Pantower International Hotel

I just spent 1 night . The price is very good. Old style rooms, pending to be remodeled. I will come again to this hotel is I have the chance of visiting Kaiping. I recommend this hotel. Reception staff is friendly. Breakfast is good. Rooms too big !,!

The Pan tower hotel (开平半岛) is the first 5-star hotel in KaiPing or the wider JiangMen area in GuangDong. It is situated at the tipping point of an island surrounded by ShangSha, DiHai and XiChiang. Back in the 80's, this island is a grass land where you find no building nor any habitat. The Pan tower hotel was built along with the office tower for Bank of China. So, it is a twin tower, one for hotel, one for office. This hotel sets the good standard for hospitality in KaiPing. It's facility includes a swimming pool, health centres for massage, VIP rooms, recreation centres, a Chinese restaurant, a cafe shop, a beffet restaurant, commercial centre and multi-function meeting rooms and a grand meeting hall. Room price is ralatively cheap here, it is less than ¥500 for a standard room. There are smoking and non-smoking floors. Rooms are generally clean. However, I would insist for a non-smoking floor to ensure a room of no smoking smell. This hotel is famous locally. It is easy to reach via roads. For locals, it is still a bit expensive to dine or stay there. So, you will find a room on counter checkin. It is a nice place to meet with friends as it is not overly crowded in the restaurant. You can opt for a VIP room to ensure privacy if that is needed.

This is my first visit to Kaiping, an interesting little town. This is the only 5 star hotel in town. Pro:rooms are comfortable, staffs are very friendly, and the buffet breakfast is satisfactory. Con: every time you go out to eat, you need to call a taxi. However, it is not that far from restaurants and the one amazing, excellent shopping center nearby. Most of our taxi trips to the nearby restaurants and the shopping center costs around usd $2.50. I may still stay there next time I go on account of it being a 5 star hotel. I didn't see any other hotels that look as good as this one.

bad points: - location isn't good, the hotel is very far from any restaurant - breakfast is very poor, and only good option are Chinese noodle - English of staff was very poor - staff in Chinese restaurant is rude and don't understand English good points: - clean room - bathroom ok - staff polite - nice vive from room

Arguably the best hotel in Kaiping, rooms are big enough, food/breakfast is more of a local style but quality is good. Although it is a little far from the city center, the island where the hotel is located is connected to the center by a number of bridges which means it only takes you a 10 minutes pleasant walk along the river to get to the center. Every room enjoys a beautiful river view and you can see the sunrise from your room in the morning. Yet the most impressive thing about the hotel is its service quality. Most staff can speak English and they all try their best answering your questions and give you recommendations. One thing however, I want to indicate is the spa services. There was no menu and I was suggested to try the Y288 one at first, but when I was ready in the treatment room, they told me I should try the Y388 one which was much better and last for 1.5 hrs. I got just a simple massage with no aroma/oil what so ever for less than an hour at the end. I don't know what's I was paying the extra Y100 for. I would not recommend trying their spa services.

To give you context about my comments below, I'm a westerner who has been working and living in China for over 3 years. I speak just enough Chinese to survive here (meaning embarrassingly little). My wife and I are reasonably well-traveled in China and decided to visit the Diaolou near Kaiping over the Tomb Sweeping holiday. Based on the guidance of other reviewers, we booked a suite, which was quite reasonable and had a great view of the intersection of the two rivers in town. It was also huge, so we probably could have skipped it. The bed was comfortable and the shower was fantastic in terms of water pressure. The front desk spoke a little English. Between that and our basic Chinese, we checked into a non-smoking room without any problem. We had the concierge book a car and driver for 500 RMB for 8 hours split over 2 days. It was probably his friend, but the car was a very clean recent vintage Toyota Corolla. The driver was friendly and careful. The price may be a little high, but seemed inline with what I've read online. It was also hassle-free. We paid the driver directly. As others have noted, the hotel is away from downtown. Kaiping didn't look particularly interesting either, so we were happy to eat in the hotel. There is a western/international hotel off the lobby and a Chinese buffet restaurant on the 2nd floor. We ate 3 meals in the lobby restaurant. It was easy to order using the English language menu on their iPad. Lunch was surprisingly good and reasonable given we couldn't walk to other restaurants. We order a Guangdong style rice clay pot with seafood that was tasty. For dinner, we tried their Hainan chicken rice instead of the buffet. It was mediocre to poor. I think it came from the buffet since it is always prepared in advance. I'd order a dish they have to cook for you to ensure better quality. Breakfast was largely a spread of Chinese options, though fried eggs and white bread for toast were available.

Decided to go to Kaiping for a weekend trip (we are based in Hong Kong). Pan Tower is a comfortable, clean and safe place to stay. It worked well for us as a base for the weekend. Although rated 5 star, it is not what you would expect a 5 star hotel to be by western standards. It is a little tired round the edges but still solid 3 star standard. We stayed in a standard suite on a no smoking floor. Room was a good size with 2 toilets, 2 TVs, personal router (strong wifi), a safe and the bed was a big enough size. Bed was on the firm size but not awful as some people have claimed. Floor and room did not smell of stale smoke thankfully - if you've stayed in Chinese hotels before you'll know this is often the case even on supposed non smoking floors. Toiletries and some bottled water provided. BBC and CNN channels. Hotel staff were all friendly and spoke adequate English. Breakfast buffet leans towards Asian tastes - think congee, dumplings, noodles etc but there are enough western options - toast, cereal, fried egg and grilled tomato etc. Coffee was ok, not wonderful but adequate. I like staying places with the convenience of breakfast included. As hotel is located away from shops and town centre, this could be a downside for some. It did mean it was quiet and I liked that. Are st dinner buffet one night - again leaned towards Asian tastes but enough western options. Not bad value for the convenience. Hotel could arrange a driver to take us around most of the sights for a day. Cost 500 RMB. I was happy to pay this for a whole day hire and the convenience of going at our own pace, leaving stuff in the car etc. You can do it cheaper but I wanted hassle free. Taxi to hotel from bus station cost 30 RMB when we arrived around 11pm at night. Have address in Chinese if you can't speak the language.

Our family went to Kaiping and were pleasantly surprised to find such a nice hotel there. The staff at the lobby and check-in counter were very welcoming and knowledgeable, speaking multiple Chinese dialects as well as English. The housekeeping staff were accommodating and helpful as our party had uneven numbers and needed a rollaway bed and additional amenities. The town may not be ritzy, but the hotel has recreation rooms and good-sized restaurants for dinner. The breakfast buffet is okay, offering a limited selection of some of the best Chinese cuisine in that area.

This place is getting really old. The lobby looks pretty nice and the staff is friendly, but the hotel is far from 5 stars. Each floor was dimly light and the room was small. Walking in, you would expect big nice beds with fancy furniture. At the Pan Tower, you get small uncomfortable beds with cheap wooden furniture that is broken. The room wasn't cleaned properly and the shower head took 15 minutes before we got it to work. The food at the hotel wasn't really good, but it would suffice for a breakfast. After talking with a couple of the locals, I found out that the Pan Tower isn't really that good anymore. In China, a hotel keeps the first rating it gets when it opens forever. There are newer and better hotels in the area now.

Good sized rooms with river views, reasonable Chinese and Western food in its restaurants, good breakfast selections and close to HongKong-Kaiping bus depot. Very happy staying there exploring our ancestral villages in Taishan.