FlyerTalk Forums - JW Marriott Beijing Central [Master Thread]

I've just stayed at this hotel for a long term 5+3 week stay, thought I'd give some observations to help out others. The tl;dr version is: Considering most of my reviews and stays at Marriott hotels outside of the US tend to be around the 4.5/5 this is a relatively underwhelming 3.5/5 – it was a fine hotel but didn’t live up to the JW standard and I thought it was closer to being an Asian Marriott. Lots more details below…

Let’s start with the positives:

To really get your trip to Beijing off to a special start use the hotel’s airport pick-up service: Was really impressed, they used someone who picked me up at the airport air-bridge, took me through customs to the car/driver (nice new German car) which sped me to the hotel. It was very expensive (almost as much as a night!) but made my arrival after a long journey to Beijing in the early morning very easy. No problems with early check-in either, equivalent to getting a first class flight collection that you get on some airlines in some cities.
The building itself is in a good condition, staff are helpful as anywhere in China, and speak good English across the board in customer facing roles. Housekeeping would say “hi” and when I left a DND sign on the room for the whole day they’d call me in the evening asking if I wanted a top-up clean.
The hotel location is close to subway lines 2 and 4 which are fairly handy to get around the city (particularly for the Beijing South Train station, which can be done from train to hotel room in 20mins, and circling anywhere in the inner centre). I’d chosen this location to be close to my client’s site. Just be aware that most expat social events tended to be closer to the North West and can easily take an hour in a cheap taxi (most of the time waiting in traffic, still will only cost 60RMB/US$10 for that hour)
In addition from a local neighbourhood - near the subway station is a 24hour KFC and in the same building there is a Pizza Hut, Subway, Haagen-Dazs and Starbucks so you won’t struggle with Western chain foods. There weren’t really any other restaurants close by excluding a few other generic Chinese ones in the shopping mall but one of the better Beijing dumpling restaurants (Tianjin Bai Jiaoyuan) was within walking distance. A Walmart super-centre was also about 200m away.
Executive lounge is spacious and you could live out of it very easily. My rate had breakfast included (Platinum benefits include being able to eat in the normal restaurant, confirmed by letter) but I quickly gravitated to eating in the lounge for convenience (I was on the same floor). Service was attentive and the lounge only really got busy on 2 of 25 nights, even then there was space. I liked that there was a balcony with a view of the city as well which would be nice during warmer months (I spent a Sunday afternoon happily working there).
Lounge food was good, plenty of it (though a little oily like most in Beijing). It would be classed as an excellent spread compared to any American/European locations. Compared to other Asian Marriotts it was middle of the road:
a. Breakfast – Any eggs you want cooked in a kitchen (and they would also cook noodle soup if you asked), bacon, potatoes (style varied each day), sausage (type varied each day but more frequently beef), 4 types of dumpling/steamed veg, a full Asian meal (noodles, two types of meat, green vegetables, congee) and then the usual cold options (meats, salad, cereals, fruits and plenty of pastries). As mentioned, no noodle station or egg chef there in person which falls down a bit on competitors.
b. Evening – Lots of alcohol choices, cold nibbles (similar to breakfast so meats, salad) small sushi selection, then a full Asian meal (noodles, two types of meat, green vegetables, often chicken wings and something else more European such as octopus salad, pork rolls, mini-burgers, ceviche) plus 3 types of desert and lots of fruit. Some nights they did some really great cocktails, very smooth, with a guy making them in a mini-bar area they set up.
Room was a very good size (I was upgraded to a corner suite the first time, and an executive room the 2nd) with a king bed, full bath/separate shower and plenty of room for working. I had an excellent uninterrupted view across the city towards the Forbidden City that on clear days would be difficult to beat. Overall the room was better than I was expecting (due to the upgrade) and was very good to live in for a month, minor niggle was some odd smell like damp, but you didn’t notice it once inside.
Hotel lighting was fine for me, no problems with elevator smells

So overall I found the hotel to be a perfectly adequate Marriott, but didn’t feel it lived up to the JW/5* branding as:

Business service was a bit below par, two particular (first world problem) examples of this. Both are minor, but give a good example of the niggles you can expect:
- The hotel didn’t have the ability to print documents in colour, just black and white, this was stated without solution (e.g. “And here is our recommended colour printing firm just across the street”)
- When wanting to send a simple letter I first had to return 2 hours later as they’d run out of address labels, and then the concierge made me re-write out the address plus hotel address for the package company slip they use, wasting my time
I tried room service twice on my first stay: the first European (Marriott burger and soup) was poor, so the second time I tried Chinese (soup and some fried noodles). Was very unimpressed – considering the pricing is at least 5x the local price the quality was poor (my noodles had very little meat, chips were cold/undercooked). After these bad experiences I ate out or survived on lounge food depending on my mood. On the second stay I did occasionally try, just be aware that it is focused on a domestic market so ok but maybe not for Western tastes (sweet and sour pork included the pork rinds, so seriously fatty, if tasty)
Rate was expensive compared to across the other side of the city for my dates (Approx. 20% more), I guess less competition out here. From a tourism perspective you are geographically closer to the Forbidden City, but as you aren’t on line 1 this means you need a change or to take a taxi so that is deceptive. I did negotiate a custom rate based on the emails posted above, and they were good at responding.
Taxis really didn’t know the hotel, seems to be the way in Beijing for new hotels, however I felt that the taxi map wasn’t up to scratch as it only mentioned the nearby subway station in English not Mandarin. In the end I often ended up using the excellent “Explore Beijing” app, which has a map of the subways and will pronounce them, to get taxis to the right area for the hotel, they started to stamp the hotel card with something that taxi drivers seem to recognise more for my second stay.
Over the public/national holiday they closed all of the facilities for a week (lounge, swimming pool, gym). The alternatives offered (for gym/pool book a transfer 3 hours in advance to another Marriott 30minutes away) and lounge nibbles in the main bar weren’t really what you’d like, full breakfast in the restaurant was fine but I already had that. I appreciate this is a twice a year chance to be able to do maintenance, but is something to be aware of if staying at that time of year.

As such, next time in Beijing when not needing to be in this area I’ll likely try a different hotel, perhaps returning to the other JW Marriott which I seem to have happier memories of. Happy to respond to any further queries you may have.

(Now just looking forward to seeing all my points post from this stay which will also trigger my Megabonus, must be worth 2 free nights somewhere else )