锦江之星十堰北京中路店

This is what you would expect of a 3 star hotel in North America but much less expensive. On the plus side: the rooms are clean and large enough, the staff is courteous and helpful, the buffet brakfast (18 yuan) is more than ok, very convenient location with a bus stop just a few metres away, near the attractive new city museum and the sports stadium, very close to downtown. On the down side: bring some earplugs if you are a light sleeper as the walls are pretty thin. Also, no international or english news channels among their bouquet of tv stations. The furniture is basic but functional.

My only complaint, and it's a mild one, is that these hotels in the hinterlands of China never quite get the online booking thing. Even though my room was already paid through Expedia they tried to collect again on check-out. It was resolved after going through three levels of management. Not Expedia's fault I know. But I was lucky to have a Chinese-American who spoke excellent Mandarin to help iron it out. Otherwise I would have had to pay twice.