Hotel Du Palais Rouge

I don’t get the negative comments on this page. Let me clear it up from an objective point of view: Location: it’s located right in the middle of old Beijing, along the axis of the city (can’t have a better fengshui!), it’s nestled in a side alley, so you have to look for it, but it’s not an impossible task. Advantage to this is: it’s quiet, no cars, tourists, screams of children. Also you’re at a reasonable walking distance from the underground and bus stations, from the sichahai bar street and the hip nanluoguxiang. You are in the centre of a 24 million people metropole, but with the feeling of being in a village. The guesthouse: yes, this IS a simple guesthouse, you might even call it boutique-guesthouse, seen it’s decorated in old Ming-Qing style, but *not* a hotel (like others claim it to be). This is perfect if you’re a backpacker, and only use the place to sleep and have a shower. Cleanliness: well, bear in mind that Beijing is a terribly dusty place (the Gobi desert starts at 70km northwest from the city), a cleaning lady will come dust-off your room once a day. Clean it as far as she can. After all it’s a guesthouse. Friendliness: far as I am concerned a very friendly and patient staff. They helped me infinite times to get on the WiFi. They’re open for any kind of suggestion you might need. In conclusion: if you are looking for a place where to relax for a few days, where you can spend time reading a book or do some writing, then this might not be the place for you, the space is very limited. But if you need a decent looking, reasonably clean and central place, from where you can explore the city, this guesthouse is perfect.

The hotel is located on the north east corner of the bell tower down a back alley, there are no English signs. There were two people who worked there. One spoke English and the other didn't. The rooms were quite small and very basic there is no storage space. The beds were rock solid. The bathroom was small with a poor shower. The wifi was hit and miss. There is a small TV in the room. From the hotel you can see the bell/drum tower, there are a number of restaurants 10 minute walk from the hotel. There is a subway station 10 minute walk away. The Forbidden City is about a 30 minute walk away.

What was supposed to be a very good choice in a hutong endind up on the street with no room. I should have trusted several comments on this hotel. They are happilly practicing surbooking. as this place is very small, there is a very good chance that you end up with no room when you arrive. We were three adults and two kids (4 years & 7 years old). They simply told us that maybe they forgot to take into account our booking. We had to threaten them so they help us find some other place nearby: a hotel that was more expensive and in such a poor state of cleanliness that have never seen, even in the most remote countries I have visited. At the second hotel, they even took our luggage out while out on the second day and blocked the room to pay more : threatening them in Chinese to call the police was the only way for them to back off. So be bold and attracted by the reasonable prices: Book and sleep on the street!! Unfortunately, we were not the only ones to experience this. By the way, I would not call that a hutong when basically 1 house out of 3 around has already been destroyed: that is more of a construction site.