Review: Gateway Hotel, Hong Kong (Marco Polo Hotels, GHA)
By Chris C., February 2 2018
Country
China - Hong Kong
City
Hong Kong
Hotel
Global Hotel Alliance
Notes
The Good
- Great location close to luxury boutiques, nightlife and MTR
- For the most part, modern rooms
The Bad
- Off-site gym and pool
- Rooms aren't 'tech friendly'
X-Factor
- Excellent Continental Club Lounge
Introduction
Featuring 400 rooms in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui Kowloon district, the Gateway Hotel – part of the Marco Polo Hotels family and the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) – welcomes travellers in one of the city-state's most upmarket neighbourhoods.
We put the property to the test from the perspective of a Continental (executive) floor guest.
Location & Impressions
Attached to the Harbour City shopping complex, the main hotel entrance can be found to the left of the shopping centre's pedestrian passageway.
Check-in staff are friendly, but as I'm staying on the Continental Club floors, they insist on escorting me up to the Continental Club Lounge to complete my check-in.
It's a nice touch, but if anything, staying in a better room type should get you a faster check-in, not a slower one. After stepping off a long flight, you really just want your room key, not to be taken elsewhere in the hotel to achieve the same result.
With key in-hand, I reached the room in time for the afternoon sunset, where a pot of Chinese tea was also waiting.
Room
Moving around this Continental Deluxe Room, if tea isn't your thing there's a Nespresso machine on standby...
... or take a peek in the fridge for something cold. No, this isn't a pay-for minibar: everything inside is complimentary and replenished daily – and if you'd prefer an extra Coke Light instead of the full-calorie Coca Cola, the staff can certainly make that happen.
If your room doubles as your office on the road, perch yourself at the opposite end of that same bench where AC power is available...
... but only if you unplug the music dock and/or Handy smartphone that's loaned with your room: take this with you and you'll have free telephone calls and Internet access when out and about, and a temporary local Hong Kong number, without paying for roaming or buying a local SIM.
If you're not getting good speeds from the hotel WiFi, you can also turn the Handy into a mobile hotspot to create your own private network – but that music dock nearby is crying out for an upgrade, as it sports Apple's old 30-pin connector: superseded by the Lightning adaptor back in September 2012, more than five years ago.
As for other power points, you'll find them by the bed: but the way they've been positioned and installed also makes them unfriendly for modern technology.
For example, I couldn't plug in my Microsoft Surface charger properly without bending and damaging the cable, because what's normally the bottom of the charger where the cable connects can't face the room where there's plenty of space – it needs to face the wall, where there's none.
I had hoped to plug in here, sit on the sofa and get some work done while enjoying the mountainous view, but ended up moving back to the desk bench from which the mountains were out of sight.
As for the bathroom (below), I found it much more modern than a comparable room at the property's sister hotel, the nearby Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel, at which I've previously stayed.
Here at the Gateway was a walk-in shower with Trussardi amenities...
... in a space closed off from the room itself, which fortunately means there's limited noise heard from the bathroom when loud appliances such as hairdryers are in use.
Work
Staying in a 'Continental' room means you're free to work from the hotel's Continental Club Lounge as well, whether that's some solitary typing on your laptop or a meeting in the boardroom which you can hire for two hours each day at no charge.
But again, the 'power' situation isn't great here, with outlets near only a handful of seats: most of them neighbouring the walls.
Better for business travellers was the complimentary WiFi, with download speeds consistently measuring around 37.6Mbps, uploads at 49.6Mbps and ping speeds of 4ms, which is more than ample for data-hungry tasks like transmitting large files or HD video streaming.
Eat
Of course, the Continental Club Lounge isn't just for working: it's also where you'll enjoy breakfast, afternoon tea, evening bites and all-day snacks, included as part of your room rate.
The mornings offer a buffet spread of the typical suspects...
[You can click any of the images in this review to enlarge them.]
... plus a cooked-to-order menu, from which I ordered an Eggs Benedict.
Espresso coffee is available throughout the day, with snacks like macarons making an appearance too, ahead of the afternoon tea service where pastries, fruits and more macarons appear, plus a few warmed pre-dinner treats including hot chips and premium (wrapped) sandwiches:
A broader choice of hot items arrives at dinner time, along with some tasty sushi, meats and desserts. If you didn't have any dinner plans, you really could make an entire evening meal from this!
Another option for breakfast – but which attracts a $250HKD (A$40) charge – is the hotel's buffet restaurant, Three on Canton.
There's everything from local cuisine to international favourites, with a custom noodle station a definite highlight, where you design your dish and the breakfast chefs cook it for you.
I opted for the simple yet spicy Dan Dan noodles, cooked fresh to order, which hit the spot.
The back of the restaurant also serves as a bar during the day and can be directly accessed from inside the Harbour City shopping centre: handy if meeting a local for a drink as it's easy to find...
... and as you'd expect of any upmarket hotel, room service is available too: even if you're just craving a club sandwich.
The hotel also has an al fresco restaurant, Be on Canton, but the humid Hong Kong weather kept me inside in the air conditioning.
Relax
Yes, it's your pad for eating and working, but the Continental Club Lounge is also a decent place to relax in your spare time – whether that's relaxing with friends...
... or even just reading a book from the Continental Club Library:
The Gateway Hotel doesn't have a gym or pool of its own, but Gateway guests can take a short walk across to the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel where a well-equipped gym awaits...
... as does a swimming pool for your morning laps:
Gym facilities are available at the nearby Prince Hotel too, which falls under the same Marco Polo umbrella as the other properties and is again within walking distance, welcoming the same guests.
Overall, my Continental-level stay ticked most of the boxes, with the lounge being a great place to dine, work and relax; the room itself being well-kept and relatively modern, and views towards Hong Kong Island some of the best in the city.
That said, the Continental rooms themselves needs to become more tech-friendly – guests shouldn't miss out on enjoying the view just because of the power point layout, nor should they miss out on listening to music by failing to cart around a six-year-old Apple product.
In 2018, neither of these things should be a problem: but when that's the biggest complaint from an otherwise acceptable stay, I'd certainly consider the Gateway Hotel again on my next Hong Kong business trip.
Chris Chamberlin was a guest of the Gateway Hotel.
Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 785
You can't win with hotel power points. We carry an eight socket powerstrip with a vertical exit main plug - then you just need one local adaptor which the hotel can supply. Bit messy but it works.
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