Spent six nights at the Holiday Inn Central Plaza with my wife and two teenage daughters last week and have to agree with previous posts, the hotel and service are excellent, it really added to what was a fantastic week in beijing.
Firstly we contacted the hotel via email ref their airport transfer prior to arrival rather than trying to squeeze the four of us and four cases into a single taxi. Although was quite expensive(£50) was worth the money after a long journey to have a guy waiting with a nice aircon mini-van for the hour long trip into the city.
Upon arrival we were upgraded from our two standard rooms to rooms on the executive floor due to being platinum priority club members. The rooms were excellent, spacious and modern. Didnt use the lounge for anything other than internet access so cant comment on the drinks,food etc in there.
Food and drink in hotel is expensive and is adequate rather than stand out. Had breakfast included in room rate and was usual mixed international buffet affair, staff were very attentive and willing to help constantly. Had buffet dinner in same Salt and Pepper restaurant on first evening at hotel. Whilst food was again adequate, for approx £20 per head it really didnt represent value for money, especially when far superior food is available in local area at a fraction of the cost with tons more atmostphere to boot. As above staff were on the ball and very attentive, especially as there were on a handful of people in the restaurant.
Pool was nice after day sightseeing, although changing rooms, sauna and steam room were being refurbed whilst there.
As mentioned before Storm was very helpful. As a sterotypical sceptical englishman, I initially had reservations when he came over at breakfast on our first morning and introduced himself. Once we had a chat about what we were looking for out of our trip and how long we were there etc Stom really did offer some great advice and recommendations. I found him quite subtle in his approach. We as a family do like to retain an amount of independance on our trips and experience local transport, restaurants, etc and Storm did seem to pick up on this with some of his recommendations. Other than recommending the local restaurants(Youth & Statue), organising a taxi for the trip to the ming tombs/great wall(£70 for day for 4 people), he took us around the corner from the hotel one morning to get the local bus into the city centre (number 10) which was an experience in its self.
Taxis from hotel to anywhere in the city are very easy. The staff on the front door will hail them for you and provide you with a card with the set prices,taxi number and destination in chinese on it. It also has a map of the hotel and address in chinese for your return journeys. Only had a problem once getting back to hotel, that was during a rush hour from Oriental Plaza , third taxi eventually agreed to take us and it took over an hour. No real problem but during rush hour the traffic is very heavy and slow.
Subway is clean, cheap and modern. Good for moving around the city whilst in the centre and good to get to Olympic green. Make sure you have small notes as ticket machines in stations only take upto 10 yuan notes, although there was a guy floating around giving change if needed. Same above applies to taxi, generally most services are not comfortable taking 100 yuan notes and all will check them for fakes.
The other recommendation would be to take the taxi to the wall. The Ming tombs are a reasonable diversion but the Mutianyu section of the wall was fantastic, very rural surroundings, small visitor numbers and great drive through villages and mountains on way in and out.
To summarise, a very high standard holiday Inn, on par with most Crown Plaza hotels we have stayed in. Staff are hard working and determined to deliver excellent service to their guests, something that some European hotels seem to have lost sight of. If you are in Beijing, the slight inconvienence of not being around Wanfujing is far outweighed by the service on offer.
Finally, a note about beijing International Airport. Our flight out of the airport was at midnight from the new terminal three. Althought a stunning looking building it is possibly the worst major international airport we have ever flown from, even worse than the old Bangkok airport. We arrived at 21.00 and made our way through to airside after check in. Out of approx 25 retail units in there all but four were closed. One duty free shop was partially open, a pizza hut and two cafes. No outlet that sold water(one vending machine at gates), no ATMs and was informed by information desk most outlets close at 21.30. There were four flights due out around the same time as our so approx 1500 passengers in terminal. Absolutely pathetic, especailly when you get to Dubai 8 hours later and facilities are excellent. Our advice if flying from PEK, stay landside as all facilities are that side or fly business or first, as the lounges for these pasengers were numerous and well provisioned.
