We stayed at the LKF Hotel in late May 2007 for one night as a stopover on our way to Europe. We stayed in a 500 sq meter Superior Room.

Our stay was a lovely experience. The hotel is centrally located above the Lan Kwai Fung bar and shopping district (and for the sake of completeness, I should note that the LKF Hotel is NOT the Lan Kwai Fung Hotel (which is several blocks away and nowhere near the Lan Kwai Fung)). As such, the LKF is easy to get to and close to all sorts of restaurants, shops and bars.

The decor and fitout was very nice - luxurious and quite stylishly done. The bed was incredibly comfortable, with very very soft sheets and good medium to firm pillows. The bathroom was enormous, with a shower that pumped out lots of water, and Molton Brown toiletries.

The staff were very friendly and helpful.

Unlike some other guests we did not have a problem with noise.

My only quibbles would be:

* the "in room" check in - this seems to be becoming quite popular, and I have to say I am not sure why. While check in was easy and fast, I would much prefer to deal with all the administrative matters at the front desk and then be able to relax as soon as I get into the room, rather than having to stand around awkwardly in the room for ten minutes dealing with check in before I can relax. This is, of course, just my view, but I would love someone to tell me why "in room" check in is a benefit from the customer's viewpoint, and not just a way for the hotel to get people out of their foyer more quickly.

* the air conditioning - even on low, the air conditioning in the room was extremely cold. While this was lovely when we had just checked in from a long flight from Australia, it meant we both woke up shivering at 3am and had to turn the air conditioning off. Thank heavens for the wonderful blankets on the bed.

The coffee machine in the room was a godsend early in the morning as we woke up to go to the airport, and should be a compulsory item in every hotel room in the world.

Overall, I thoroughly recommend the LKF. I would definitely stay here again (including for a longer stay) - it was the perfect stopover hotel.

I have stayed here more than half a dozen times now after previously using the usual Shang, Conrad, Marriott, Mandarin and it's the service that makes this place. Yes, it's pretty funky and the rooms are very spacious with a great bathroom. No facilities such as pool but you can walk pretty much anywhere for business or pleasure. Arrived on my birthday to a cake and card and they remember just how I want the room each time. Perfect for the business traveller who is tired of the big chains.

Ok..my overall experience was very good but with a couple of caveats..

I booked directly with Rhombus LKF ("LKF") to try and secure a better long staying package rate. It didn't work out that much cheaper though I was upgraded to a Deluxe room. Everything was done through emails via Ms Wan in their reservations team. The level of service was excellent and all my questions and requests were answered quickly. I was being bothersome but Ms Wan was extremely patient. This level of efficient, friendly service was typical of the majority of LKF's staff. My wife singled out Tammy on front desk and a Mr Chow of concierge for making her feel really at home on her first twos nights. They also sent up a mini cake for my birthday during my stay and allowed us to take a quick shower in an unoccupied room after check out as we had the last flight out of HK. Their effort and demeanour now makes Landmark Mandarin Oriental's ("LMO") staff seem frosty by comparison!

My wife checked in first and I was to join her a couple of days later. We specifically asked for a quiet room and they gave her room 2008 which was a one of the larger, better Deluxe rooms. However, by the second night she had to ask for a room change due to the noise from Lan Kwai Fong. (I will give my views on this a bit further down). Anyway, the second room was 2301, facing Wyndham Road, slightly smaller and with more visible wear and tear. Configuration and fixtures differed slightly but it was still a good room.

This leads me to the room itself. It was bright and airy, the style was modern, the feel plush and it was well equipped. Being a corner room the layout was slightly different from a typical HK hotel room, with a distinct bedroom area, a half sliding door to seperate the sofa area and finally the oversized bathroom. I estimated it to be slightly under 500sq ft. The bed was large and quite comfortable (can't beat the LMO's bed though), large desk, Aeron chair, Panasonic plasma, dvd player, cute little sofa, ample storage space and a very large and practical safe. LKF have also gone for the technology thing with an intergrated surround sound, but it just seemed to me like a half hearted effort and was not very intuitive to use. I tried plugging in my MP3 and playing a DVD. Sound quality of the MP3 was poor and switching from TV mode to DVD was a hassle. So in this department it loses out to LMO and other HK hotels.

However LKF redeems itself with an in-room expresso machine which was very cool and vital to me every morning. The limestone bathroom was my favourite aspect of the room and imo is actually better than LMOs. OK, it doesn't have LMO's huge round bathtub, the LCD screen, and uber stylish fittings but you can actually move around in it without feeling cluttered and the combined bath tub and wetroom was brilliant. They provided a full range of toiletries and grooming items.

Internet was too expensive @ HK$150 for 24 hours. It really should have been included as part of my long stay package. Location was good but after a long day, its a steep uphill walk towards Wyndham street and when its hot, this can be a sweaty experience. When taking taxis remember to say that its the hotel actually in Lan Kwai Fong as there is a another similarly named hotel out towards Sheung Wan.

The major downside of the LKF has to be the noise. The hotel occupied a few floors of a building named LKF Tower. Within AND surrounding the tower are bars, clubs and restaurants that are open plan and spill on to the street. Therefore the music, shouting and screaming and taxi's contant beeping causes a cacophony that rises straight up and is clearly audible and annoying. You would think any person who decides to open in a concentrated entertainment district would make it a priority to soundproof the hotel. Its a "no brainer" as they say, except LKF completely overlooked this. The hotel windows consisted of a single thin pane of glass, not double glazing or soundproofed. I put my ear to the window and the outside sounded very clear. Contrast this to the New Otani Tokyo which overlooked a busy elavated highway. They invested in special windows which completely blocked out noise amongst other features.

The noise is worse Thursday through to Sunday and only died down after 4:00am. As we were in HK for work as well as R&R, the noise level was just too much to get a good night's sleep and would be the only thing preventing us from returning to this hotel.

Overall I think LKF almost clinched it as our perfect HK hotel- competitively price, convinient location, a modern, friendly establishment. Its a shame about the noise though this could probably be fixed quite easily if they wanted though . If you do stay here, ask for a room facing Wyndham Street SE corner. If you can sleep through noise,LKF is a great place to stay, otherwise bring your own ear plugs just in case!