I am surprised by the rave reviews Alisan GH has received. The rooms are tiny and worn, not mentioning the bathroom where you basically have to shower over the toilet. Soap was not available. My room did not look particularly clean, just OK and the sheets had holes in them. I have to admitt that reception was helpful and hospitable.

Alisan is not a bad place, however it is not a place I would recommend either. I guess you get what you would expect in that price bracket in HK, nothing more, hence my surprise at the hype surrounding it, on tripadvisor and in various guidebooks.

We (3 guys) stayed for one Sunday night as we were transiting on our way to Manila from Mumbai in April 2nd week.
Reservation - The name came up repeatedly in my online searches but I had to struggle a bit to find out the email id. So I had to call up and super efficient Tommy took down my request and promptly called back. Tommy was really helpful in figuring out the best deal for us and promptly mailed back for all my queries.
Getting there - Hongkong is amazingly tourist friendly and Tommy knows how we shoe string budget travellers think. His instructions were precise and clear. And of course he came to pick us up from Excelsior hotel.
The Stay - The accomodation is bare minimum but not bad for a night's sleep. Our room had one small double bed and a single bed for the three of us. There was a tiny attached bath cum toilet. The place was neat and comfy but if you are looking for luxury or plan to spend a lot of time in the room then you should look elsewhere. This fitted our bill as we got back from our partying and touristy rides through the city only by 3 am and were out the next day at 12.
Overall - Just as expected. Tommy is a great help and even gives a great exchange rate. Stay if you are on a very tight budget and plan to spend more time on the streets than in the room.

We stayed at Alisan Guesthouse in Causeway Bay December 7-9, 2007. We reserved a 3-person room for the two of us since we heard they're bigger for $HK 450. The room was still tiny (one big bed and one smaller one right next to each other - we used the small one for our bags) and the bathroom tinier, but they were sufficient for us considering the high costs of accomodations in HK.

The guy who manages reception and speaks great English was very helpful. No problems checking in or finding the place according to their instructions.

There was construction going on with the building and we were actually woken up at 9am the next day by the loudest drilling I’ve ever experienced. Apparently, they were drilling right outside our wall. We were a bit annoyed that the guesthouse owners didn’t tell us this when we checked in. Based on our conversation with them, they assumed that it didn’t matter since this was only going on 9am-6pm when they assumed most people would be out. This was the last stop on our long trip, and we were out with our local friends until 5am the previous night, so this definitely wasn’t the case with us. They were nice enough to move us to a different room though where we could get some sleep, so that was good. The other room actually had a bigger bed and a bigger bathroom.

The location of the guesthouse is great, a block away from the metro stop, which was very convenient to everything. We were very glad we didn’t stay in Kowloon. We liked that area the least as it was very touristy, dirtier, and just in general not as pleasant. I definitely think the best areas to stay in HK are Causeway Bay, Central, Admiralty, or Soho, somewhere near a metro stop.

The only downside to the guesthouse is that there is no common area. The owners basically own several suites on various floors of a high-rise building, so there is no way to meet any other travelers. You basically get the room and never see anyone besides the cleaning lady. If you're looking for a fun atmosphere to meet other travelers, this is not the place. If you want a cheap small clean room to sleep at night in a good location, this fits the bill.

Alisan guesthouse is very well located close to the SoGo department store MTR (underground rail system). The staff are friendly and there was a couple of copies of travel guides for Hong Kong in reception. The street is easy to find from the map on their web site but once on the street as there are no numbers in English it was not so easy. As you go down the street toward the bay it is on left hand side about ¾ of way down the street.

The room was clean with limited TV channels and local calls are free which is good for getting information from the local tourist office. I had a single room and it was very small with very old furniture and the bathroom consisted of one small room with no shower tray (like an old fashioned wet room). Hence every time you had a shower the toilet etc got soaked. The shower unit was very old and did not have a hook for the shower head so you had to hold the shower head with your hand while you showered.

There was construction works ongoing in the building while I was there and scaffolding covered the whole building, there was a constant jack hammer sound most of the time between 9-5 which was not good as I was on an overnight flight and had gotten no sleep. The room did not have a window.

Bottled water is available in the common area although I think these bottles were filled from somewhere and not bought.

The wireless internet which is supposedly available in the rooms did not have a strong enough signal to get to my floor so I had to go to the reception area to use the internet. This was very annoying as I had a lot of work mails to send and the reason I booked this place was because they said they had wireless internet. The bus to and from the airport drops you very close to the guesthouse.

The two places to visit I would recommend are the funicular for views of the city and the museums across the bay. The public transport system is very cheap and safe.