If you do stay at any of the short-term Hong Kong flats listed on my web site, would you please drop me a line once you return from your trip, letting me know how it was? Just use the comment form on my front page, or comment to this post.
I would love to start sharing feedback so that others can make better decisions when they decide to rent a vacation rental, or even a hotel room for that matter. I want your honest opinions. If I get repeated comments that a flat is down right terrible, I will remove it from my page. On the other hand, if I get nothing but praises for a flat, I will highlight that fact. I will never release anyone's email address or other personal information.
thanks,
Bill
I finally have a review of a flat listed on my short-term apartment page. Some friends of mine stayed in the Sheung-Wan Hollywood Rd listing. Here is what they had to say. They had pictures too but since their family members were in them, I will not post them here. - Bill -----My friend says: This is the flat we stayed in Hong Kong. Very small but has everything - even a clothes dryer in addition to a clothes washer. The landlady is a Caucasian American who married a Chinese and has been living in HK for 30 years. She kept telling us to call her for anything even though we never had to. We would definitely stay there again if we go. Locaton is very convenient to everything - subway station, Sheung Wan market, post office, restaurants, 蘭桂坊. Thanks Bill for putting it on your blog.
 I was checking hotelscombined recently to see what the deals were currently in Hong Kong and I kept seeing these incredible cheap prices. It looks like people are starting up hostels all over that city. I saw one that was renting rooms for only $4 US per night! Now that is cheap! What I don't understand is that some of these hostels are rated 4 stars! How can that be? Being an American, when I think of a 4 star hotel, I'm thinking of something very nice and somehow I doubt a hostel in Hong Kong quite lives up to the standard. To me, none of them should be rated above 2 stars, no way. I'm not knocking them. They might be OK places to stay and it would definitly save money for other activities. - Bill
 I received the following comment today and took immediate action to remove all of my links to the malicious Craig's List postings. If anyone is on the Craig's List site looking for rentals, be sure to flag those cheap Central postings as spam, so that they get removed eventually.
I also put a little warning at the top of my vacation rental page on my site to warn any readers that I have of this trick. Thanks to Alexis for letting me know about this. - Bill
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hey there - great site and thanks for featuring my apartment.. mine's apt #4 in Central (the tripadvisor verified ad).
Your new listings (from 5 - 8 in central) are a scam - this person lists ridiculously low prices using others' listings and photos to get people to contact them and he/she will offer something else. My apt is listed as well by him/her (apt 7 bridges street) and i have contacted him to ask it to be removed. for example - Shama charges around US$200 per night and he listed it for US$60.
it would be great if you could warn your readers about this. Be very careful.
thanks!!!
alexis
Every time we go to Hong Kong, we just have to eat in a Japanese buffet restaurant. The experience is always a favorite of mine. For this trip we had to find a new restaurant as our old favorite in Tai Koo had closed it's doors. My wife's family located a hidden gem within the South China Hotel at North Point. The cost is around US $20 per adult. But that is a deal, a very good deal because buffets in Hong Kong are not like those in the US where you get cheap food that isn't fresh. The food is very good and the buffet also includes Kirin beer. Yes, I bet they hate to see Americans walk in. I can't see how they make any money at all. :-)
This one is highly recommended but I think you will need to go with someone who reads/speaks Chinese. The menu is all Chinese. They may have an English menu but we didn't ask.
Wada Japanese Restaurant
2/F South China Hotel, 67 Java Rd., North Point
This is within walking distance from the North Point MTR stop.
 During our recent trip to Hong Kong, a friend took us to Wing Chun Vietnam Restaurant for lunch. It was very refreshing and a nice change of pace. I was starting to get burned out on dim-sum at this point in the trip. But I really enjoyed the food here and would rate it in my top 3 favorite eats during the entire trip. The price was reasonable as well and they had English on the menu, always a bonus for me. Take the MTR to the Lok Fu station and then grab a taxi for a short ride to this address: Wing Chun Vietnam Restaurant 永珍越南餐廳18 Lion Rock Road Kowloon City, Kowloon You can see a map at the link above. It is near Prince Edward Rd in Kowloon City.
 My hunt for a good place to stay this Hong Kong trip is now over and I'm not going to be much help for any readers I have once I return. Why? Well, the very unfortunate news of my wife's relative's mom and dad both passing away in the past couple of years has opened up room for us. So we will stay with a relative this time in Chai Wan, the last stop on the MTR's Island Blue Line. We will be within walking distance of the people we spend the most time with there, so this works out well for us. I would still rather have my own place because that is more relaxing but the money this saves can not be passed up.
So unfortunately, I won't be able to give you all a reivew of a short term apartment in Hong Kong. Maybe one of these years. But please, if anyone does stay in an apartment that I link to from this web site, let us know how it was, your likes and dislikes, etc. It would be very helpful to any readers I may have here.
thanks,
Bill
 Our family trip to Hong Kong will be coming up this September. One of the places we will visit, will be Stlanley, located on the Island. I think this will be my chance to eat a Western dinner out. There are several choices to choose from in this area. Any suggestions? After viewing several choices from this web site, I'm leaning for "the Boathouse", the picture of the restaurant is shown in this post. Maybe the picture they show of the ribs and beer at the site is working on me. I know how hot it gets in Hong Kong and that full pint of draft with the ribs looks good already. :-)
 It was that time again, to work hard scouring the Internet travel sites attempting to find that best possible deal on airfare to Hong Kong. In the old days, this really worked, but the last few years the bottom line was that it is a waste of time. In the end, it was near impossible to achieve a better price than the airline offers themselves. I noticed a while ago that United actually guarantees the lowest fare price for their tickets. I thought wow, maybe I should not even bother searching elsewhere, but I'm not going to comply that easy. So I started checking around a bit and for the most part, United is telling the truth. Nobody could beat them. Many places tie them but don't really beat them. Then I came across a Google Ad of all things, advertising FlyHongKong.com. I figured why not check it out to see what they can offer. To my amazement, the ticket prices there were coming up $100 cheaper than United's own prices. But it was odd, because sometimes I would check the prices and they would basically match United. Then I would check a few minutes later and they would be $100 cheaper again. Finally, I decided not to risk this getting away and went ahead and booked! I only had to book my wife and children because I finally get to use my miles, yippee! So if anyone is planning travel right now and needs to fly to Asia, you might give this site a whirl to see what they can offer you.
 Well I am not one to panic but I have to admit, the "swine flu" has been on my mind lately, knowing that I'm planning to take the entire family to a city packed full of people. I wouldn't worry at all but as everyone who has children knows; as parents, we always worry for their sake.
My wife's friend in Hong Kong says, "Don't worry". According to him, there have been around 900 cases and the hospitals don't even keep the infected now. They give them some medicine and send them home, just like normal flu. Boy, if this is true, it is a far cry from how Hong Kong started out handling this "epidemic".
So I guess for now, I'm still planning the trip. It would take an incredible batch of severe bad news to change our plans at this point.
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