My group of 27 people was orginally booked for two nights (March 29-30, 05) at Shilin Hotel by our Tour Operator. A few weeks before departure, one member of my group came across a bad review by a customer about this hotel at Tripadvisor, and I requested that my group be rebooked at another hotel (Xihai Hotel). When we arrived at Huangshan, we found out that we were booked only for one night at Xihai on March 29, and were booked at Shilin the next night (March 30). Actually this worked out well as we could compare the two hotels.

Shilin was preferred by all members of my group. The rooms were fine.
My bathroom was fine. There were complaints on a couple of the rooms and bathrooms out of the total of 14 rooms, but they were not major.
A couple of members even received a fruit basket for complaining that their room was too small. There was some dampness in the rooms, but it was the same at the other hotel. This was probably because of the location up high in the mountain and the fact that the heating system was turned on only by 7 PM. The bathrooms did not have a bathtub, but they were better than Xihai hotel's bathrooms which had rusty bathtubs and peeling wall paints.

I'd rate Shilin as 2 to 3 star hotel compared to Xihai at 1 or less. It is definitely above average as far as the standard of hotels in Huangshan is concerned. I will not hesitate to recommend Shilin hotel to my friends.

We stayed at Shilin Hotel, a so-called 4-star hotel, for 2 days on 8/17 and 8/18/2004. This was the worst 4-star hotel that we have stayed. The room smelled very very moldy. It turned out that the shower curtain was spotty black, due to mold, at its lower one quarter and the shower mat was full of mold. We could not stand the smell and were shown 4 other rooms. They were equally bad smelling, either mold or urine. Be aware that besides suites, no other rooms have A/C.

We travelled with a group of 14 friends. No one was happy with their rooms -- all either smelling of mold or urine.

All in all, our group tried no less than 10 rooms the next day before settling in for our 2nd night. If it was possible, a few of us in the group would have cut our visit short after the first night, but we did not have other hotel pre-arranged, so we reluctantly stayed.

All I can say is: STAY AWAY FROM SHILIN HOTEL. This place badly needs a few truck-loads of disinfectant sprayed inside and out.