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About the Four Seasons Hotel Tianjin

The Four Seasons Hotel Tianjin is located in a vibrant commercial district, within walking distance of the charming streets and lanes of the old city, making it an ideal base for exploring this international port city. The hotel features refined outdoor dining venues, a picturesque pool, and a full-service spa. Its spacious guest rooms also offer sweeping views of this dynamic city without ever leaving your room.

Compared with the Tianjin Ritz-Carlton, which is also part of FHR, the Four Seasons feels a bit livelier. It’s right next to Isetan and Joy City, so dining and entertainment are more convenient. If you stay on a higher floor, the city night views are excellent as well. Parking is free for hotel guests; before you leave, just give the front desk your license plate number. The parking area in front of the hotel is quite small and usually full, so you’ll probably need to park underground.

AMEX FHR Booking + Successful Reimbursement

This trip to the Four Seasons Tianjin was a bit rushed. It was almost the end of 2021, and I still hadn’t used the $200 FHR credit on my AMEX Platinum card. So I started looking for a nearby hotel. In Tianjin, only the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton qualified for FHR, and both were reasonably priced at around $200. Since I had stayed at the Ritz-Carlton before, I decided to try the Four Seasons this time.

Since the year-end credit was about to expire anyway, I figured I might as well book a stay in 2022. After booking, I received the reimbursement right away, and it even triggered the $200 AMEX Travel Credit that had come with my Platinum card earlier. So I booked a $219 stay and got back the $200 FHR credit + $200 AMEX Travel credit, which was a pretty good deal. (I’m not sure why part of the reimbursement showed up as UA... Maybe because I was also working on UA Travel Bank at the same time?)

If you’re also planning to book through FHR, I recommend reading our article carefully:

Check-In

Since I had booked through FHR, I had both my own and my wife’s AMEX Platinum cards ready for verification at check-in. But the front desk agent said the system could already see that it was an FHR reservation, so no proof was needed and we would receive the FHR benefits. It seems verification really depends on the front desk.

She said we could be upgraded by one level to a more premium room, but not to a suite. If we wanted a suite, she suggested booking a deluxe room next time, since the next category above that would be a suite, and an upgrade might be possible if available. If I remember correctly, the higher room category was about $40 more, but with taxes it would have gone over the $200 credit limit. I may try that next time.

I also specifically asked about how the $100 benefit at the FHR hotel could be used. The agent was very knowledgeable and explained that it could be used at all restaurants, for in-room dining, for lobby dining, and so on, as long as the charges were posted to the room. At check out, the front desk would settle the bill and simply remove it from the folio, which was very convenient. I casually asked whether it wasn’t supposed to be a spa credit, and she said that because of the pandemic, the spa was closed, so it had been changed to a dining credit. I had booked two rooms for the same day, and after confirming, both rooms received a $100 credit and breakfast for two.

After check-in, she gave us a letter introducing the various FHR benefits. The whole process took about 20 minutes, which was still pretty fast.

There was also a small play tent for kids next to the front desk, which was a nice touch. The front desk would even give out game tokens for free capsule toys.

The lobby overall felt grand, but it also had that distinctive Four Seasons atmosphere. The row of bamboo, contrary to what some people online had said, didn’t feel out of place at all. I actually thought it gave off a nice Jiangnan vibe.

Room

I’ve used plenty of hotel certificates and stayed in quite a few suites, but this room at the Four Seasons was the most impressive to me. Because it was a corner room, the floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides filled the entire room with sunlight.

On a winter afternoon, just lounging there in the sunshine was incredibly relaxing.

If you’re bold enough, you could even take a bath in broad daylight.

The view outside the window was also very nice.

The bathroom only had sliding doors, and once opened up, the connected space had excellent natural light.

Breakfast

I was too busy eating and forgot to take pictures. It was solid overall. What surprised me was that they even had Tianjin specialty gaba cai. I also finally got to try self-serve lao doufu, which tasted quite good.

How to Use the $100 Hotel Credit

Generally speaking, using this kind of credit at the hotel restaurant is the best option. The prices may be high, but at least the value floor is better. I usually wouldn’t recommend spending it on the mini bar, in-room dining, or lobby drinks, because the markup is just too obvious. A bottle of Coke was 15, juice was 25, a tiny pack of mints was 15, and a bottle of beer in the lobby was 55.

That said, both the front desk and the in-room dining staff were very familiar with guests trying to fully use the $100 credit, and they even recommended various wine combinations that would maximize it. But since we don’t really drink much, we just ordered a bunch of nuts and dried fruit, plus a few drinks from the mini bar. When we went to settle at the front desk, we found we had only spent a little over ￥600, still quite short of the combined ￥1200 ($200) for the two rooms. So we kept adding a few freshly made desserts and boxed chocolates from the lobby until we got to around ￥1200. After the front desk ran the bill, they confirmed that it could all be reimbursed. Credit to the front desk here—they were extremely patient in helping us go back and forth adding items to maximize the credit, and there was no sense at all that they looked down on what we were doing.

As for why we didn’t just go have a proper meal... it was because Tianjin had reported a new positive COVID case that day, and we had to return to our residential complex for a nucleic acid test. So we left the Four Seasons in a rather chaotic state, carrying a pile of stuff with us.

Summary

I had previously read reviews on 飞茶 saying the Four Seasons had average service and poor value compared with the Tianjin Ritz-Carlton. But after actually staying there, I had a very good experience. The rooms felt newer and were much brighter than those at the Tianjin Ritz-Carlton. Since the price usually hovers just under $200, I think it’s a great option for using your FHR credit on a stay for your family.