True, it ain't the Ritz, but for the money it was fine. Great location too - with the foodhall downstairs and a myriad of other great eateries nearby. Walking distance to most things in Xian that you'd want to see. The "sex basket" displayed in the rooms are pretty common in China we found, as are late night phone calls if there happens to be a male in the room (doesn't matter that wife is there too!) asking if he wants a "massage".....a simple "no thanks" did the trick every time, as does taking the phone off the hook! But really, for the money, I have no complaints.

We stayed at the May First hotel for 4 nights at the end of September 2006.

When we first checked in, we got a 'standard suite' -- which, based on their website, looked to be very spacious. And the room was. However, the carpets had old stains on them that looked like tar -- and when you walked barefoot, stuck to your soles like tar! Our window outside was overlooking the back of another building and some sort of air conditioning or cooking ventilation shaft (which started rumbling very early in the morning), and something was wrong with our door, which rumbled as though there was a difference in air pressure between the hallway and our room the entire night. The air con didn't really seem to work. There were all sorts of condoms and strange lubrications in the bathroom for sale which purported to be able to prevent you from catching any STD including HIV!

So, the next day we 'upgraded' to the deluxe suite and spent the remainder of our nights there. This room was just across the hall from the room we had been staying it; there is apparently only one deluxe suite in the place.

What made it 'deluxe'? There's a mahjong table in the sitting area. There's a seperate bedroom from the sitting area. The satellite TV reception was much better than in the standard suite. There is a shower that is supposed to have steam, massage, air, etc. but all the fancy bits were broken (the shower, itself, was fine however). The room has double-paned glass and overlooks the street, which is both good and bad: the hotel itself has a food hall on the first floor, and food stalls on the street; so if you open the windows the room will reek of Chinese street food (which can get nauseating after a while when all of your clothes are saturated with the smell). And, it also does NOT come with the pay-for-use sexual aids which was a nice touch.

Most of the front desk staff does not speak English. There is a gentleman who works nights who seemed to have the best command but if you'll be dealing with the rest of the staff you will have difficulty, unless your requests are very basic (checking in/out).

Having the food hall downstairs made every meal easy -- cheap, relatively tasty (if you like Chinese food!), freshly cooked food available from early morning til about 10pm. It gets crowded during meal times. Language problems don't matter here, as it's a point-and-pay type arrangement.

Be aware that on their web site, the room photos are swapped for the standard & deluxe suites: what they show is the deluxe is actually the standard, and vice versa.

I probably wouldn't stay here again. For the money you can stay at someplace like the Melody (which we checked out) which seemed to have better facilities and more helpful staff.