Opening 2029

Mandarin Oriental, Xi'an

Name: Mandarin Oriental, Xi'an
Address: Xi'an, China

Mandarin Oriental's first hotel in Xi'an

Xi'an, China

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The day it opens + our first honest verdict. No paid placements. Joins the Fat Voyage list — leave any time.

First look

Mandarin Oriental signed Xi'an in August 2025 and is aiming for 2029. The site is next to a newly built park in the city's former imperial district, and the plan runs to 166 rooms and suites, every one with an outdoor terrace, plus seven villas with their own pools.

The architects are ACPV, the studio behind Mandarin Oriental's Bodrum and Milan hotels, which gives a rough idea of the register. The spa is built around hot-spring pavilions and a 50-metre indoor-outdoor pool, and there are five restaurants, a 1,200-square-metre ballroom, a gallery and a library. The owner is Xi'an Wolong Real Estate.

We haven't stayed; it is years from opening. What we'll be watching: whether a ballroom that size tips it towards a banqueting hotel, and whether the villas are a real retreat inside the city.

Not yet scored. We publish a Fat Score only once a hotel is open and real guests have stayed and written about it — this is a first look, not a verdict.

Sofie, who runs the Fat Voyage booking desk with Nicolas

Want us to get you in when it opens?

Nothing to book yet — rates usually load a few months out. We're Sofie and Nicolas; tell us roughly what you're after and we'll come back the moment Mandarin Oriental, Xi'an is bookable, with rates, what the rooms are actually like, and whether we'd go in the first season.

You'll be dealing with the two of us the whole way through, which is why we only take on a handful of trips at a time — if we're full, we'll say so. We reply by email, usually within one working day. The hotel pays us, not you: your rate is the same as booking direct, and the perks come on top.

Before it opens

When does Mandarin Oriental, Xi'an open?

The group's August 2025 announcement gives 2029 with no month. Several years out, that is a target rather than a date.

What will Mandarin Oriental, Xi'an have?

166 rooms and suites with terraces, seven pool villas, a spa with hot-spring pavilions, a 50-metre indoor-outdoor pool, five restaurants, a 1,200-square-metre ballroom, a gallery and a library, designed by ACPV Architects.

Open now

What you can book today

Mandarin Oriental, Xi'an is still under wraps. Here's what's already open and scored in our collection — more from Mandarin Oriental, and nearby in China.

Fat Legend

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong

Hong Kong, China

Central, not Kowloon, and that single fact shapes most of what people say about staying here. The hotel sits a short walk from the Landmark towers and some of the city's best fine dining, and locals weighing it against the newer harbourside properties keep landing on the same point: you're closer to the business district and the older money side of town, and the food beyond the hotel doors is simply better because of it. Inside, Man Wah's tableside Peking duck and the Cantonese menu built around it come up constantly, and Terrace Boulud's rooftop terrace over the harbour gets its own steady following for the truffle pasta and the live saxophone some evenings. The service is the strongest thread running through everything, and it's not vague praise. One guest's request for a vegetarian option at the club lounge got handled without fuss; another was walked through a room's features in detail at check-in rather than handed a key card. The Mandarin Club access is worth building a stay around if you can get it, with breakfast, afternoon tea, and evening cocktails included and genuinely used by guests rather than left as a brochure line. The catch: the hotel was mid-renovation through parts of 2026, and at least one guest landed on a lower floor with construction noise starting at 4am, worth asking about directly when booking. Rooms in general run smaller than what you'd get at some competitors nearby, so if square footage is your priority over address, that's worth pricing in. This suits someone who wants Hong Kong's history and a business-district address over a shopping-mall view, and who values a staff that remembers you over a newer building with more square footage. Book it for Man Wah and the Mandarin Club, and let the newer hotels across the harbour fight over the pool photos.

Fat Approved

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental The Landmark, Hong Kong

Hong Kong, China

This is the newer, sleeker Mandarin Oriental in Central, a few buildings over from the original, and what you're paying for is the address as much as the hotel: step outside and you're inside the Landmark mall's restaurant floor, a short walk from Man Wah's sister spots and the rest of Central's fine dining. Guests keep landing on the same thing: a doorman who remembers your evening plans, a reservations team that upgrades you for a birthday, someone from the front desk walking you all the way to the Airport Express when the route gets confusing. The location does a lot of the work here, and the renovated rooms mostly read as genuinely spacious and comfortable. Price this one in before you book, though: at least one recent stay found no spa or gym on property at all, guests redirected to another hotel's facilities without being told in advance, which is a real problem for a brand built partly on its spa reputation. Breakfast is inconsistent too, swinging from "absolutely perfect" to a thin a la carte menu with an order that arrived wrong twice. The renovation hasn't finished settling in every room; one guest found a bathroom with no outlet for a hairdryer and bedding with a hole in it, while another called the same refreshed rooms a highlight of the stay. Book this over the original Mandarin Oriental or the Rosewood if what you want is a quieter, more business-district version of Central with the mall food scene downstairs, and you're not fussed about a full-service spa right now. Skip it if the spa and gym are why you're paying Mandarin Oriental prices in the first place; ask directly what's operating before you commit to a room here.

Fat Legend

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand

Almost every recent stay circles back to the same thing: people mention the river view or the cake shop, but what they actually write paragraphs about is what the staff did for them. A butler who arrives even after you cancel the call button. A therapist who remembers your name after a two-year gap. A pastry chef's grandmother of a bakery counter that still, once in a while, gets the tone wrong with a tired customer at 5pm on a Sunday. The service here is the whole case, and it holds up across a genuinely large and busy operation, which is the harder trick. The building is the trade-off worth pricing in honestly: this is a nearly 140-year-old hotel with three separate wings, and the river-wing rooms run smaller than what Capella or the Four Seasons across town now offer for similar money. A few guests who'd stayed at all three Bangkok heavyweights called the standard rooms dated next to the newer builds, and the location, while gorgeous for breakfast on the water, means real traffic time getting anywhere off property. The Chao Phraya setting is either the whole point or a genuine inconvenience, depending on whether you're happy staying largely on property. Book it for the history, the butlers, the spa and gym (recently redone with an ice plunge that regulars rave about), and Le Normandie or Baan Phraya for dinner. Skip it if you want the biggest room in Bangkok or need to be five minutes from Sukhumvit's nightlife — travellers chasing modern scale and outdoor space tend to land at Capella instead. For everyone else, book it for the boat ride, the breakfast terrace, and the staff who make the whole thing feel personal.

Fat Favorite

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental Bodrum

Bodrum, Turkey

Mandarin Oriental Bodrum earns its keep on the hillside, not just the brochure line about it. Rooms cascade down toward Paradise Bay, several with their own pools, and the grounds are genuinely green rather than landscaped for a photo. The spa is the other reason people come back: one guest's contact lens emergency got solved by a therapist who tracked down a lens case and saline mid-treatment, and the hammam gets called out on its own terms often enough that it's clearly not a fluke. Families do well here too, with a kids' club that parents actually praise rather than tolerate, and an ambassador system that handles the small stuff: one guest's lost phone got traced through a taxi driver and returned before checkout. The gap opens at the waterline. Beach and pool service lags well behind the rest of the property, particularly by September, when one guest gave up after asking three times for a beer that never came. Food and drink pricing is a real sore point too: a chicken wrap near €50, cocktails around €28, and quality that regularly doesn't back it up, including a flat night at the on-site Ferdi Baba. Visit in October and you'll find restaurants and shops closing early for the season, which thins out what the rate is meant to cover once August ends. Book it from May through September for the setting, the spa team, and a beach scene that still has energy, and go in knowing the beach bars are where the wheels come off. Outside peak summer, or on the outer beach service specifically, price your expectations down accordingly. For the hillside, the hammam, and the way the team on the ground treats you, it's worth booking.

Get notified

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