Keep in mind here this is a budget accomodation, and the 5 star rating is based on places within…read moreits category. Not everyone would be comfortable in a building like this but I can tell you those peoples fears are just needless fears for something beyond their comfort zone.
This guest house is located in the famous Chung King Mansions. If you have been to Hong Kong you might know it, as its somewhat famous. Its a huge complex of several wings of buildings, most about 16 floors high, and each block has a letter, like A B C D E F G etc. What you see on Nathan Road is just one block of many. Wikipedia estimates there are 4000 people living here. My guess is that there are 300 small guest houses in here. The elevators up in each block have a sign on each side. ONLY take the elevator nearest that wall. If you take the other like many people do thinking both go to all floors you will be riding awhile as ONLY the one next to the sign stops at those, and the one 3 feet away ONLY stops at the ones on the opposite wall. NOTE-THERE IS OFTEN A LINE FOR THE ELEVATOR, AND IF IT BUZZES WHEN YOU ENTER, THAT MEANS IT IS OVERWEIGHT AND YOU NEED TO BACK OUT IMMEDIATELY AND WAIT FOR THE NEXT TRIP. YOU HAVE TO KNOW THIS OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE THE BIG IDIOT HOLDING EVERYONE UP AS IT WONT MOVE AS LONG AS ITS BUZZING!
The bottom floor is a large maze of businesses, restaurants, and services. Most of those are owned by Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Sri Lankan, African, and of course Chinese. In the morning is very quiet and most are closed. In the day it starts to pick up and at night it gets even busier. A weekend night even MORE busy.
YES there are hawkers trying to sell tailoring, fake watches, sim cards, and rent rooms. If you respond to one hawking rooms, they wont be the owner usually, just someone to lead you to the rental spot to get a commission. All this activity scares so many people and if you read reviews elsewhere, this frightened many away but it need not be. I am VERY PLEASED with my room.
The only real worry is having a guest from hell put on your floor with screaming kids running around and slamming doors. I have had that twice but both stayed only 1 night. If your in an area with smaller rooms you might fare better here but I have a "family" room so are more apt to run into this issue.
I checked in on the 16th floor of block D. They took me though to my room on the 9th floor of block C. A deposit is charged for the key card. The check in place handles check in for 8 diff guest houses. Some people freak when led away but dont. This is normal. I dont see any reason to fear the bottom floor either. Just keep walking and ignore those selling things or calling out. That is normal in many parts of the world and if your not personally used to it there no need to freak out over it.
I booked on travelocity and got a double for single use using a travelocity 10% off code for 3 nights or more and it cost me $24.48 USD a night. This place is a perfect location, just a minute or two walk to very expensive hotels like the Peninsula, etc, and also the Star Ferry.
The room is super clean, had maid service daily, good internet, plenty of plugs, a safe, a fridge, good a/c TV, hotel water heater you control and more. In the hall is a microwave and hot pot for boiling water. Its everything I need.
You can also get here on the CITY FLYER BUS from the airport for 33 HK$. Thats a bargain! STOP #14 is a one min walk away-exit bus turn left and enter at CHUNG KING MANSIONS. To go back to the airport walk across st and turn right until you see A21 stop. There is plenty of room for bags on the bus, and the express trains and buses make you transfer again to get here in Kowloon-no need to do all that and pay more. See the pics posted. There are many many guesthouses here like I said, most also of decent quality. If for some reason you are not booked, just walk in and let the hawkers take you to a room and see what they have. There is always openings somewhere here.
After you have been here some days the hawkers call out less and less. They learn your face. I see several females here alone, and have not seen any troubles in 4 days now.
Guest houses here dont serve breakfast but theres food aplenty down on ground floor. Big bonus if you like curries! OR EXIT bldg turn right and enter CKE mall 4 feet away 2nd floor up for Cafe de Coral if you want decent cheap food cafeteria style. Pay first. Main desk says Cafe Oral as someone stole 3 letters. Its a chain restaurant.
ps Australian is only the name. I think there is a guest house in this building named for each country and there is nothing Australian about this one, and likewise with all the other nations guesthouses. So whatever nations name you pick means nothing.
