GrahamLaw wrote:I've said it before and I'll say it again, use google earth. You can find plenty of hotel locations. As for hotel reviews you can check companies like the AA. I must admit I never bother doing the research into hotels before I go, I just look at how many stars they have.
I wouldn't recommend that. If you care about your money, at least =]
Even though China claims to be a communictsic country, it's the most capitalistic place I've ever been to. It's all about money, money, money. If you just go to a Hotel (not a hotel chain like Holiday In) and ask for a room, you'll probably pay much more than you would with a little bit of asking-around. Good places to start are tourist-information places.
An example: When we first arrived in Guilin we walked outside the airport, waiting for the shuttle bus to Guilin City Center. While waiting, someone from the airport's tourist information offered us help in finding a hotel. Honestly, chinese people won't let go before you haven't checked out their offering (that's pretty awkward if you're european ... I think chinese people understand a "No" as a "No, but ..." And that "but" keeps them persistent
).
Whatsoever, she told us about a hotel near the river for 200 Yuan per night. We would have to pay at the tourist information - it would be much more expensive to book the room at the hotel (that sounded a little bit implausible to us ...). Because we landed at night time, we decided to take the risk and the hotel just for one night, willingly to search for another hotel on the next day.
One hour later we arrived at the hotel and checked out the room rates. The Standard room would have cost 488 Yuan per night, more than twice as much as we've had to pay! The room was ok, so we decided to keep the room for the rest of our stay in Guilin. It was a tough job to get the room for 200 Yuan per night again, but we managed to do it.
Conclusion: I really dont know if this works everywhere in China, but you should always give it a try and ask around or listen to what people are telling you. Sometimes you have to ask by yourself, sometimes people will offer you their help. In the first moment, they don't seem to be trustable, but most of them are (but beware of too friendly people in big cities like Shanghai, they want your money, money, money =]).