Arrived at 1am after flight from Australia. Checkin was fast and no hassles. We booked three rooms for family of six - children ages 10,12,15,17. Goldfish in the room was a cute touch. Our heating was on too high, which they attended to the next morning. Beds were comfortable - not the hard beds we were expecting in China. We ate breakfast one morning. It was a set menu for 45 yuan and quite substantial. Location by the lake is great. But if you are heading to the shops it's a decent walk, so would probably stay closer to the centre with a family. Staff helped my husband communicate with the airport in finding his lost luggage. Most staff spoke reasonable English. Service was good and taxis came immediately when called.

Booked through Agoda. Stayed from 29Nov to 1Dec2011 (3 nights).
Just in front of a beautiful park next to West Lake.
Nice hotel with good service equipped with all basic facilities.
Free bikes for Hotel Guest to cycle around the lake for someone who is adventurous to cycle on China city roads.
Mini-marts and local fruit stores are next to the hotel.
Lot of restaurants, tea houses, cafe along Nanshan Road.
A value for money hotel.

Stay at the Hangzhou Crystal Orange Hotel for three nights from Nov 23 to 26. The location is good, just minutes walk to the well known shopping area. The room is spacious and comfortable, it is good to stay there if you do not mind about their service quality.

My return flight to HK was in the evening, I tried my luck and asked the receptionist if they could offer me a late check out. Okay, I could understand and accepted if the reply was negative. What made me felt uncomfortable was the receptionist didn't give me a YES or NO, and instead, she told me to pay for a half day stay.

Okay, I could understand that was your hotel's policy, but could you please use a more polite approach.

Furthermore, I asked another receptionist if they could help me to book a taxi to go to the airport. They said there was no taxi reservation at 1700hrs, but could help me to fetch a taxi at 1630hrs. Okay, I went back to Hotel at 1630hrs, one of their staff (a male porter) helped me to fetch a taxi. I found out that this guy was just standing at the hotel entrance and kept telling me that it was very difficult to get a taxi at that moment of the day. And he actively suggested me that there was a private car could bring me to the airport for RMB150 (meter fee was RMB120). He just kept telling me to hire his friend, I knew that he would not help me to get a taxi, Then I went out to the main road and got a taxi by myself.

If you are planning to stay there, please don't expect the staff there will help you. This is really a POOR service hotel.

We stayed three nights at the Crystal Orange Hotel in late October. We got a great price online for three nights, although breakfast was not included. We didn't eat breakfast at the hotel since it was somewhat pricy (45 yuan) and just down the street is a bakery where you can get some delicious breads and cakes at an excellent price. There's also a small store where you can get drinks. These are within a city block of the hotel. A can of coke from the mini-bar would have been 10 yuan, but you could walk across the street and get a large bottle from the store for 3 yuan. It pays to check around.

The rooms here are clean, modern and fairly spacious for a Chinese hotel. We booked this hotel because of the Trip Advisor reviews, and we were very satisfied, but I should point something out. Some reviewers said to ask for an upgrade to a room with a balcony, and we did. They were happy to oblige us, but the "balcony" was so small that two people could barely stand on it. The balcony rooms are also subject to more street noise. Only the balcony rooms on the second floor have balconies that are of a decent size. I wouldn't bother one way or the other, because if you're in this area of Hangzhou and you spend much time in your room you're missing out!

The area is beautiful. Right across the main street is a park, and if you wander through that park you'll find West Lake. It's gorgeous! Definitely hire one of the little boats to take you around the lake, but barter on the price if you can. We had Chinese friends to help us. They will come down quite a bit on the price if they realize you know what you're doing. They are not above ttaking advantage of "rich Americans."

Make sure to take in the fountain show near the Hyatt, but do so at night when the colorful lights add greatly to the experience. The hotel staff can tell a cab driver how to get there. Just grab some of the hotel cards to give to a cab driver on the way back. By the way, it's hard to catch a cab right after the show, when hordes of tourists are trying to do the same thing. If you have time, hang around for a while and enjoy the area. Beware, you will probably be approached by an unlicensed cab driver. Make sure you get into an official cab and not just a private car, where you could get ripped-off or worse.

There is a fantastic man-made island in the middle of West Lake that you must see! You can take a ferry there or one of the small boat drivers can take you there. It's very beautiful!

Back to the hotel, you simply can't miss with this one. The staff is great and most can speak English fairly well. The rooms are very clean and the beds are even decently soft for a Chinese hotel. We loved our time here and if we ever get back to Hangzhou we will stay here again!