A lot of rooms, if not all, on the floor of EL are one bedroom suite. I have been upgraded to a two bedroom suite for our family of four a few years back, but not this year. The breakfast down stairs has more selections than the EL, but it could be very crowed at times.

So the point value dropped back down to 5000/nt. Do I just stay here for my entire (3 nt) stay in Beijing next month?

Where are you seeing it as 5k points? I'm still seeing it as 10k/night. Have already booked it on points for a 2 night weekend check-in Oct 12, check out Oct 14. Was thinking should I use all my points (little) and go for C&P at Conrad instead for 1 night and other night in another chain.

Remember to use the app for the extra 1k points.

I wouldn't stay there unless it was free because the location is really bad.

Yeah I read the location is not near anything walkable. No wonder the rates are 1/2 or 1/3 the price of other locations. Seriously thinking about doing 1 night in Conrad instead.

I will concede that their pool parties (Saturdays in the summer iirc) are kind of cool.

I need to learn how to read. When I was busy booking components of my Beijing stay, I selected the wrong DT, which was 5k points. Quickly rectified that situation. However, based on what moondog was saying, I'm prolly going to limit it to the night I arrive in Beijing, and stay at JW Marriott the remaining two nights (on an LNF and cert).

Just finished 3 nights using 10,000 points per night.

Pros:

Good treatment of diamond with upgrade to suite and fruit/chocolates on arrival.
Executive lounge is very nice with decent breakfast and evening offerings.
Staff are friendly and helpful.
Room is well furnished with prompt housekeeping.
Top value per point used.
More like a Hilton than a DoubleTree (similar to KL DT).

Cons:

Poor ventilation made room hot.
Poor sound insulation made room noisy at times
Location is not the best but short taxi ride was fine.
Staff sometimes acted as if they understood your request but really didn't.

Quick question- I know that the location is definitely not idea but is there a subway station nearby? my sister is going to Beijing and I only have 40K points to spare at this point but that would cover their 4 nights there.... my sister has lived in Beijing before so I'm not sure if they are going to be doing all the touristy stuff....

FDW

There is no subway station nearby, that is why the location is not ideal. You can take the public bus though I've never tried that in China (Cause I can't read...)

The lack of a subway station nearby isn't what makes the location suck imo. Rather the ho property isn't really near anywhere most people would want to go. But the cheap award prices go a long way towards making up for this shortcoming.

That's true, I stayed there for 2 nights and I would stay there again. The service was great!

Taxis are not too expensive but the city can get quite congested at peak time so you need to plan it right. Using a bus is not too bad in Beijing but I have to admit I did only use the same route (from the apartment we had) and had it scouted out beforehand with my wife.
If the hotel writes down the bus line that brings you to the next subway stop it is not too hard. Worst case you can always take a taxi at the end.
If you have a local data plan on your cell phone google maps worked quite well for me.

this is correct! what i received from this hotel for the point deal i got more than made up for any inconvience of the location. their executive lounge was decent. there are some hotels in the hilton system that AT times you can get really good deals. this hotel is one of them. hilton narita is another.

Booked 5 nights standard room in September last week. Today checked again and my room already been upgrade to suite. 8k/nights for a confirmed suite was great at least for me.