My stay at Shangri La Guangzhou was horrible. I ha...

My stay at Shangri La Guangzhou was horrible. I have stayed at the shangri la Bangkok and Pudong and had a better experience. Moreso , I come to Guangzhou for business just about every 3 months and have stayed at the Ritz Carlton , Four seasons , The W hotel , The Mandarin and had way better service. It was quite sad to find out that during my stay , almost all of the staff could not understand English. I was very lucky to come across my new and helpful Malaysian friend (Shinyee) who spoke very good English and assisted me tremendously. The only day she was off , I had a world of trouble. I have a translator but on this day , she was running late. I went up to conceirge to inquire about a package which had to be delivered and to book a Taxi for the airport the next day. I was shocked when a girl at your conceirge told me she doesn't understand English and left me hanging for a quick minute. I then walked up and cued on the line to talk to someone at the check in counter. When it was my turn , it took a lot of explanation for the receptionist to understand my need/want. She then walked me back to conceirge where a gentleman was present upon our return. She said he could understand English. It turns out he could barely understand me and I tried not to get frustrated. We got my package that was delivered. Now , booking a Taxi to pick me up for the airport was a whole new ordeal. We struggled and he finally understood my flight info. Now going to dinner downstairs at the buffet was very upsetting. Non of the waitresses spoke English. They will rush to clean up my table and avoid me because of the language barrier. They were even avoiding eye contact with me. I finally walked up to one and asked for Chamomille tea. She kept on saying green tea , black tea .........nooooooo Chamomille tea. She then said okay and walked away. She brought a tea cup half full with hot water and looked nothing like tea. I asked her what type of tea was in my cup and she kept on saying tea tea. I finally gave up , didn't drink the tea and left the restaurant which I didn't care if I was charged for the dinner even though I barely ate. I sat on the table for a while observing and had to even beg for my ticket to sign and leave because they were all avoiding me. Quite a pitiful and worst experience for someone who has traveled to about 40 different countries. Eva at the spa was fantastic. I went there to relax and was glad to find her so welcoming , empathetic to my experience and made me feel safe. It's scary because as a guest , if you have a medical emergency , you will die because no one can understand you at the hotel. Quite sad for such a beautiful hotel with picturesque landscaping.