Pan Pacific Suzhou (Pacific King Club Garden Suite)
During my trip to Suzhou, I stayed in the 5 star resort, Pan Pacific Suzhou, located just at the south west corner of the old Suzhou city with direct backdoor access to the Pan Men Scenic Area.
I chose this property due to its traditional chinese architecture and beautiful landscaped gardens with carp ponds and beautiful pagodas.
The property is a 20 minutes taxi ride away from the Suzhou railway station located on the North side of the city. This time, I was upgraded to its Pan Pacific King Club Suite with my private pavilion garden offering views of Suzhou old city.
The well appointed 50-60sqm Pan Pacific King Club Suite with Garden features a walk in area with an open space garden however which I was not able to use due to the rainy weather. The interior has a modern decor, king sized bed with wide workstation and ergonomic chair.
The en-suite bathroom has 2 area, the luxurious deep soaking spa pool within my personal pavilion and a spacious vanity area with rainfall shower.
This suite is not featured on the website as most of the other suites offers view of the interior of the property as compared to this. I would have enjoyed more of the suite if it weren't for the bad weather that made the gardens pretty not accessible.
Being a Pan Pacific Club guest also grants me access to the Pan Pacific Club Lounge and its accompanying benefits such as
- Complimentary breakfast at main restaurant or Club Lounge
- All day beverages, coffee and tea at the Club Lounge
- Complimentary mid afternoon treats
- Complimentary evening cocktails and pre-dinner snacks
I was disappointed with the afternoon tea treats which mainly featured only 1 tray of sandwich and another tray of cake. I expected some hot dishes as per compared to the Pan Pacific Singapore.
Similarly, I was disappointed on the evening treats as the hot dishes were cold and tasted as though they were prepared hours ago. The pizza was cold and hard, same for the spring rolls.
The next morning, I headed towards the club lounge as it was just located at the lobby of my block for breakfast
As per yesterday, the only issue I had was that the food was lukewarm and could be much better
Overall, this stay had so much promise. The property is simply gorgeous but it was let down by the lack of service quality and product quality by its service staff, especially in the club lounge. Their concierge however was extremely helpful, I had a few tours which was arranged by the staff and due to me being new in the city, Nick the concierge even waited for me after the end of his duty to bring me to the ferry terminal across the street. Kudos to the Concierge team!
I was glad that my subsequent emails to the GM highlighted the issues which I faced and that these issues were problems which I should not have encountered. I accepted and was satisifed with the service recovery gesture by the management.
Given the beauty of the property and its proximity to many places within the Suzhou Old City, I would definitely return to this property. I just hope that next time, the service level and product offering would be much better.
