This hotel is really quite nice and a great value. The rooms are better than I was expecting - not very large, but nicely done. Hotel staff is very friendly, but a bit busy and english is not that strong. Location is fantastic! You can walk to shopping (just to the west one block) and Tianamen Square etc. There is a great little dumpling store - go out to the main street and turn left. It's about 1/2 a block down the road on your left. Teh dumpling menu is all in chinese, but they are great and very cheap - just try your luck or the staff will help translate (sort of).

Two things to watch for:

1 - the hotel will arrange tours for you, but they have a very restricted offering and they will not do anything beyond what they offer. For instance, they only go to two places on the great wall they would not arrange a car for the day unless we went to one of those. Later, we wanted to arrange a performance for some arcobatics, but when it became clear that we did not want to go to the their "sponsored" place, the staff person (Gary) refused to help us and became quite rude. So, if you want to do anything outside of their few selected (and more touristy / overrun) attractions, make your own arrangements before hand.

2 - a lot of taxi drivers do not know the location. So, print a map and make sure you know more or less where it is. This may improve over time as the hotel becomes more known.

Overall, a great place considering the price and would stay there again anytime.

This hotel is only a year old at this point, so the only real problem it had was that the cabbies didn't know exactly where it was and they don't normally speak English. They usually get close enough so that you can point to it, though.

The rooms are big enough to be comfortable in, but not huge. We did live out of our suitcases because there didn't seem to be enough drawer space. No biggie for us, but you might not like that. It was very clean and our view from the third floor looked down on the hutong and Imperial Archives.

The breakfast included with the room includes noodles, rice, fruits, vegetables, breads, cereals and an omlette bar. Sometimes even french toast or pancakes. The coffee was very good.

The location is fantastic for the tourist. The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are just a short 3 or 4 minute walk, and you can get there by walking through the beautifully manicured Imperial Gardens.

The staff was very easy to deal with. We booked three tours through them, and once used their very affordable internet service.

We had a great time, and I credit this hotel with at least part of our experience.

We decided on this hotel due to Price, location, and the ability to go to their web site to make a reservation. I made a note on the reservation that we did have a late flight and our check in would be after 10pm. I used my Credit card to hold the room. Unfortunately they didnt read the notes, 2 rooms with twin beds were NOT reserved when we arrived after 11pm. It was a good thing that our tour package included a guide and van pick up from the airport and our tour guide spoke chinese and discussed things with the front desk. Their english is not as good as I expected. We ended up in the Budget rooms in the basement. Fairly clean, dirty floors were expected, and not so clean tile in bathroom. Rooms were very small. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast, the price was a bit more than what we understood from reviews, no biggie, but when I left the buffet to get my daughter and came back, just to sip coffee while she ate, they charged me again for breakfast... absolutely would not have happened if there was no language barrier. After you argue for 30 minutes, you tend to give up. It was definately BUDGET hotel, but once you get your bearings, the location is very close to Tianamen square/Forbidden city, and in the other direction Wangfujing shopping area.

Overall my stay at this hotel was excellent. good location,staff and rooms. I would suggest though that you avoid the airline ticket office as the woman there had no clue at all and was unable to book a simple Beijing - Hong Kong ticket after two hours. i walked around the corner to the Beijing Hotel where they did it in 5 minutes with no hassle.