I stayed only one night at the Novotel Peace and it was one night too many. If you fancy going for a retro tour and want to experience a Novotel in the 70s this is the hotel to choose. Run down and impersonal, lacking any charm. The common areas were trying to look posh but this was not fooling anyone.

Check In

Arriving after a lengthy cab ride from the airport I was directed to the lounge for check in. Once there all the formalities needed to be taken care of first. Once again nothing was pre-prepared. The lounge had already finished its evening service so I went straight to my room. 

Room

Once I exited the elevator I was greeted by some nasty smell. Apparently air fresheners. The room assigned was an upgrade to a suite but it had seen better days. Everything had visible marks or stains. This hotel had not seen an upgrade in decades. Not pleasant at all.

The room featured: a large living room with sofa and dining table (stained surfaces, scratches), a large bedroom with a tiny flat screen TV, a wet bar room with a mini bar (chargeable) and kettle, and the piece de resistance a totally run down bathroom (manky shower curtain, stained walls, bad paint job).

Service

Service wasn't great. Language again proved an issue. The lounge staff were probably best. The bar staff's first response when ordering a G&T was "no voucher". Ok fine then, I can pay for it.

Dining

As the lounge service was already finished I ordered room service. While well priced it wasn't exactly overwhelming but I was too tired to go out.

Loyalty services

The welcome gift was a plate with sweets and fruit.

The drinks voucher could only be redeemed for soft drinks and beer and wine.

Lounge

The lounge was probably the best feature of the hotel. Nice views over Beijing and the breakfast choice was decent (for a Novotel). It featured a buffet and eggs to order.

Location

The hotel is centrally located (but this entails a lengthy trip from the airport). Endless malls (like everywhere in China) are nearby and Tiananmen Square is a stone's throw away.

Overall

While this Novotel was the same price as the Novotel Sanyuan where I stayed earlier in the trip, it was not worth the money. The room was run down and service was poor. This hotel is in desperate need of renovation, especially the rooms. There is no excuse for a run down and badly maintained bathroom.

In hindsight it was a mistake not to go back to the Novotel Sanyuan but I wanted to try out another hotel.

Now that Fairmont and Swissotel are an option it might be wiser to go for either of these (rates were not much more expensive).

My recommendation for this hotel is a tricky one, because the lounge at this hotel is very good. I have chosen NOT RECOMMENDED because if you are not a platinum member, or not looking to book a lounge-access room, I recommend you stay elsewhere. That said, we really enjoyed the lounge offerings here.

Location

The hotel is located within walking distance to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The closest metro station is Dengshikou (line 5), about a five-minute walk away. The hotel is located within a stone’s throw of many shopping malls and sits opposite The Peninsula hotel and adjacent to the Waldorf Astoria.

Check In

An early 8am check in was granted upon arrival, which we were extremely thankful for, as we had just arrived on an overnight train from Harbin and neither of us had slept well and desperately needed a shower.

For some reason, my Visa card has been having issues with preauthorisation’s at selected hotels during our trip in China, and this was one of them. I was informed that since the credit card was not working, that I could not post anything to the room. Not an issue, as we did not plan to consume anything within the hotel.

Room

We received an upgrade from a Superior Room to a Premier Room on the 18th floor (out of 19). There is currently (apparently) a refurbishment underway at the hotel, so I requested one of the newly refurbished rooms. I am unsure if it is one of the rooms that has been refurbished under the current refurbishment program, which speaks volumes if it was a recently refurbished room. The carpet seemed newish, as did most of the living area, but the bathroom was in need of some work. The room seems better than the pictures in Starflyergold’s original review, but that could be down to the lighting. My room did have a better looking carpet, but the rest of the furniture looks about the same.

The bed is very comfortable, but we found the pillows identical. Using one pillow was too low and two was too high. There was no pillow menu provided at this hotel, that I could find. The TV is located in a cubby, with no way to access the inputs for viewing your own movies. The working desk is very large. The room also has a lounge and coffee table.  Note the complete lack of power points. There was only one at one side of the bed, one at the kettle and the only available ones at the desk required unplugging the desk lamp or the iPod dock. Ridiculous.

As mentioned, the bathroom was clean but needs some work, especially the shower. Standard Novotel amenities are provided. There are only two bottles of water provided, and they are small 350ml bottles.

The Wi-Fi in the room was horrendously slow.

The welcome gift was delivered in the evening. The dried peas were terrible and the apple was pretty poor quality.

Service

For some weird reason, this hotel does not accept the delivery of waimai (delivered food) to the concierge for collection by the guest. This is the only hotel in China I have encountered this issue and I was pretty upset at this policy. The reasoning behind this was we were on our way back from seeing the ballet and it was 9 minutes before the stores stopped taking orders on the ordering app, so we ordered for delivery to the hotel. The food arrived before we got back to the hotel, and due to the hotel’s policy, we had to run from the metro station back to the hotel to collect the food from the delivery boy who had to wait about ten minutes for us.

Welcome Drinks and The Lounge:

We received two welcome drinks and they can be redeemed in the lobby bar, including cocktails/mocktails, but no wine.

The lounge at this hotel is the best one I have experienced at a Novotel, to date, and I would consider it superior to some Pullman and Sofitel ones, certainly better than the lounge at the Sofitel Harbin, where we stayed previous to this stay. The service is good and attentive, the food is excellent, the WiFi is fast and the views are fantastic with views of the Forbidden City (when the pollution is not too bad).

Breakfast in the lounge finishes at 10am, featuring a small buffet and a-la-carte menu. The French toast, pancakes and scrambled eggs were all quite good, though the coulis with the French toast was way too sweet.

Happy Hour is between 6-8pm. The cooked vegetables were delicious, as were the tempura shrimps. The pizza was so-so. The desserts were good. There was a selection of a sparkling (not champagne), a rose, a sauvignon blanc, a Bordeaux and a decent selection of spirits.

Overall

The lounge alone makes this hotel worth staying at, if you are a platinum member or will book a lounge-access room. I am not sure if my room was a renovated one or not; it looks a bit better than the one in Starflyergold’s review, but only marginally. The location is very good, but it is in a location where there are hotels galore. If lounge access is not possible, or not desired, I would not recommend this hotel.