“Very nice hotel; speaking Chinese would help a lot”

We spent 8 nights here while my spouse attended an on-site meeting. The hotel is modern, clean, accessible. The staff are pleasant and try to be helpful to the limited extent of their English and our non-existent Chinese. There were times even Google Translate didn't help. One of the best English s… more

We spent 8 nights here while my spouse attended an on-site meeting. The hotel is modern, clean, accessible. The staff are pleasant and try to be helpful to the limited extent of their English and our non-existent Chinese. There were times even Google Translate didn't help. One of the best English speakers was the Bellman. The beds were good. We requested and got a non-smoking room. Smoking is not permitted in the public areas of the hotel. There are issues with ventilation and air circulation. We were on the 9th floor and were constantly smelling cooking odors. The meals in the special dining rooms are excellent. The cafeteria meals are pretty much the same from meal to meal. While quite good, we got tired of the sameness. The wireless was never reliable, even with a VPN connection. It always seemed to be best first thing in the morning. The hotel is conveniently located near a subway stop.

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“Comfortable room, poor wifi”

I stayed in this hotel for 7 nights in room 6401 in the VIP wing. This hotel claims to be a 4 star hotel. I arrived at 1130 and was quickly checked in and in my room. No problems about early access. However, I was the guest of a conference and, as they were paying for my stay, they might have arra… more

I stayed in this hotel for 7 nights in room 6401 in the VIP wing. This hotel claims to be a 4 star hotel. I arrived at 1130 and was quickly checked in and in my room. No problems about early access. However, I was the guest of a conference and, as they were paying for my stay, they might have arranged the early access. The room was a reasonable size with a large bed, TV, desk, easy chair, plenty of storage space and coffee/tea making facilities. Two packets of coffee (3 in 1 meaning it contained coffee, whitener and sugar all mixed), one packet of green tea and one packet of red/black tea. This hotel suffered from a common failing in that the coffee and tea were not replenished fully every day. The TV had two channels in English, one on channel 16 which was CGTN. The bathroom had a bath, washbasin, separate shower and WC. I soon found the shower was not watertight. An unsealed gap beneath the hinge at the bottom allowed water from the shower to “flood” the bathroom. However, after one flood I soon learned to direct the shower well away from the door! The bath had an extendable drying line slightly over it but allowing water to drip from wet clothes onto the floor rather than into the bath. Surprisingly, no body lotion was supplied and the shampoo and body wash were replaced whenever I used them which seemed a waste if thrown away. The room was at the side giving me a view of a tall block of flats. It was important to keep the net curtain pulled across to give me privacy. There was a room safe but the instructions were inaccurate. Saying I should push a button labelled A or B when there were none. Only a # and *. After trial and error, and reading the Chinese text (I don’t know any Chinese but could see the symbols) I discovered it was the * key I needed to press. I had breakfast in the hotel. This was a buffet on the 3rd floor of the other block. This meant going down to the lobby and walking across it from one set of lifts to another. The selection of food was very Chinese. There was different melons cut up, yoghurts, fruit juice and hot drinks. There was a very poor selection of breads and pastries. Some days there were none, sometimes a few rolls or slices of bread. Only one day was any butter or jam provided. Wifi was not good. It was OK for sending and receiving emails. But trying to download documents of about 10MB size in the evenings was very slow and usually impossible. I find it puzzling that many hotels are so poor at providing a fast and effective wifi service. At least it was free and I soon learned to do my downloading in the morning. The staff were very pleasant but I am unsure how many could speak any English. I had no problems checking in or out, or at any other time. On the whole, I don’t think I would wish to stay in this hotel again. There are many better hotels in the area, albeit possibly more expensive. It is very close to the National Library metro station so very convenient for getting around Beijing.

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