Just in case anyone wants a conclusion to the 'they upgraded me in advance but my booking now shows a smoking room' question.

I had notified the hotel that my original booking was a no smoking room and they said they made a note in the booking.

At check-in they confirmed the no smoking statesman suite. ^

Wrapping up a 5 night stay here, and the St. Regis is a solid property. I was upgraded to a Statesman Suite the next day after I booked my reservation, which was 6 months out! I have no complaint regarding the layout and colors. Service from the staff is excellent.

I was a bit disappointed with breakfast. The pastries are top notch, and there was a lot of variety, but I can't put my finger on it. It seems to lack substance. The dim sum selection had some steamed potstickers and buns, and only one morning so far had siu mai, which was pretty bad. The egg station does the trick, but overall, I'm not impressed for some reason. They have 3 dishes of along the lines of curry or whatnot, but none of it caught my eye. It may be just me. Service was excellent though. The food selection is pretty much is the same every morning.

As a plat you get a free buffet, but they also have a menu. I was not allowed to order off the menu (for free anyway). Too bad, as I was in the mood for eggs benedict. I'll take the St. Regis SIN breakfast anyday.

The gym is large with lots of weight machines and cardio equipment. It's open 24/7, which was great as I could go running at 4am when I was jetlagged.

In the evenings, the hotel has an Unwind Ritual in the Press Club bar for RMB198 from 5:30pm-7pm. It's free for plats though. There's usually 3 different types of canapes (one of which is always a dried fruit and cheese plate), and 3 desserts. Along with the booze, of course. It's a very relaxed affair, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Taxis are hard to come by. The location of the hotel doesn't help. If you want a taxi, the doorman has to go to the street and flag one down for you. A bit of an awkward process. The subway station (Jianguomen) is a short walk away and serves Line 1 and 2. If you need to hire a car for a day trip, I think it's RMB900 per day. There's also an ATM in the lobby.

Due to traffic, I ordered room service several nights, all of which were quite reasonable. A simple entree is about RMB100 plus 15% service charge. The food typically came within 15-20 minutes.

Across the street is Taipan Massage, where I got an excellent massage for RMB168 (one hour). There's also a 7-11 as well if you want to pick up some sodas or snacks.

The hotel is great for your touristy sights such as the Forbidden City and whatnot. But if you're looking to spend time in Sanlitun, you'll probably be better off staying at one of the SPG properties there.

Spent 5 nights here starting Nov.5, was upgraded to a suite as a plat. - overall excellent recognition as a plat - provided free breakfast and the evening lounge w/free drinks and appetizers as described in the previous post. Overall we really liked the hotel, beuatiful lobby, room was excellent, fantastic service from all. The breakfast was the best we have ever experienced - exceptionally good - I can't imagine having complaints about the variety or quality of food available. We were engaged in discussion by the executive chef on 3 separate occasions at breakfast or in the lounge. The gym is excellent as is the pool which we used on 1 occasion. Location worked well as a base for sightseeing for us. Would absolutely return.

Here now for two nights, upgraded to a Statesman suite on the 18th floor. Complimentary breakfast and drinks at the bar between 5:30 and 7:00. Complimentary soft drinks and coffee at the business center as well. Nice hotel, GREAT service :)

Only minus is that the wifi is really spotty.

Keep it down up there skrovik! I just arrived in a Statesman Suite on the 17th floor :)

At property now for what seems to be my worst St Regis stay ever - anywhere. No upgrade whatsoever, room is very tiny with not even a walk-in shower (did not know this existed at St Regis). No special welcome in room, phone not working properly, wireless not reliable. Worst, in my room the body lotion was half used which I found disgusting. The butler 'solved' it by removing it but not replacing it with a new one :confused:

I think the property is pretty full, so understand one can not always get a suite but this room has got to be the smallest in the hotel. And some of the service glitches are definitely not St Regis style.

Moving to Park Hyatt tomorrow....

I stayed a couple of nights here, and it was a solid experience. It is a slightly older hotel, but the staff is sharp and friendly. The location for the hotel is great, but Beijing Traffic is bad pretty much everywhere.

I liked the rooms a bit better at the Westin than at the St. Regis, but the staff here was great.

My wife and I had another excellent stay here a few weeks ago and I declared to her this is one of my favorite hotels. We were upgraded to a St. Regis Suite, which seemed very similar to the Statesman Suite we had on our previous stay, though it may have been slightly larger. As we were being escorted to our room by the bellman, our butler popped our into the hall and said, "Welcome back, Mr. Goodman." A great beginning to a great stay.

The room was extremely luxurious and comfortable and breakfast is my favorite of any hotel we've visited (with the possible exception of St. Regis Bali which might be on its own planet). There is a great variety of Chinese and Western dishes, amazing fresh pastries, and they grill lambchops to order.

The evening cocktail hour in the bar is a nice touch. Some light snacks--nothing too amazing, free drinks (I'm not sure what all it entailed, but we had wine and beer), and good people watching.

The only complaint I could come up with is the odd entry/parking area in front that feels more like a toll plaza than a luxury hotel. We usually like to try new hotels when traveling, but I'd have a hard time being convinced to stay elsewhere in Beijing.

Any new updates for this hotel? I'm looking to book 6 nights in Beijing and am torn between Park Hyatt (have suite upgrades to use) and the St. Regis (seems to be good upgrade opportunity for plats). In the statesmen suite is the couch a sofa sleeper at all? There will be two of us, but just a buddy trip, so we aren't going to be sharing a bed. Thanks for your help.

The Statesman suite is small and boring but it is two real rooms and I think has two full bathrooms. I don't know abt the sofa being a sofa bed. Email the hotel. I suspect u can get a rollaway which the butler would bring in and out every night. That's what ii would do. Check on whether there are two full baths as well.

The PH BJ is my favorite. Great hotel. But u won't get a suite w/o a confirmed UG, IME.

Someone posted a youtube video of the Statesman suite about a year ago.

Looks very familiar. Doesn't look like the there are two bathrooms and they will have to do some moving of furniture to accommodate a rollaway (doesn't look like a pullout sofa, but can't really tell). I did once get an UG a bigger suite. You might want to tell them that u r traveling w a freind and inquire abt a courtesy UG to a suite which is larger than a Statesman suite and which would have either a pullout sofa or more room for a rollaway bed and perhaps a second bathroom.

What's with the vertical video?? :)

In all seriousness, this reviewer's impressions were pretty similar to mine. I spent a few nights at this hotel in a Statesmen Suite last fall. Here's the review I wrote: http://first2board.com/foodwineandmi...regis-beijing/

Unfortunately, I have no idea if the sofa is a sleeper sofa - so I wouldn't necessarily bank on being able to get separate sleeping space if you're in a Statesmen Suite.

Stayed for one night recently, and got the statesman suite upgrade, though to a low floor. I am glad I only stayed one night since, dollar for dollar, the platinum upgrade at either of the two Beijing Westins provides a much better experience. The problem with this Statesman suite is that its design exhibits such an inefficient use of valuable space, that makes it boring and almost claustrophobic. In contrast, the platinum suites at the Chaoyang and Financial Street Westins are more spacious and luxurious.

Some minor additional details - the breakfast room was very crowded, cramped and noisy, thus challenging the St Regis image of luxury; also, a preference communicated by SPG Ambassador was not taken into account. The staff are excellent though and can actually speak good English; and if one's stay entails the use of the concierge for more than the most rudimentary of functions, then I would recommend the St Regis over the other Beijing Starwoods where the language barrier is still a massive problem!

St Regis Beijing post 2008 renovation [Master Thread]
 

At the property right now. It seems the business lounge turns into a lounge with drinks/snacks from 5-7pm for platinum guests.