Originally Posted by
Sydneyberlin
But from the beginning: We arrived from central Beijing in the outrageously overpriced hotel limousine, which is unfortunately almost essential if you don’t have a a car of your own, as the location is indeed very isolated. On arrival, none of the front desk employees spoke a word of English but we managed to get everything done using translation apps. We had been in touch in advance and one of the English-speaking employees had kindly reserved restaurant seats for dinner, and showed up shortly after to assist with our check in and explaining how the property is laid out, so no biggie.
On arrival in our suite (we had used Hyatt points to book a suite), we noticed straight away that the aircon does not work properly. It was about 24 degrees and we were hoping to cool down the room a bit, but the vents were rather blowing out hot air. This seems to be a very Chinese problem as we’ve encountered overheated places everywhere, but this is of course unacceptable for a supposedly 5 Star Hyatt hotel. We spoke to our English-speaking friend at the hotel but she just told us to “switch it off altogether as the system goes with the prevailing wind”. This is totally not how an aircon is supposed to work and not a solution 😡 The aircon situation never changed no matter what time of day and no matter what setting. It just kept blowing really hot air to warm up to the room to a crazily overheated 25 degree or so- just as the Chinese seem to like it. We ended up sleeping with all the windows and doors open but I can only imagine what a disaster this would be in the midst of Summer (just thinking of all the Insects coming in makes me shudder!) and for us, this alone is a reason why we would not to recommend this property to any Westerner ever, as sad as this is.
That part of the property has lots of completely derelict non-operational hotel buildings- one of them had the door open and a cold (wonder oh wonder!) air conditioning blow was blasting from inside. There was no one around, only empty rooms, mattresses stored upside down and rust all over the formerly glorious buildings. We felt that it was quite a crime to let these buildings rot away like that- we imagined the whole time what you could do with this property if anyone (Hyatt, hey, do you hear us?) invested just a little bit of money and care. The path to the wall itself (which we only ventured a few metres down) was overgrown and had safety warnings all along, it was pretty clear that no one hikes this at all anymore. So take this lie off your website, we felt totally duped!
Thanks for the comprehensive review.
When I went last year, it was a lot cheaper to travel there via Didi (100-150 RMB) one way and on my way back, I just negotiated on the spot with arriving Didis who took incoming guests there.
Suites are not their forte. This is a rather special property as there are varying room types with layouts and designs dramatically different from one another. Their most popular rooms are Bamboo Wall, Cantilever 270 degree window room and certain Forest House rooms (see below pictures). Their Family Room is suite-like and is the best choice if you want a nicely designed suite but not booking on points (since it is not offered on points).
On the A/C issue, I recall during certain times of the year, Hotels are unable to control much of the temperature as long as it is in desired range is 22-26. I've experienced this at Park Hyatt Beijing before as well but not sure if it is mandated by the city or by the Hotel itself.
On the non-operational hotel buildings, those are actually the original architecture designed by the 12 architects when the Hotel first opened. They are no longer safe for occupancy. It is my understanding that the Hotel just kept them in memory of what the architects did. The ones open to guests are all replicas of the original design.
On access to the Wall, when I visited, it was snowing heavily and the gate on top of the private wall was closed but the lock wasn't locked. Hence I was able to access and enjoy the wall to myself.
I am not sure if you met Tracey Mu during your stay. She is awesome and previously was Hotel Managers of PH Beijing, GH Changsha and also worked at Jumeirah in Dubai.
Bamboo Wall Room
Cantilever 270 degree window room
Great Wall to myself
