Sofitel Xi'an On Renmin Square

Staff : exceptional service . Caroline Zhu, Sameer, Leo Li , Emma Room: clean . Spacious and bright Warm place

A bit too quiet

A lovely property and our room was not only spacious, it was the biggest bed we had ever seen, much bigger than a normal king size bed. One of us was working while there, so having lots of space in the room and a desk was a bonus. Breakfast also had a huge range of options. We did see some wonderful sights while in Xi’an, obviously the Terracotta Warriors are a must see, but make sure you visit the Xi’an City Wall. Climb up on top, where you can walk and even hire a bike to ride. One overlooked must see experience is the Legend of the Camel Bell show. Stay an extra night and see this. It’s in a huge dome theatre, a mix of projection, live action, singing, dancing, camels, horses and even wolves. Go early and have dinner near the entrance. But the show itself is spectacular! I can’t recommend it enough. It is the story of the Silk Road. It only goes for an hour and has 6 huge sets and your seats rotate to see these. It is entirely in Chinese but has a small screen to the side with the song lyrics in English so you can easily follow the storyline. An absolute highlight!

The only downside to the property was the area. My husband can’t walk too far and this is a very quiet area, with a bit more of a walk to the more bustling areas. So not really anything we didn’t like, more just something to be aware of. It wasn’t hard to just call for a car on DiDi anyway.

This hotel was amazing, couldn't recommend it enough, staff was great making things easy for us as british guests, they upgraded us too and room was amazing. Didn't get chance to use other facilities like pool but highly recommend this hotel.

Faultless

The breakfast was good. The concierges were very helpful with organising an early departure and getting to a pharmacy when I needed it.

There were so many things that were disappointing from the start. Upon arrival, I was charged a room deposit double the amount of my hotel bill. The hotel is very dated and doesn’t warrant such a high deposit. The carpet in my room was old and stained. There wasn’t a proper coffee machine; only a kettle with coffee sachets. The water next to the kettle is not complimentary, as it turned out when I check out. As other reviewers have noted, the plumbing is poor. Each night, the light in the corridor came on by itself, waking me up. The walls to adjacent rooms are paper thin. I could hear sneezing and raised voices. I had booked this to have access to a pool; however, the area looked so worn out and uninviting that I didn’t use it once. The concierges and the restaurant staff were helpful and professional. However, one of the receptionists was rather intimidating and sharp. I booked this hotel on the basis of its 5-star rating; however, this must be based on its past glory and I would not come here again.