Accommodation options are limited in this town so while this hotel is a little dated in its decor, it is one of the best available in a central location (better accommodation is available well out of town). Ask for a room facing West St and you may get a room with a private balcony looking out over West St (the main tourist shopping drag leading down to the Li River) and beyond to the karst mountains surrounding the town. Shame about the KFC and Mc Donalds signs corrupting the pretty scene but you soon learn to mentally edit these out!
Hotel staff have limited English, breakfast was OK in terms of Western food, room comfortable and a very helpful tourist desk in the lobby who will arrange a wide variety of activities at your request, including a car and driver and guide for the day at very reasonable prices.

The one catch is that because of the hotel's central location, it is right in the centre of the emtertainment area, so when restaurants in West St fire up their live bands of a Friday and Saturday night, you get the noise late into the night while you are possibly trying to sleep before a big day of bamboo rafting the next day

We looked at a couple of places before we ended up at this hotel and the view from the room won us over, overlooking the township of Yangshuo!The location was pretty good, central enough to walk anywhere but not right in the noisy touristy action downtown.The rooms were nice as chinese standards go, beds hard as usual, but nothing an extra doona can't fix. The staff weren't particularly friendly, but we found that common everywhere in China as they aren't used to dealing with foreigners who travel independantly on a budget, chinese group tours are their comfort zone.The breakfast included was quite traditional chinese, the noodles were delicious - give them a go!The girl at the tourist desk, was friendly and very helpful.You can't really complain about this hotel for the price, it's great value. The shopping in Yangshuo is awesome, don't miss cycling through the farmland outside the town, truly beautiful scenery, take a bamboo raft down the Yulong River, very pretty! Moon Hill is worth a look if you can cycle that far, and the spring rolls at Alf's Aussie Bar down down are to die for! Hot chocolate and lemon meringe pie at the Rosewood cafe in town is pretty good too, just hearing the young waitress speak english is priceless!

I stayed at the Regency Hotel three years ago and can't complain about anything. It is very central, the staff were helpful, the breakfast good, It was noisy at night but what does one expect when on a main thoroughfare? The beds were hard. I always love Chinese beds. They are very very comfortable and good for your back.
A few weeks ago I stayed at the Yangshuo West Street hotel which is the worst place that I have ever stayed in over many years of holidays in China. The bathroom flooded every time I turned on the tap to the basin, the electric jug had been washed out with bleach and when I complained they then cleaned it with peppermint which was more obnoxious than the chlorine. There was no hot water to shower "sorry, you have to leave the tap running for 15 minutes before the hot water arrives in the room. It has a long way to travel". The TV did not work, none of the staff spoke English, the downstairs toilet stank and I could go on and on. No way would I return there.
Give me the Regency any day. I wished I had stayed there this time.
anniemayfong