here as part of a group tour in China. The hotel was rated by the group as one of the best that we had stayed in over the two week holiday. It is ideally situated within easy walking distance of the main shopping street (West Street),and the market stalls which really come alive at night. and where good food can be had at very reasonable prices. The hotel rooms were nicely furnished and located around a square overlooking the restaurant. There was also a small bar with very friendly service. Reasonably priced internet access is available in the Business Centre. Nearly all the guests were western as the hotel is very popular with western tour groups which may or may not be to everyone's taste. There was a good choice of western and Chinese food for breakfast. We ate very well in the market and restaurants in West Street but did not sample the dinner menu in the hotel.
I would recommend hiring bicycles at the hire place located just outside the hotel. The cycle into the countryside gives a glimpse into life on the local farms and is not physically very demanding. The surrounding scenery is also very beautiful. .
I would also strongly recommend the 'Light' show which is advertised on posters in the hotel. It takes place on a section of the Li river about five miles outside the town. There are regular bus tours which can be booked through the hotel. The theatre stage is the river with the seats arranged above it. The show lasts for about an hour and is truly stunning in its use of light, colour and music. It has a cast of hundreds. It is the inspiration of the Chinese film directior, Zhang Yimou who is also directing the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics. The show is very popular with local Chinese, many of whom seem to travel in group tours from Guillin to see the show. They appear also to be instructed to leave a little early to avoid the traffic jam on the way out. Be prepared, therefore, for a mass exodus in the last five minutes - before the show ends! Overall, however, the show is an experience not to be missed.

Our local travel agent booked this hotel for us since we just needed a place for the night that could get us tickets for the Li River cruise in the morning. The travel agent had also pre-reserved our boat tickets at 220RMB per person. Upon arriving at the hotel, the English speaking travel staff (his English name is John) told us that our agent had booked us the lowest trip, that it would be full of dirty people and drunks etc etc. He even went so far as to tell us that the hotel hadn't booked any tickets for this boat in more than 6 months. He wanted to sell us tickets for a 'deluxe' trip that was more than twice our original cost.

Fortunately we stuck to our plan and he reluctantly (and after nearly an hour of arguing!) gave us our tickets. The next day the boat tour we booked picked us, and 15 other people, up from the hotel. It was a lovely cruise and quite frankly I couldn't tell the difference between the regular and 'deluxe' boats at the dock.

Other than that, the rooms were poor quality. Beds were hard, A/C didn't work well, and the bathroom was very dirty. I would not stay here again.