GJS - yow

I found the best staff in this hotel were in the Executive Lounge. So... I arranged everything through them - restaurants, taxis, etc. In a one week stay, everything went as requested.

mnredfox

Uh, not to pick on your words but have you stayed at every hotel in Beijing?

Hilton, Doubletree, IC's, all had great service for me. ^

moondog

The Capital Ren has great staff from top to bottom. The better ones often end up being offered jobs by guests, but there is a seemingly limitless supply of qualified people willing to take their places. I'm sure there are other properties around town with good staffs, but I know the Ren the best (because I'm there almost every day when I'm in BJ).

hfly

Hmmm, no, have you? I have however probably stayed in the vast majority of the 5* properties in Beijing. Most importantly however I first visited Beijing in 1984, when there were essentially no 5* properties in Beijing at that time (That stay I was at the Beijing Hotel, which was the best there was then), more importantly I would say that I have frequented Beijing at least 4 times a year every year since the late 90's sometimes staying as frequently as 20 times in a year, to put it in perspective, when I speak about this property, I have stayed there 7 times, when I speak about the St. Regis, I have stayed there 20+ times, when I speak of the Sofitel, I have stayed there 8 times, or to cut it short, the last I looked, there were about 27 5 star properties in 'central' Beijing (I am not including places like the summer palace, but am including some dinosaurs in Western Beijing such as the original Shagri-La. 5 of these have opened in the last 18 months or so, and I have not stayed in them (FYI the Doubletree is not a 5*) so of the remaining 22, I have stayed in 17 of them (not including one former 5* which is now a 4*), I have stayed in at least 10 of them more than 3 times.

johnathome

Just finished a two night stay at the Hilton. Booked a Executive Room and was upgraded to a Deluxe Suite. Very large room but long/rectangular in shape. Bed was a little too firm for my taste and the dark wood is starting to show wear. The shower room with tub inside also looked a bit worn and would gather water after a shower. The tv was fun though. Desk had plenty of plugs and the rooms do have wifi now.

The Executive Room check-in/out was very efficient and the cocktails in the evening and espresso in the afternoon helped a lot.

I found that some cabs still didn't know exactly where the hotel was so I had to give them directions once we got to the area. The hotel is off the main streets and you may need to wait for a cab. If so, just walk a block to the main strip and you can find a cab easily enough (or at least that worked for me).

I had excellent service while staying at the hotel. Everyone from the Executive Lounge, bell hops, concierge to the breakfast team (had my breakfast downstairs which was a bit loud but I thought more choices). As others mentioned, there is construction noise (unclear to me which site was creating it but there must be at least 2 sites nearby where there is active construction) but didn't affect us in our room. I guess if you plan on napping in the afternoon, it might bother you depending on what floor you are.

Overall, very nice stay.

TimMeineke

To make this a balanced review, I will start out with my three minor complaints: the shower floods the bathroom (I really cannot understand why hotels build showers with these design flaws), when I bought tickets for the acrobat show through the concierge he pushed the most expenseive 680 yuan tickets even though everywhere says that the 260 tickets are fine (and apparently they can be had for cheaper) and when we checked out, I called for the staff to pick up my luggage and they never came.

Now for the good part:
- Nice pool and meditation garden
- Great location. Walkable to lots of stuff and the subway. I really liked the foreign language bookstore - was able to get several books on Chinese culture that my whole family enjoyed
- Excellent service in the lounge. Good breakfast, and after a long day of standing in line for 90 minutes in the scorching heat to see Chairman Mao, going to the Military Museum to see documentation of U.N. agression, riding the subway, watching the various games and singing at the Temple of Heaven, and getting hassled at the Pearl Market, it was really nice to come back to a calm and helpful oasis.
- In our first room there was something wrong with the sliding door, so they upgraded us to a full 2 room suite. To me, the resolution matters more than the problem.
- I mentioned Flyertalk to the Assistant Front Office Manager, Raymond Wu. He said he would be glad to answer any questions from Flyertalkers thinking of staying there. His email is [email protected]

All in all an excellent hotel and I would definitely stay there again. One last aside - a lot of the material I read before my trip recommended that one spend more time in Shanghai than Beijing. I think this is totally backwards. Beijing is one of the most fascinating cities in the world (it's right up there with Istanbul at the top of my list), and the five days we spend there was nowhere near enough

moondog

Where did you read that? While Shanghai is --arguably-- a better place to live than Beijing, Beijing is a far more interesting place to visit as a tourist, to the extent that I would declare this to be common knowledge.

TimMeineke

I read it in Conde Nast Traveler and the like...also friends told me. So maybe I need better sources

SPBanker

Bringing together the observations about the excellent pool and construction... I thought it was very cool to swim in the pool while the big cranes were turning around very close at the same level.

Gustaf

And those cranes are actually constructing the Waldorf Astoria Beijing (due to open in 2012 (or more likely 2014?). So another HHonors property is coming to town, just next to the Hilton Wangfujing

moondog

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...9-bj-v-sh.html

ETA: As I've posted in that thread, I actually like living in BJ, in part because the work is a bit less intense (though, still fast paced by US standards), and in part because I love my neighborhood (Shuangjing). We have lots of trees, decent places to hang out, and great people.

Beijing's biggest drawbacks at present (IMO) are the taxi situation and the traffic. Todaywas particularly brutal for me:

-20 minute wait to get taxi this morning
-1.5 hour ride to Wudaokou
-2 hour meeting
-1 hour ride to Tongzhou
-2 hour meeting
-30 minute ride to Shuangjing
-40 mins on packed subway to Gulou
-2 hour meeting
-20 minute wait for taxi
-30 minute ride to Shuangjing

If you add that all up, I spent 4.5 hours either in transit or waiting for taxis, many of which have "broken" air conditioners. By contrast, Shanghai traffic isn't that bad (relatively speaking), taxis aren't especially hard to come by if you avoid dead zones/times, and they are nicer (e.g. fantastic air con across the board). But, about 3 days per week in BJ, I get to stay put in Shuangjing, and life is good.

weiw6688

My local friends were telling me his new strategy navigating in Beijing - by bus. Taxi is hard to come by and you most likely get stuck in traffic somewhere; Subway will get you on-time but is too crowded and some don't have air conditioning; Buses are not that crowded and, best of all, has dedicated lanes (at least on major roads) so you actually get to places quite fast.

Cheers

mnredfox

I take this as you give Shanghai a point over BJ.

moondog

Apart from Chaoyang Rd, I can't think of any BRT lanes in BJ off hand. Furthermore, there aren't any useful bus routes near me (but, I do use the subway on occasion).

moondog

I said qualified my statement with "arguably", fox. On rare good weather days like today, I wouldn't dare rank SH above BJ.