Wednesday 26 November 2008

Regal Airport Hotel, Hong Kong

Right next to Hong Kong Airport, the Regal is a vast modern hotel serving the many business travellers catching early morning flights out of this busy Asian hub. The extensive lobby with its shiny floor and spaceship-style decor is dotted with seats, tables, pillars and pot plants. The unimaginative, but comfortable, rooms have grey carpets, brown wooden fittings, limp abstract prints on the white walls and compact bathrooms with naff black sinks. Still, the large flat screen televisions show 30 channels covering a good variety of languages. Via room service, you can order main meals, such as a fat and juicy 280g sirloin steak, served with squidgy, salty chips, a pleasant black pepper sauce and a small helping of peppers soaked in olive oil. Your main course comes with three warm bread rolls, but costs a pricey HK$238. You can wash it down with a small Japanese beer from the minibar for HK$50. Unfortunately, sleeping at the Regal isn't as pleasant - the air conditioning is noisy, you can hear next door's shower and the din of the odd aeroplane coming into land. At HK$2,100 for a double room, you pay a lot for convenience and some comfort. 5/10