After hiking the trails of Huangshan for a day and a half, we thought it would be nice to stay near the hot springs the following night. Huangshan Resort (Best Western) is located only 300 meters from the hot springs and a short taxi ride from the base of the Yuping cableway. The hotel is located on a hillside in a very scenic area with views of the mountains and a river. It is a couple kilometers from Tangkou, but the location is definitely worth it for the peace and quiet. The rooms are modernly decorated and large. Ours had a view of an outdoor courtyard and creek. Unfortunately though, the room and bathroom reeked of mold (when we entered the room, the window was open to air it out). The ventilation system in the bathroom didn’t appear to work properly and you could see mold inside the picture frames. I also found a couple small bugs in the bathroom (probably due to all the moisture) and it was very odd that there was a small window inside the shower with no privacy tint or covering. Similar to the hotel on the mountain, we were again happy to have brought our flip flops. The shower water was also only luke warm.

Dinner, however, was wonderful. The dining room was cold, but hot tea was plentiful and the food was wonderful. We ordered several dishes for 2 people for under 100 RMB and only ate half of it! Breakfast was good, with the right amount of both Western and Chinese selections.

The value of this hotel was very good, considering a winter promotion we were given which included breakfast for 2 and hot spring tickets for 2!

stayed the night before going up and after coming down the mountain. main considerations while booking:
location - in tangkou, so we can have an early start going up the mountain. reviews say the bus stops here, which is true, it's the hot spring stop. what we didn't realize was that at 7am when most people are going up, all seats are filled at the tangkou station, so there was no chance of getting on at our stop. thankfully there were savvy taxi drivers around in the morning to take us up for Y40, which we didn't mind because time is the essence in the morning.
hot spring - though pricey (Y148), it's well worth a visit after we conquered lotus peak etc. it's up the road from the hotel, very quiet and relaxing.
value - ctrip had a great deal, Y428 including breakfast for 2.
additonal comments:
pros: pretty garden setting, very quiet, nice & comfortable king size bed, clean room, spacious bathroom, bottled water provided, restaurant had good food.
cons: restaurant service non existent the first time we stayed, better the second time with different staff on duty. also on the way in, taxis from the airport are not allowed to go up to the hotel as it is inside the geopark territory. so one would have to change to a bus or a blue taxi (owned by same company as the buses) to get there. hotel should provide a shuttle service to guests between tangkou, hotel, and park gates.
enjoyed our stay here and will return if we visit mt huangshan again.

the hotel is in the hot spring area, 5 minutes by car from the gate. the hotel is fairly clean and well appointed, the desk told me I have the largest room. the bathroom has no tub, I found out later that they don't have tub in this area for water conservation. My main criticism is that you have to walk uphill for 10 minutes to get to the spa. one is usually tired after hiking and this walking back and forth is the last thing I want to do. I want someone to come to my room for a massage after a hard day and that's what I cannot get in a 4 star hotel, most annoying.

We stayed at the Best Western twice: one night before we hiked up the mountain, and one night after we came down. The first night, we had a very nice and spacious room, fairly new, though not very clean and with the usual poor workmanship visible in both the room and the bathroom. There was no hair dryer in the room, so we asked for one but had to call again to remind them. Breakfast was okay, not spectacular.
We could leave part of our luggage at the hotel.
The hotel is located at the bottom of the mountain in a very quiet area. dinner is possible across the bridge in a few small local restaurants if you're early enough.
Coming down from the mountain, we got a room in a small side building. It was tiny (there was not even a chair, and no ethernet cable as in the other room) and dirty, and while the decor and amenities were the same everything was much more worn. As we paid the same rate, we asked how it was possible that such different rooms could be "deluxe" rooms. They said that we had had their biggest room at our first stay, that our current room was in the same category because "all rooms on floor 4 and above are deluxe rooms," and that they did not have any other room available for us to change to (except for one with twin beds, which we did not want). It was not possible to get a discount, either.
We checked out the spa, and it did not convince us. Even for hotel guests, they charged RMB148 per person. The main building was like a regular spa, the hot springs area was outside. Of about 20 small pools, only a dozen or so had water in them, plus 3 larger ones. The small pools all had different temperatures and aromas, some very well lit (we went there in the evening), some hardly at all, and in some of them, the stepping/sitting stones were very slippery (slimy?) - the last cleaning must have been quite a while ago. It was fairly calm, and it was nice to sit outside in hot pools, but these were not natural hot springs, as the water was stagnant in the pools and the temperature kept up by heating elements at their bottoms. We were disappointed that there was nothing like a massage "menu" at the lounge by the time we got out of the pools, around 90 minutes before closing time. Some fruit and tea were served there.