moondog

Don't bother trying:

1. Uber China will no longer exist after the merger goes through
2. Airport pick-ups are increasingly difficult, even if you have your own driver
-i have a decent plan for SHA (which I'm happy to share), but it isn't easy, and took me several months to optimize

skywalkerLAX

When you select pickup at the airport the app opens a menu where you select which Terminal you're at and based on that you have to proceed.

As for T3 you go inside the parking garage to the designated level (same floor as the taxi stand). As I said there is an undergound walkway during the daytime but at night it's closed so you go straight towards the airport express over the bridge and then down.

I'm staying at the Sheraton GW tonight because I have the MH departure at 1:30am and didnt feel like hanging around all evening long. Bad weather this week.

TerryK

I fully concur. I had an early flight out of PEK and decided to try out Sheraton Great Wall the evening prior.

Besides all the shortcomings other posters listed, I had to "negotiate" for 10 minutes for a junior suite upgrade. Agent claimed no suite upgrade available even though SPG APP showed that I could book 9 Standard Suites (9 is max bookable using APP). After much back and forth regarding spg floor vs non-spg floor and one bed vs two beds, another agent came around and "found" a suite on non-spg floor which I accepted. Went to my room and found more than 10 Standard Suites bookable on website. BTW, Junior Suite feels no larger than Deluxe Room at Westin nearby.

Yeah. Time to get wrecking ball ready for this baby.

moondog

We all know the Westin blows the doors off of the GW, but is it really three times better? Dongcheng isn't really on my radar due to the subpar location.

Btw, the GW was slated to die ~4 years ago, and I'm glad that it continues to get stays of execution.

rbAA

Actually, had low expectations after reading some of the reviews here of the GW. But, the price was right and we're doing the MH Z fare runs from BKK, so I decided to try it, especially after the poor experience I had at the new Holiday Inn Beijing Airport Zone property, where the taxi fare was just about the same amount. Well, I'm actually very impressed with this property. It's better than expected and am being treated very well, i.e. nice real suite on the 17th floor without having to use a SNA, good breakfast downstairs (or lounge) included, and smiling, friendly, helpful staff, especially the ladies working the lounge. My Thai GF says she loves it, and that she hated the IC Beichen as the "people didn't smile there." Doing it again on Fri/Sat night as that MH360 KUL-PEK gets in about 12:30am.

lcpteck

Just curious, how much was the taxi fare? Will be there in April for 1 nighters, flying MH360 as well. Still looking at where to stay.

moondog

Including the night surcharge and toll, it should still be less than 100.

SHLTP

Delete

zakami

The taxi fare should be around CNY 90 plus CNY 10 in toll. Indeed it is a large conference type hotel and 3 star standard.

moondog

While the terminals are 10 minutes apart, they are almost the exact same distance to town.

rbAA

Our taxi was 80 rmb total from T3, though the driver and I were lost in translation (I guess my non-existent Chinese wasn't good in pronouncing "Xi Lai Deng,") so he had to pull over and call.

The room we had was one of the small suites on the lounge floor, though it has two bathrooms, and everything was clean and well-maintained, other than a few minor gaps in the tile where some of the grout was missing. It was in much better shape than the room I had last Sept at the IC Cannes, where the sinks were cracked and the carpet was worn and dirty. And, the bathtub was much bigger as well. Of course, the view was better at the IC Cannes, haha heehee. The women in the lounge said there were plans to renovate, but it keeps getting put off. Seemed fine to me.

Paid 523rmb, so 602 rmb all in, though I just noticed a 475 base rate for tonight. Of well, already UPG'd to the same suite so no sense changing. The Holiday Inn Beijing Airport Zone was 341 rmb base with breakfast on their Opening Special rate, but the breakfast wasn't good there and the neighborhood is marginal, with only one restaurant nearby, and it wasn't too good, just OK. The area around the GW has a wide variety of decent restaurants, we tried the Thai place on some side street to the northwest about 10 min walk, and was fine.

moondog

You should be thankful he didn't understand you because the Sheraton is changcheng fandian (Great Wall Hotel). Meanwhile, xi er dun is the nearby Hilton (which receives lots of taxis from people intent upon going to the Sheraton).

lcpteck

I picked up lots of chinese hotel name brands when I was in China and Taiwan.

Xi Lai Deng = Sheraton (or even Four points)
Xi Er Dun = Hilton
Wan Hao = Marriott
Wei Si Ding = Westin
Xiang Ge Li La = Shangri La

I wonder what about the other brands...

There's a name for SPG in Chinese as well, can't remember what it was.

moondog

Sure, those work fine in cases where the hotel doesn't have a unique name, but the Great Wall Hotel, Portman (Shanghai) , and Peace Hotel (Shanghai) are examples of cases in which the brand name is almost meaningless.

ETA: Another common case is hotel owners who like to include their name in the property name (e.g. Wanda, HNA, Jinjjiang, CITIC). If you want to go to the Marriott NE, "Hainan Airlines Hotel" is a lot more effective than saying "Wan Hao".

lcpteck

True. Westin in Taipei is still known by the previous hotel name 'Liu Fu Huang Gong'.