Hong Kong - Royal Pacific Hotel and Towers

27th June - 30th June 2010. Written by Xin Li.

The Royal Pacific Hotel and Towers is Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon, it is only a 5-8 minutes walk through Kowloon Park to Tsim Sha Tsui Station and directly next to China-Hong Kong Ferry Terminal where you could set off for Macau or Zhuhai for a day’s trip. Access to the hotel from the airport is easy with the Airport Express and its complimentary shuttle buses for about 180 HKD for two (no traffic jams too), or you could opt for the hotel coach for 130 HKD per person.

The hotel was owned by the Sino Group of Hotels which also managed the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore and it is affiliated with the Far East Organization in Singapore, the organization in charge of the Village Hotels.

For our short trip in Hong Kong, we resided in this hotel which was quite affordable, a Hotel Premier Room (23-25 Sqm) cost us 600+ HKD per night after a 25% discount due to their 3 Nights Stay promotion. Early bird can enjoy up to 20% discount and reservation can be done easily online.

The reservation does not deduct funds from your credit card or debit card until you stayed there in person and a 2500 HKD deposit is required when you check in which will only be returned until you check out.

While the service was friendly and good, however they lose out on efficiency. Checking In took quite a long time as the rooms were not prepared and we had to wait for 1 and a half hour before getting our rooms (not to mention the long queue, they seemed understaffed). Our rooms are always made nicely when we came back, nice.

Our 17th storey Hotel Premier Room (with queen or twin beds) measures about 22-25 Square Metres and offers a partial view of the Victoria Harbour and Kowloon Park. There was not a hint of cigarette in our room and my mum felt that the conditions are much better now in Hong Kong. The bed was very firm and tough, if you love those soft beds, Royal Pacific would disappoint you, and both my mum and I were alright with that. The room temperature during our stay was maintained between 23 to 25 degrees Celsius.

Complimentary coffee offered in the hotel is provided by Nescafe and there is a complimentary bottle of mineral water as well. The TV channels featuring Korean, German, Free World Cup, Jade, CNA, BBC, NG, DC and HC are my mum’s favourite and reception was good. An in-room dinner menu was provided as well, with breakfasts, late snacks and normal meals. A glance through the menu, a French Onion Soup would cost you 75 HKD, Desserts around 65 HKD to 100 HKD and mains like Salmon Fillet would cost about 125 HKD and more. These prices have not taken GST into account.

The toilet was okay, toiletries are of decent quality except that the shower is fixed and there seemed to be some temperature problems with the sink. My other feedback is that the lifts are kind of slow.

If you want to some nearby makan, the hotel or rather the complex it is being housed has a food court, some Chinese restaurants, their in-house Pierside, Satay Inn, Café on the Park and Café Deli to satisfy you. Satay Inn and Pierside Deli seemed to have a decent rating on Hong Kong version of Hungrygowhere, OpenRice.

I like the fact that the hotel is just a stone throw away from Kowloon Park, this is one of the nicest public parks so far, with real flamingos, ducks, swan, peacock in their pond, I like walking across the park each day as I make my way to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station.

In conclusion, the hotel has a very good location with affordable prices. You might want to stay at Prudential if you want a station directly next to your hotel. Even after you check out, you can keep your luggage with the Concierge and do some last minute shopping before heading to the airport, by the way, hotel bus has to be arranged the moment you check in.

I tried one of their dessert one day as I was hungry, ordered the Warm Apple Crumble with Sultana and a scoop of Haagen Diaz Vanilla Ice Cream for 65-75 HKD+. A spoon of vanilla sauce was served along with the apple crumble. The bottom part of the crumble was moist and very sweet, even more so with the sultana raisins. I enjoyed Seven on Club’s more.