Guohong Hotel Beijing

It's a state-run 4-star hotel in a very convenient location to get around Beijing. However, except for the location, I didn't find this hotel so great. The staff at the reception desk weren't professional: they were chatting among themselves when customers were kept waiting (though maybe wrong to expect Western-style service...) The room I stayed wasn't impressive either... I was first a bit annoyed by the fact that the bathroom sink and the desk weren't clean (cup stains, soap stains. etc). Then I noticed a visible big stain under the clean white bedsheet. Maybe I'm too sensitive, but it's not a pleasant experience to find such a stain through the bedsheet when you're expecting a comfortable sleep. Moreover, the room looked quite worn-down... full of stains of the floor carpet as well as on the walls and lamp shades. For other things, the room has an internet cable and is sufficiently fast for working. Breakfast is mostly Chinese, but there some western stuff like muffins and pastries, too. Overall, I find Guohong to be a lower-than-average business hotel.

Our tour guide told us that the Guohong was run by the government and it shows in the general tackiness of the rooms. They are comfortable and the housekeeping is very good, but badly stained carpets and peeling paint on the bathroom door detracted from the overall experience. Amenities were weird. We would have liked more soap and fewer condoms in the bathroom. The lobby and restaurant are nice. The breakfast buffet is not geared to western tastes except for eggs that were thoroughly fried and fried and fried. For those of us accustomed to Asian breakfasts it was OK, but most Americans don't get excited about vegetables and soup for breakfast. It is located within easy walking distance of shops, a subway station, and a great museum. Staff at the front desk can best be described kindly as brusquely efficient, but the ladies in the gift shop were a pleasure to deal with.

I wouldn't choose to stay here, but it was fine. It's close to the Muxidi subway station. Breakfast wasn't great but edible. They do have non-smoking floors which, strangely, they denied having and wrote to me about how they were going to thoroughly air the room before my stay. The whole hotel did stink of cigarettes though.