I’ve had a bad time in Philippines. Urduja thunderstorm caused me to loose my return ticket. I knew I had to save and spend as little as possible for my way back home…
So I booked myself a very long journey using 3 planes with long layovers:
- Flight from Manila to Guangzhou (AirAsia). 18 hrs layover until next flight.
- Flight from Guanzhou to Beijing, followed by 18 hrs layover and finally the flight from Beijing to Moscow (Hainan Airlines)
I knew that Hainan airlines provides free accomodation for my long layover in Beijing. But Guangzhou wasn’t anywhere covered by airlines. So I headed to booking.com to find this hotel: Guangzhou New Baiyun Airport Aviation Bright Pearl Apartment Hotel. And to my uttermost regret later, I’ve booked it.
It was the cheapest of the ones which are near to airport. I noticed that once booked, I saw that the hotel needs me to specify my arrival date via special request box. So I did. Later I got this message in reply..:
Dear Guests, Thank you sincerely for your booking our hotel ! There being lots of illegal soliciting personnel and unscrupulous merchants and taxi drivers in Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, they lure our guests into other hotels by making the exploiting the failure of foreign guests having no Chinese telephone number and the obstacles of language communication, even pretending our staff. Some guests may be deceived, have unnecessary economic losses and get into troubles. In view of this situation, we arrange free shuttle bus for picking up guests at the Departure Hall gate 6th. So you do not need to pay for a taxi. Please call us when you arrived at there. TEL:13711214623, 020-36177879 .Basic progress: arrive at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport → get your luggage → go to the Departure Hall gate 6th → contact us. If you don’t have Chinese phone number, you can go to the formal information desk at the Departure Hall gate 6th or go to the counter on the opposite side of the G5 and you can find the free public telephone booth. Make sure that you will contact us and avoid being deceived. The most important thing is: you must confirm our license plate number: 327 before you get on the bus.Thank you very much. We only accept cash or UnionPay cards
I arrived 4AM to Guangzhou, and had only 4AM to 1PM (until check out time) to have my layover sleep. Some formalities for 24 hrs transit visa took another hour. So 5AM I started to search that mysterious gate 6 in Departure hall. That wasn’t clear already. I have just arrived and now have to search for departure hall? What? Long story short, it took me 1 hour to find it.
Once at gate 6 of departure hall, I found absolutely no free phone as they advertised in their message. Frustrated with my 30 mins of searching, I finally decided to use my own phone even it will charge me for roaming (ended up with 140 roubles bill). Interestingly, it’s an “airport” hotel, but they didn’t even bother to put their number in international format.
I called them for the first time to notify of my arrival. A woman on the other end of the line asked what color I am wearing and told me that the driver will be outside gate 6 in ten minutes.. I walked out and patiently waited.. 10 mins, 20 mins.. half an hour.. A bit cold. Loosing my patience, I called again. The woman switched me this time to the driver who said that he will only start his rides to airport at 8 AM.. What the…
Frustrated with the reply, I walked back into the airport, thinking of what will I do. Finally I found tourist centre who charge 2 yeans for a minute of call and called the hotel again. I asked the woman where is the driver? She only kept saying “My driver is muble muble” I keep asking what what? “Mumble vailable. Not available”
That’s it. I gave up on the hotel. They are the real scammers. They have cancelled my booking and I was not charged the cancellation fee. But nobody can compensate my time and health losses as well as financial losses because I ended up having to pay in-airport capsule lounge to have just 2 hours of transit sleep.
Be ware. I hope karma will reach you, the woman and the driver at Guangzhou New Baiyun Airport Aviation Bright Pearl Apartment Hotel. You spoil the image of China for any tourist. You are the most disgraceful hotel I have encountered so far.
Just because they have cancelled my booking themselves, I cannot leaving my review at Booking.com. I find that this is the flaw with Booking.com. I should be able to leave a review if hotel cancels my booking and ruins my plans! And the hotel cancelled for that same reason – so I can’t review. But here you go, my honest review of the hotel. It is disgraceful, dishonest little chinese hotel.