We are two couples stayed at Pullman Hotel from October 9 to 12. It is a good time to visit the beautiful park after China's long holiday. We really did not experience of long waiting line at the entrance, cable car, or elevator at all.
Our problem was at hotel check in. Many conferences are held at the Pullman Hotel from different government and business sectors, so our hotel is rather full. We have called hotel reservation department earlier on the day of check in to inform hotel that we will be checking in rather late be sure to reserve proper room for our booking. When we arrived at the hotel around 9PM, we were given superior king rooms on smoking floor instead of deluxe king non-smoking room on higher floor. The front desk worker did not even mention that they did not give us rooms we booked which has higher room rate. It was good that I double check with her that whether these are non-smoking rooms. She told me that they do not have non-smoking room available with king bed. If I want non-smoking, we have to take twin room instead. My brother-in-law got upset and ask to talk to the manager. The manager on duty, Danny Yao, came out and apologized for their mistake and try to make arrangement to accommodate our needs. He tried to move the only one has not yet checked in room from conference group to give us one king room and ask us to settle for another non-smoking twin room. After we got in our rooms, a nice fruit basket was sent to each room. He also offer us nice buffet dinner with a bottle of house red wine to compensate our inconvenience during our stay. On the day of our check out, hotel's general manager, Michael Wang, accompanied by Danny; greeted us upon our check-out and gave us a beautiful drawing made by Michael himself of the beautiful scenery of Zhangjiajie. I would say the management has done a five star job like any other true 5 stars hotel management would have done in same situation.

The hotel itself is a little dated but clean and comfortable. The hotel should put more lights in the bathroom, because the lighting is rather dim for a bathroom. Their breakfast buffet is adequate for a 5 star hotel. Our room is being called mountain view room but you really do not see any beautiful mountain scene but only building next door and tips of some mountain. This is not a problem since we are always out all day in the park looking at beautiful mountains. A comfort bed is much more important after a long day of hiking. Hotel has very good location if you are not staying inside of the park. The hotel is only a very short distance from Wulingyuan park entrance.

I would say this is a pretty good experience for a hotel just minutes away from a beautiful national park entrance.

Let me start by saying that the Pullman is about as good as you are going to get close to Wulingyuan!
The hotel is withing walking distance of the park entrance and from there the park has shuttle busses that will take you everywhere. Anything else of any substance is going to be in the city of Zhangjiajie, which is about 30 minutes away by taxi.
Clearly this city is trying to build its tourist trade, but not with Americans, or for that matter anyone who does not speak Chinese. Actually, there is a clear and apparent oversion tword anyone who does not speak Chinese. With the exception of an intern by the name of Carolina, the rest of the staff have little to no English language skills. As a result you receive poor service or are simply dismissed with no resolve to your question or issue. Carolina was a saving grace and was clearly as frustrated with the lack of basic customer care that even a front desk clerk at a motor court motel would willingly provide.
As an example, the simple act of checking-out and the creation of a folio sheet showing that all my charges were paid in full was an unnecessary ordeal that lasted 30 minutes. In addition, I used the laundry bag for my dirty laundry in my suitcase. The bag was thin fabric, rather than the usual plastic. I didn't think anything of it. Upon checkout I was asked to product the bag or pay a charge of $7.50 US. Really? At this point insult was added to injury.
On a more positive note, the room was immaculate and well appointed. The breakfast buffet has both Asian and Western selections. Wifi is free and in all public places and the rooms.
If I ever return to Wulingyuan, I will be hard pressed to stay at the Pullman again or take my chances elsewhere.

I really wanted to like the Pullman, especially because I had been traveling for several weeks all around China and stayed in crappy, cheap hotels (Super 8s and 7 Days Inn). I was looking to Pullman to be a relaxing getaway weekend, which it almost was, except for the terrible service. The reason you pay a premium to stay in a nice hotel in China is so that you can get decent service. I did not have time to do detailed internet research as to what the best way to sightsee Zhangjiajie is, and I regret it. The "tourist desk" that the front desk pushed me to speak to (their "concierge," if it can even be called that, wouldn't even spend 3 minutes to talk to me at 7 am when no other guests were around, but instead directed me into their "outsourced" tourist bureau) is a complete sham and rip-off. The woman who works there insists that the tourist sights are completely unmanageable without purchasing one of their ridiculously overpriced tour packages - around 1780 RMB per person for 2 days. She tells you that you have to take a car in between the tourist spots, that there are no taxis or other cars that can transport you in between (it's funny how she didn't even mention the 'huanbaoche' or environmentally-friendly buses that seamlessly take you in between attractions in Wulingyuan, where the Pullman is located), and that it's impossible to get to Tianmen Mountain in ZJJ without a car and driver (also a lie, a bus ticket is 10 RMB). She tells you it's such a great deal because the entrance ticket alone to Tianmen mountain is 600 RMB (again, lies). Even after talking her down to 1000 RMB per person, I still felt like it was a huge rip-off. Our tour guide was 21 and wasn't from the area, so she didn't know much about the place. Second, she was "too tired" to climb up Wulingyuan mountain, so we didn't get much of a benefit of having her there. Third, you DO NOT NEED a private car and driver to drive you 3 MINUTES to the front gate of Wulingyuan park. There are tons of taxis that only cost 10-15 RMB. And there are park buses that take you from the main part of Wulingyuan to the area where Avatar was filmed, so what did you just pay a driver over 250 RMB to do? Drive you a total of 6 minutes, when you could even walk this distance.

Second, the service in the Chinese restaurant at Pullman was appalling. We arrived at 830 pm, 30 minutes before they close, and were told we could order. The waitress asked if I needed a minute, to which I responded, "Yes." Not less than a minute later, she comes over to say that we need to hurry. When I politely say that we haven't even had a chance to open the menu, she turns around, sucks her teeth at me, and storms off in the other direction. When we finally got to order, I specifically asked for the sauteed cauliflower without peppers, as I'm allergic. The dish arrives with peppers, so we tell the manager. He apologizes and says he'll have the chef make a new dish. Lies. They just picked the peppers out of the SAME dish. How could I tell? The fact that my throat started to close when I put a piece of cauliflower in my mouth (which was obviously stir-fried with the peppers previously).

I also need to say that I speak fluent Mandarin and have lived, worked, and traveled in and out of China for over six years. This was pretty appalling if you ask me, and I've generally had really great experiences here in China (which is why I keep coming back).