Originally Posted by yellowmamba

AMAN Summer Palace Mini Summary after 2 nights stay in Feb:
The location of the hotel is truly one of a kind in Beijing. Apart from that please don't expect service to be remotely close to your typical Aman property.

Pros:
- Private entrance to Summer Palace
- Beautiful aesthetic of rooms and hotel ground
- Front desk manager eager to please
- Great afternoon tea experience
- Fantastic gym and pool

Cons:
- Service is cold and sterile, worse than other lux hotels in Beijing
- GM either away from property or didn't make an attempt to greet guests
- Staff frequently ask for room number even when told occupancy was around 10%, swimming pool staff even asked if we were hotel guests (This Aman also has a membership program for the gym/pool facilities)
- BIG CON imo: Hotel guests use to be able to enter the summer palace from the private entrance before and after the park's operating hours. But was told that benefit is now gone after someone tried lighting the palace on fire during non-operating hours late last year... So now it's only a matter of convenience while living here since by the time you do go into the palace it's jam packed with tourists
- Upon arrival, front desk took less than 2 minutes to explain the hotel, failed to mention where most facilities were located, and was told later the movie room is closed for renovations
- Many choices for (made to order) breakfast yet taste is average to poor. Pecking duck during dinner was great though, however dinner service was slow since the restaurants had to put most of their attentions on the government VIPs occupying the 2 private dinning rooms. One of the dining space was also closed off for private event.
- Service consistency all over the place, multiple employees revealed a large percentage of the workers are interns (???), and lots of cost-cutting measures were put in place
- Room is showing age and room cleaning lacks thoroughness, water stains on table and paint/tiles falling apart

Overall I may stay here again if I'm in Beijing and looking for a getaway from the bustling city. But with the Summer Palace "vip" access hours gone and the lack of service that Amans are known for, I wouldn't be going out of my way to visit again. It's a property that doesn't require itself to go above and beyond since most of it's clientele are wealthy local residents and VIPs, there's always the thought of complaining to the GM, etc but having grown up in China myself, I'm too familiar with the hospitality and hotel industry here thus my expectations coming in was quite low.