Actually, based on his stated preferences, I don't think either of his brand choices will be of much use, so he probably has a bit more research ahead of him apart from checking prices on websites. Hopefully, he'll read through that main hotel thread and throw out some ideas that we can fine tune.

I'll offer up the Emperor right now. It's a very cool hotel that overlooks the Forbidden City and isn't expensive. Its main drawback, however, is the lack of elevators (i.e. need to climb stairs to get to the nice rooftop bar, as well as most guestrooms).