Rhonda Bracey: At Random

If ever you have to stay overnight in Hong Kong purely to catch a connecting flight and you only want a bed and a shower and not all the shopping etc. that HK has to offer, then seriously consider staying at the Novotel Citygate right near the airport.

I stayed there last night and it was fantastic. I just had a standard room (for around AU$150) but the fittings, furnishings etc. were top notch. The hotel was built about 3 years ago and boasted some things I’d never seen in a hotel (or a house) before. Like light switches that turned on and off the same way, which, when you think about it is pretty darned sensible. The switches looked like rocker switches, but they didn’t rock in two directions, just one. You touched the switch (a sort of metallic square) to turn the lights on — the switch returned to the same position, so you touched it again to turn them off. None of this ‘Do I flip the switch up (US) or down (Australia) to turn the lights on?’ So simple.

The storage was neat too — lots of little hidey holes everywhere. And there was this strange sculptural thing in the middle of the room — it housed the mini-bar, tea/coffee making facilities and the fridge. The bathroom was part of the room, but the toilet and shower were completely enclosed — in opaque bluish-green glass inside and out. You couldn’t see in or out, but it made for such a nice light! The desk had a hinged panel in the top that concealed the data cable ports and two power outlets, which presumably went through the leg of the desk into the floor as there were no cables/cords from the desk to the wall.

The bed was good too! And there’s a free shuttle every 15 minutes from the airport arrivals hall.

Part of room at Novotel Citygate Hotel, near Hong Kong Airport

More photos here…