HK hotel alternative

[jon.bosak@sun.com]

Tim has brought to my attention an alternative for those seeking
the lowest hotel rates for the UBL meeting in Hong Kong: Robert
Black College.  As he notes, it is cheap and within walking
distance of the meetings.  It also appears to provide internet
connections.  The web site is at

   http://www.hku.hk/rblack/

Regarding the Bishop Lei, Tim says:

   i have stayed at bishop lei it wasn't anything special (food
   was poor by HK standard).  i also recall it is a shuttle bus
   across the busiest part of town.

Dorris Tai of HKU provides the following further details:

   Robert Black is an older establishment (but clean) and located
   right on campus. However, at the time we looked into
   accommodation for the UBL members, Robert Black only has a
   limited number of rooms available for the May period and
   wouldn't block them for us. Please visit
   http://www.hku.hk/rblack/.

I asked Dorris whether there was anything that might incline a
visitor to prefer one of the hotels off campus instead, and she
replied:

   Robert Black is about 5-minute walk to the meeting venue, but
   is not close to shops or restaurants (about 10-20 minutes taxi
   ride or 20-30 minutes bus ride) to downtown area. HKU is
   located on a mountain west of downtown.

   For the hotels, Island Pacific and Novotel (directly on the
   bottom of the mountain where HKU is) are about 5-10 minute taxi
   ride to the meeting venue or to downtown area (or about
   20-minute walk to downtown). Bishop Lei (east of HKU and
   directly above downtown) is about 5-minute taxi ride to the
   meeting venue or to downtown area (or about 10-minute walk to
   downtown). As many HKU visitors in the past have stayed in
   Bishop Lei, Island Pacific and Novotel, those hotels could
   offer those discounted room rates.

Personally, I think I'd prefer to stay close to downtown, so I
think I'll stick with the Bishop Lei.

Here's where we appear to be staying based on what people have
told me:

   Robert Black: Tim McGrath
   Bishop Lei: Jon Bosak, Mavis Cournane
   Renaissance Harbour View: Mark Crawford, Stig Korsgaard
   Island Pacific: Ken Holman, Yukinori Saito, Stephen Green
   Novitel: Paul Thorpe

Jon