[expat_uncle]

Good news, spread the word There are good places in Quarry Bay / North Point - you access eastern Kowloon easily and quickly and the places appear quiet, clean, convenient and well run but two weeks may not be long enough for a booking. You can negotiate a long stay rate with City Garden hotel in North Point, Stanford Hill in TST (neither of which I have stayed at) and the BP International near Kowloon Park (where I have stayed and which is very good and reasonable).

[Valencia1]

Where is Olympic Terrace? Is it in Olympic City?

[illbback]

Originally Posted by expat_uncle

This is a review of Olympic Terraces "serviced" apartments in Sham Shui Po.

Having pre-paid, unfortunately I had to suffer my month long stay.
The place is abominable. Noise coming up from street level is huge. Windows don't shut properly plus air conditioners let in everything even if the windows didn't.

"Servicing" amounts to a perfunctory sweep of the floor and cleaning of the dunny. OK you do get clean sheets but most of the towels, though clean, were actually thread-bare. I had to ask two or three times to have the room serviced. A day before I checked out it was due to be serviced but wasn't. When I asked the manager (see below) I was told, 'but you're checking out tomorrow'

The kitchen I have not used at all as it's actually sticky it's so dirty. You get two scratched bowls, two dirty glasses and two aluminium pans which are so thin they burn water.

The manager is uncooperative to the point of being rude. None of the staff, apart from the rude manager, speak any kind of English.

Front door of the unit is not insulated so yelling kids next door add to the cacophony.

On reviewing prices and facilities of other serviced apartments both Kowloon side and HK side, this place is actually not economical at all.

Broadband works fine, but then it does so pretty much anywhere.
Phone I have not used - Skyped instead.

Laundry is 30 HK per load. Extortionate.

Swimming pool is covered in a layer of body grease and the 'gym' is not air conditioned so unless you want instant coronary, don't work out there in September.

So, no customer service, not very clean, exceedingly noisy, the lifts are slow, the website is misleading and generally it's a miserably useless place. Obviously some greedy bastard is raking it in for now, but I expect there's not much repeat business. I certainly won't be coming back.

Cheers,
Uncle

Hi, I lived at the Olympic Terraces during the month of April-June of 2004. The reason I stayed there is because I came back to marry a girl I met over the Internet. I didn't want to stay in a hotel because it was too expensive and I want a place that felt more like home when I returned from a long day of activities.

Here are my evaluations of Olympic Terraces:

Price: I paid $9000 a month compared to other service apartments in TST or Jordan for $11000 to $13000 a month.

Location: I felt that was the best part in terms of accessibilties. You have 2 subway lines within walking distances from the apartment and numerous bus lines along the main streets.
It is true that you have to walk through a few streets that might not seem so desirable, but I felt relatively safe walking with my wife even at 2 in the morning.

Food: the cost of meals are definitely cheaper compared to other area, but it might not be suitable for westerner.

Building is relatively clean from the outside but definitely not your 3 star hotel. The service crew was pretty friendlyand helpful granted they don't speak much English.

I didn't opt for the maid services because I don't like people going through the apartment especially when I have a lot of cash and jewelry.

It was also true the kitchen equiptment were inadequate, but we ate out most of the time so that didn't bother us too much. Our bathroom was clean but the toilet doesn't flush properly.

We thought the swimmimg pool was the biggest joke. It was too shallow even an aligator would have trouble swimming in it. The exercise room is definitely not what you expect an execise room to be. With the windows open, I guess you can manage a quick work out.

We lived on the 25th floor (highest floor) with the windows facing the West Kowloon Expressway and were not bothered by the road noise and have a great sea view. So, It was great waking up to such a beautiful scenery every morning.

All in all, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from the start and feel very comfortable during my stay. I guess I was more concern about the wedding than to worry about the little problems with the apartment.

Just my opinions about my stay at Olympic Terraces.

[expat_uncle]

Originally Posted by Valencia

Where is Olympic Terrace? Is it in Olympic City?

You'd think so, wouldn't you. No, it's quite a distance away.

[graeme@mccaulay]

Why did we not see this site sooner !!!!

Olympic Terraces - what a nightmare - should be reported to Hong Kong Tourist Assoc for false and misleading advertising.

Lasted a night having prepaid 5 - we live and we learn !

[zoolander]

Hey guys, I was just about to book a month at this place, as it is the cheapest place we can have a dog at!
We live in Australia and are expatting in July. We have been searching for a couple of weeks and this looked like the right place. But my housemate was a skeptical, saying it looked a little dingy - it turns out he was right! I know the last post was a long while ago, but I cant see it being improved THAT much...

[Miss P]

Without more info to go on, re your needs- if you don't mind a commute you may find something better for dog etc in DB ,Sth Lantau or New Territories short-term -suggest post an ad here or Asiaxpat or check their daily or short term rental sites ;also a lot of families leave for summer and may be interested in short term summer rental whilst they are away -is there a network thru your work you can plug into?

[zoolander]

We are leaving the dog behind with parents for the first month, so we are not as hampered in our accom search. Only thing stopping us now is $$$. Our budget is between 20-25K, hopefull in a place where they DONT require a months rent as deposit (which most of them do). Any help will be apreciated...

[z754103]

I'm desperately looking for 2-3 bedroom serviced apartment for 2 weeks in October, for family members coming to stay in HK.

Olympic Terrace is the only place with 3 bedroom available at a reasonable price, within fairly easy travelling distance to central. Has anyone stayed there recently? Is it still as awful as the earlier reviews?

Anyone else has other ideas on where I might find accomodation at around HKD2000 per day? Harborview Horizon at Ma On Shan or Gold Coast is a bit too far for us, as I'll need to travel to and from Central every evening to see them so a max commute from Central of 30 minutes each way(i.e. making one round trip every night after work and back to my own home again).

I'm getting desperate!

[Claire ex-ax]

Have you looked at Discovery Bay? There are usually many short-let apartments advertised in DB magazine.