Holiday Inn Express Hotels in Jianyang

Chose Holiday Inn because it was one of few hotels in Changdu to offer Non-Smoking Rooms. And the guaranteed 1600 check out time since our flight ETD was 1825. Alas the experience is less than stellar. First was the weird request to reserve the free airport pick up at least 2hrs in advance! Luckily, I asked our guide to do the reservation and he told us to meet the shuttle at T1 4F door 21 around 1825. The shuttle did arrive at 1828. The check in lady spoke good English, honoured our 1600 late checkout, advised and booked us to depart the hotel on their 1500 shuttle upon hearing our international flight was 1825. Room is pretty standard for 4 star Chinese hotels - with a dizzying array of switches and the usual modern looking shower with impractical features - no place to put your towels within easy reach while showering. It is not the worst though. Hotel is in a cluster of hotels around a 'food street' that was pretty sad state with little food and dining traffic. We opted to eat at the food stalls set up just across the road from the hotel. Hotel breakfast did have some western food but NO butter in the toast bread section! Due to it's distant location, we opted not to take a 2h public transport to Chengdu central but went to the central of the Jianyang satellite town that the hotel was in. Took 30min and 2 CNY pax. The other difficulty was trying to get back to hotel. The hotel doesn't show up in Amap or Didi app! Luckily, Amap does have the next door Ji Hotel which worked to guide us back.