A real pity about the location - Rosedale Hotel Kowloon

When I go to HK, I usually choose based on price, and location. This time, I chose based on price, number of stars, and presence of a gym. After searching through reviews on a.g.o.d.a and tripadvisor, I thought I'd give Rosedale a try. While it certainly wasn't a disaster, it was a bit hit and miss, at least for me.

Pros:
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- good price
- new, so has that modern new look, with stylish wide reception, which has some arty sculptures when you go up the escalator to reception. The outside of the lifts have a mixed LED and light display at the top, so you can see scrolling messages, and the lights will start flashing when approaching your floor- modern stylish and useful
- Level 30 sky bar type bar. I had a quick look and was impressed with the partial harbour view.
- Hotel room is modern and clean. Space is smallish, but this is very common in Hong Kong and Rosedale far from the worst. Perhaps those who complain about room size could also add how often they have been to HK, and their BMI. Those who are in HK first time will be taken aback by the small arm width rooms, while more seasoned travellers won't be so bothered. And sadly, it's an unfortunate fact of life now that many people are obese, and won't enjoy the space restrictions.
- Easy to get taxi downstairs.
- 5-10 min walk to Olympic station, though you'll need a map to find it first time. I suggest you print one at home first eg use google map.
- I had a nice partial view of the harbour.
- Gym is small, but well equipped. It's 24 hour, you just swipe your room key to unlock the door. It has a cable machine for working out various muscles, a complete set of hand dumbells, 2 treadmills, and a fancy looking stationary bicycle. There's also a cold and hot water dispenser and a mounted 32 or 38 inch LCD showing various music videos.

Even better was the decor, with alternating horizontal polished stainless steel and timber , and the timber is in a triangle cross section. It's very attractive and far too fancy for the size of the room. Given the size of the room, I thought it was really overkill, but I loved working out there.

Cons:
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- I had 2 single beds. The one closest to the window had a weird mouldy/vomit smell which only became obvious when I lay on it. For the life of me I could not work out where it came from. I sniffed the mattress, pillow, doona, my clothes and myself (I'm aware I need a healthy spray of deoderant!!!).

Obviously all I needed to do was change to the other bed, for sleep. But for reading, this was a problem because Rosedale, like many hotels, doesn't have a central overhead light to light the room, but a whole lot of wall/table lamps, and also 3 flexible mounted reading lights. On the bed closest to the window, you can aim all three in front of you for reading, so there's no shadows or darkness. But on the bed closer in, you can only really aim 1, so it's darker.

I do admit this is the first time I've been faced with funny smells, and I assume my room is an isolated case.

- The shower door is an interesting, yet ultimately flawed design. The shower door doubles as the toilet/shower door. If you use it to close just the toilet area, then the water from shower gets all over the toilet floor. Mildly annoying to me, but others have mentioned it too.

More interestiing is the button for "atomising" the glass. The shower and toilet door is actually glass. When you press the atomiser button, you caan make the glass transparent, or it can become very opaque. Now, besides the novelty value, or perhaps if you like to watch your significant other going to the toilet or showering, I can't think of any reason why I'd want clear glass for a shower wall. Maybe I just have to be able to watch tv, or see the sun set while I shower?

- Besides the mouldy smell, the biggest issue was the distance from the mong kok mtr. When you think train station, you reaall think about the mong kok station and that line, not the line Olympic is on. And it's a 15 minute walk each way, if you know where you're going. Again, you can take taxi easily, but if you compare this with being right next to a mtr station, you'll find location counts.

So overall did I enjoy Rosedale, and would I stay there again? Initially i was very impressed with it's attractiveness, which was in contrast with the older surrounding buildings. But the shower door and smelly bed soon dampered my enthusiasm. The distance further reduced it. For the price, I find you can get other hotels and I don't think I'll be returning to Rosedale, for the foreseeable future.

If you've read this far, I thank you for your time. I do tend to be quite wordy!!!