It was a regrettable mistake to ruin valuable holidays by staying here. The breakfast is not suitable for international guests and the garbage cans were being filled right next to the buffet table inside the breakfast room. We cannot advise you to drink the water supplied in the water machine is the room as when leaving our room we saw the staff fill up the bottles from other half filled containers... better bring your own water bottles. The dirty carpets and smelly towels give a picture of neglect suited to a 2 star hotel standard, not one of the most expensive hotel in this area. There is also no safe in the room.
The only nice points we found were closeness to old town, the friendly bellboys and the free shuttle bus to the old city (we reccomend to take this one, as some taxis will try to cheat you even on this short distance).

This hotel looks like it began as an aspiring 5 star luxury hotel, but just didn't make it. When we stayed during the Nation Day holiday week, they only had a handful of guests (a tour group and some solo travelers that were with guides). I made the mistake of booking a lakeview room--it was actually more of a constuction site and highway view room, with the lake in the distance (several hundred meters away). The mountain view rooms are probably great, though, as we enjoyed the view from the restaurant very much. Also, the windows were dirty and there was considerable noise from passing trucks during the day, though it did quiet down at night. The room itself was very nice, particularly the bathroom. The TV only has Chinese programming.
One of the best things about the hotel is its location, near the old city and Foreigner Street. Although it's within walking distance (about 10-15 min), the hotel runs a shuttle bus in the evenings. It's also not far from the 3 temples, and is considerably closer than the other hotels, which from downtown Dali are a 20 minute taxi drive (as is the hotel).
The breakfast buffet was not good: Chinese, but not much selection (mostly noodles and bread), though they have good baozi if you get there early enough (when they ran out of anything, it wasn't refilled). They have fried eggs, which are dumped into a pan and left to sit there. The service was also not good, as we had to get our own napkins from a neighboring table, and everything is self-service, including coffee. We had only one other meal there, which was okay, but just mediocre.
Because of the location, and the mountain view, I'd consider staying here again in a mountain view room, but I'd plan on eating elsewhere.

The first thing that we noticed about the Asian Star hotel was the beautiful lobby, which was full of comfortable chairs and fresh flowers and plants. Our room was pretty standard, but it was clean (the bathroom in particular was clean and spacious) We didn't have the best view from our window (overlooking some construction work) but we were not disturbed late at night or early in the morning. We ate dinner in the hotel resturant which was fairly cheap, the food was delicious and came in huge portions, and although the staff did not speak as much English as some of the other hotels we had stayed in, they were extremely helpful. The reception area contained maps showing how to get to 'Foreigner Street' and cards giving the location of the street and hotel in Mandarin, although it is quite a way from the hotel so be warned if your planning to walk! Breakfast in the hotel was pretty good, although there were some strange options (popcorn?!) and the staff were very polite and helpful.