Two things are true of nearly all Hong Kong accommodation: the rooms are small, and they cost more than the equivalent almost anywhere else. A 20-square-metre room is normal at mid-range.
Given that, the useful questions are which side of the harbour, and how far to an MTR station.
Tsim Sha Tsui
The southern tip of Kowloon, facing the island across the water.
Suits: first visits. The harbour view is here — you look at the skyline rather than standing in it — and it is well connected, with the Star Ferry, two MTR lines and the museums on the doorstep. Trade-off: crowded, and Nathan Road is relentless.
Central and Admiralty
The business district on Hong Kong Island.
Suits: convenience, walking, and the escalator up to SoHo. Trade-off: the most expensive area, and it empties at weekends.
Sheung Wan and Kennedy Town
West of Central along the island’s north shore, on the MTR and the tram.
Suits: better value than Central, genuinely a neighbourhood, and the best small restaurants and cafés. Kennedy Town at the western end is cheaper again and has a waterfront. Trade-off: ten to twenty minutes further from the middle of things, which is not far.
Wan Chai and Causeway Bay
East along the island.
Wan Chai is mixed — offices, old tenements, the convention centre and a long-standing nightlife strip.
Causeway Bay is shopping, dense and busy, with Victoria Park beside it.
Suits: value on the island, and good transport.
Jordan, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok
North up Kowloon.
Suits: budget, markets, and the best cheap food. Guesthouses here are the cheapest legitimate option in the city. Trade-off: small rooms, older buildings, and a great deal of noise.
Chungking Mansions
Worth addressing directly, since every guidebook mentions it.
A 17-storey block on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui containing dozens of tiny guesthouses, shops and some of the best cheap South and Southeast Asian food in Hong Kong. Around 4,000 people live or work there, from an unusually large number of countries.
Its reputation for danger is substantially out of date — it is monitored, and the anthropologist Gordon Mathews’ study Ghetto at the Center of the World is the standard account.
The guesthouses are legal, licensed and genuinely tiny. If you want the cheapest bed in Tsim Sha Tsui with a harbour ten minutes away, it is a real option. Read recent reviews of the specific guesthouse.
What to check before booking
Room size in square metres, which good listings state. Photographs are taken with wide lenses.
Which MTR station and how far. Hong Kong is hilly and humid; three hundred metres uphill in August is not nothing.
Whether “harbour view” is a view or a glimpse. The premium is substantial.
Window. Some cheaper rooms genuinely have none, and this is disclosed in the listing if you look.
Seasons
October to December is peak for weather. Chinese New Year and the Rugby Sevens in spring both fill hotels.
Summer is cheapest, hottest and typhoon season.
Serviced apartments
Worth considering for stays over three nights. Hong Kong has a large stock of serviced apartments, often with more floor area than a hotel room at a similar rate, plus a kitchenette and laundry.
They cluster in Sheung Wan, Sai Ying Pun, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui.
The view question
A harbour-facing room carries a substantial premium, and Hong Kong hotels describe views generously. “Harbour glimpse” and “partial harbour view” both mean you will be looking at a building.
Given that the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade, the Star Ferry and the Peak all deliver the view for nothing, the premium is rarely worth it except at New Year, when the fireworks make it a ticket.
Room size, restated
This is the thing to check before anything else. A Hong Kong hotel room at mid-range is commonly 15 to 22 square metres, and budget guesthouses can be under ten.
Good listings state the area in square metres. If a listing does not, assume it is small.
For two people with luggage, the difference between 18 and 25 square metres is the difference between a comfortable week and an irritating one, and it usually costs less than an extra category of view.
Noise
Hong Kong is loud. Ask for a high floor away from the main road, particularly on Nathan Road, in Wan Chai and in Causeway Bay.
Construction is constant and is rarely disclosed; recent reviews are the only guide.