Beijing Hwa Apartment Hotel

The hotel was very spacious - it has a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. I find the bed extremely comfortable though I believe some people might find it harder than usual. Two pillows were given and the comforter was very good in keeping me warm. Our room also had a good view of the main street of Xidan, one of the major shopping districts in Beijing. The hotel’s location is extremely good, surrounded by shopping malls and lots of food. Worthy to mention that just next to the hotel’s lobby is a chinese fast food restaurant chain (named Hehegu) that provides a good variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Note that if you are travelling to the hotel by subway, you should come out from Exit B of the Xidan station so that you can drag your luggage along a straight road for about a 5mins walk (instead of carrying your luggage up and down two pedestrian overhead bridges from the other exit). Do also note that, upon check-in, the hotel will request that you pay a deposit sum too, but this is refundable upon check-out as long as you didn’t damage any of the things in your hotel room (the refund process for me was very smooth).

The hotel concierge/reception does not provide any tour booking services, even though its page on Booking.com says so. So, for example, if you are planning to book a day tour to the Great Wall of china via the hotel concierge, you will be utterly disappointed that they do not provide such services. You will have to either source for such tours on your own or take public transport. I am not sure if this is the practice for all hotels in China but I was definitely very disappointed with the hotel in this aspect. The service level of staff was acceptable, but definitely can use a little more improvement. Not that this caused me a problem - but thought it is also good to share that there were no utensils and cleaning detergent in the kitchen, only a few cups and plates and a microwave. The hotel can also use some renovation as most of the furniture looked a bit worn.