Scholars Shushan Hot Springs Resort

Quite clean, and I slept comfortably. The only thing I regret is not bringing a swimsuit and missing out on the hot springs. I really liked the calligraphy workshop at the hotel, and there were some interesting antique items too.

Good location, very close to the Shushan walking trail and Emerald Lake. Plenty of restaurants around. Pets are welcome here, our dog was very happy. We'll come again!

The hotel is clean, the room spacious, well furnished and comfortable. The staff were very attentive and offered a late checkout until 3pm. The views from the onsen are stunning, and the onsen itself is quite clean. A very pleasant experience.

The room is very clean, the family room is very convenient for children, every situation with kids has been thought of, and there are also hot springs — good for a family trip. Breakfast is included along with a full range of agritourism services.

Pet food: there was meat, egg yolk and broccoli. My pet ate almost all of it, very good. Pet kit: small treats, poop bags, cleaning gloves — pretty good. The Shushan pair hot springs: small in area, but there are 12 little pools. If there aren't many people around it's very pleasant to soak. Service: excellent, I was lucky and the room was upgraded to a small suite. Cleanliness: I booked a pet-friendly room. It was very clean, there was also a dog bed, and water and food bowls were included. If you're travelling with a pet you don't need to bring any of that yourself. Surroundings: easy parking, good location. Shushan is a few minutes' walk away, and Emerald Lake is 7 minutes by car.

I can only say one thing: this is the worst hotel I've stayed in for years. Several things upset me enormously: 1. There was a horrible, sharp smell in the room. My whole family developed pharyngitis, and every morning we woke up with sore throats… 2. It was unbelievably noisy. Our room was right above a hot spring that operated until 11pm. We couldn't nap after lunch, and the children couldn't go to bed early. Complaining didn't help; the noise stayed just as loud… 3. And there was a whole heap of other shortcomings besides. It was supposed to be a hot spring hotel, but there were only a few small pools. The changing rooms were damp and disgusting. The children's playground was dirty, the car park small and dirty, the receptionists unfriendly, while the woman serving afternoon tea was much nicer… There was just so much… I was incredibly frustrated by it all… I wouldn't go back to this awful hotel even if it were free…

I had high hopes for a break in Shushan, Suzhou, and chose the Shuxiang Shijia Hot Spring Hotel, supposedly a high-end place. The whole experience, however, turned out to be a disaster, a total failure and a complete disappointment. First, the service at reception was unbelievably unprofessional. I just needed a bag, and after asking four different members of staff I got four different answers: first they said they didn't have any; then they said there were only paper bags; then they said there were only plastic bags; and finally, one member of staff even said there would be one on the bedside table. But the Japanese-style room I was staying in didn't even have a bedside table! Such a basic request being met with so much confusion clearly points to a serious gap in staff training and was a waste of my time. Second, the room's fittings were outdated and problematic. As soon as I walked in I noticed a sharp, musty smell. The ventilation was terrible, making it hard to breathe. The four-person room had a thin wooden floor; footsteps and noise from above could be clearly heard, and conversations downstairs came through perfectly upstairs. The complete lack of privacy and quiet made it impossible to relax. The water pressure in the bathroom shower was pitifully weak, so four people couldn't really share one room. There was only one tap, which was extremely inconvenient. The most unacceptable part was the total absence of service at the hot springs. The women's bathhouse, supposedly the hotel's main hot-spring highlight, was completely unattended, with no staff at all. There was no one to show guests around or explain the pools, and the area wasn't cleaned regularly. If a problem came up, there was no one to help, which sharply contradicted the advertised "outstanding service". In the photo the towels are lying on the floor, because of a hanging LED strip that left everything exposed and very bright. This hotel presents itself as a high-end resort with genuine hot springs, but its service, facilities and overall impression leave a lot to be desired, and are simply not in keeping with its status and price. I honestly wouldn't recommend going there, so you can avoid the same disappointment I had.

When booking, we checked at reception whether staying with a pet was allowed, but staff couldn't give a clear answer. In the evening, when we needed help setting up the mahjong machine, we called reception, but no one came to sort it out. When ordering room service by phone we listed more than ten dishes, but the operator on reception didn't note down a single one, saying they couldn't hear well.

1. It's about an hour's drive to the city centre; the surroundings are quite remote, and there's nothing around. 2. The main draw used to be the hot springs, but the shower area is more like a cheap public bathhouse with outdated equipment. 3. The check-in process was terrible from the very start. There was only one member of staff on reception, and even though there was an incoming call and only one guest ahead of us, we still had to wait at least 20 minutes. Reception's service procedures need improving. 4. The food at the restaurant was terrible; don't order it. The portions were huge, but the food was disgusting. 5. The hotel's equipment is outdated. It has three floors, with guest rooms on the second and third. It's really not worth the money.

In the middle of the night the room leaked, very badly.