Review of Wyndham Grand Plaza Royale Colorful Yunnan 4*

The Wyndham has become the go-to hotel when teams from my company travel to Kunming. I’ve personally been here three times over the past four months for a total of 14 nights. The Good: The rooms are very clean, fresh and new. The main restaurant has a huge buffet with a wide variety of regional food and everyone can find something they want. I’ve eaten in the Thai restaurant, which was very good, and I’ve heard the Chinese restaurant onsite is excellent too (from a co-worker that’s Chinese). The staff here is extremely friendly and helpful. I don’t know if this is the true downtown of Kunming, but the hotel seems perfectly located to everywhere. Forty minutes from the airport (without traffic). There’s a nice shopping mall next to the hotel and a large outdoor shopping area just across the street that has a wide variety of food. Finally, I love how the top shelf of the refrigerator is free with the room. A few sodas, a beer and snacks are a nice touch. Traveler Tip: Check out the wild potato chip flavors they stock in the room. Be sure to try them so the maid restocks every day. The Bad: Really, the only thing that needs mentioning are the warm rooms. The A/C in the rooms is not powerful enough to bring the rooms down to a comfortable temperature. I’ve been fortunate enough to stay in the suites, so maybe the smaller standard rooms are better. But it takes a solid 48 hours to get the rooms down to what I consider a reasonable 22c/72f. The rooms will drop another degree or two during the day if the room is empty, but climb right back up once you’re in the room and have the lights on. Still too warm for me. Build Maintenance can’t fix the issue either (I tried) Room for Improvement: The internet is very slow. I’ve had rooms at both ends of the hotel and never had what’d I’d consider a decent connection speed. The executive lounge is also limited for breakfast and happy hour. It isn’t very popular, so maybe there isn’t enough demand for a bigger menu. Finally, while the staff is very friendly, their English is almost non-existent once you get past the front desk. It does make for some humorous ad-lib sign language and pointing sessions when asking the cleaning maid for more bottled water and shampoo.