JI Hotel Beijing 798 Art Zone

I booked this hotel through their web site which shows everything in English and looks fine.I arrived late at night,they had no record of my pre paid booking and had to use a Chinese/English translator on a phone to inform me.It is far from the city centre,over half an hour by taxi,and the same to the airport.Room is large and clean,and breakfast is good and price is average for this type of hotel,but the problem that no English is spoken does make for a very difficult stay.I had to pay again,and am now trying to recover my first payment.

We were booked into this hotel by our travel agents, Travel Tours, Bangalore. It's rather far from the City Centre or Downtown (closer to the Airport and the Art District though). The hotel is pretty decent. The 2nd-floor room we got was spacious enough for three beds (parents and me). We had to cart our own bags to our rooms, no bellboy service. Rather dim lighting though. Also, it's window was facing into the hotel lobby. So, not much natural lighting. The beds were a little hard, but not uncomfortable. The A/C was great! They provide a water heater and tea sachets, but no coffee makers and creamers. The bathroom was spacious. Closet space was sufficient. The hotel provided us with complimentary breakfasts. The buffet breakfast was well-stocked (cereals, meats, eggs, bread, juice, veggies, etc). Since we were going out all day with our tour group, we didn't get time to have lunch or dinner here. All in all, a decent experience for budget travelers.

I have an extended contract to work at a gallery in 798. This is one of the closest places to stay near 798. I made a booking online for an extended stay and when I got there they tried to change the rates on me and withhold some other guarantees like free wifi. I had to renegotiate and fight for things that where already confirmed on my booking. My first room was extremely loud as it was located next to the service lift that bangs and rattles all night and all morning. When I moved to another room it became evident that the whole hotel has paper thin walls and you can here everything. The design of the hotel is bizarre. The hallways and doors are on the outer perimeter so that all the actual rooms are located on the inner part of the hotel. Windows look down onto the lounge, lobby, front desk and other rooms. This creates a dome/chamber of echos from all the people that hang around the lobby at all hours. They have no enforced policy about noise and 4/5's of the hotel can only use the wifi in the lobby so people are hanging out down there at all hours. If you actually value rest and sleep this is not the place for you. The room cleaners start going around at and knocking on doors at 6:30-7:00am. The wheels on their carts rumble and echo down the hallways like a semi-truck and they chatter loudly without concern for their guests rest. The name of this hotel may be in English but that is the only english you will find as not a single staff member can speak any english. Also I had an experience where the hotel security broke into my room while I was there because I had headphones on and didn't hear the phone or the knocking and my light was on. Can you imagine how invasive they would feel? Furthermore someone who stayed in the room before me must have been washing food down the bathroom sink that remained halfway down and was rotting. There where children's stickers put all over the bathtub and left half peeling, stained and corroded. Why not just get a wire-brush and get rid of them? Oh, also the whole place smells like cigarette smoke.