I recently stayed at this place with my father. From the outside the hotel looks great it's old, it's big, it has a beatiful chariot on a fountain in front, but once you get inside it's a whole other story. The rooms really aren't bad, the fact that their refrigerators don't work and they don't have extra soap or toilet paper were mere inconveniences. Considering we paid $1000 a night, a hotel that steals (housekeeping took my key and kept it) your key card when you leave it in the key system to keep the air conditiong running while your eating breakfast is going beyond frugal, especially when they threatan to charge you $20 for the missing card. The main gripe I have about this hotel is it tries to act like its a 5 star hotel, but it comes nowhere close. It charges the rates of a 5 star, but half the staff has no clue what they are doing 90% of the time, a simple ordeal of trying to get ice can take a half hour. The store in the lobby is insulting to anyone who got ripped off staying at this place, they charged 30 yuan, about $4-5 for a bottle of water, when you walk into the store next to the hotel they charge 3 yaun for the same bottle. The hotel lied abuot the location claiming they were close to Tianamen square the hotel is about 20 km form the square. If you speak English for the love of god never go into the hotel restaurant, Dynasty.

We spent 1 week during the Olympics at this hotel. The room had dirty carpet, and were very worn and old. The whole hotel is worn and old. The pool is a shared community swimming pool, not a hotel pool. The pool, while large, has lane markers for lap swimming. It was not good for our children who like to jump off the side, and play games in the hotel pools. Do NOT get your laundry done through the hotel. I was charged $80 for 5 shirts, 1 men's shirt and some smaller items. Of course we were overcharged for everything...I hope that was only because it was the Olympics. If you need to be the area, definately try the JW Marriott over the Royale Plaza The staff was friendly and tried hard. The facilites were in no way 5 star..more of 3 star.

We just got back from a week vacation in Beijing. We stayed at the Plaza Royale in Beijing. It was maybe a 25-30 minute drive from the airport. First the hotels appearance is awesome. Very classy. Has a definite European touch. It was very clean and business like. They have a morning breakfast buffet that has western items but mostly their cultural choices. For breakfast you get rice, noodles, congee, beans, broccoli, sugar peas, corn..I mean like a lot of thing that Americans would eat for dinner. Now there were some eggs/omelet station, bacon and some days either french toast or pancakes.....that was pretty much it for breakfast choices. I didnt get to go out on the town and walk around outside the hotel because all of our days we had some type of tours booked. There is a WalMart directly behind the hotel. you have to walk all the way around the block to get to it. BUT - I DO NOT RECCOMMEND WALKING IN BEIJING. It is 5x's worse than New York City traffic. There is another grocery store 2 blocks down in the opposite direction, but again, you'd have to walk to get there. Our tour guide told us several times to please be very careful. Look several times before crossing the street , then look some more times then run. He was serious! Pedestrians have no rights.
The hotel has room service and dry cleaning services. Please note that several websites said they have a laundry facility. They dont! After two days of searching for it we used the hotel laundry service (which I do not recommend) After they returned our clothes to us they still didnt smell fresh. There is however a laundry center about 5 minutes from the hotel. They will come get the clothes and bring them back. The clothes had a great Downy scent and it was 75% cheaper than the hotel's laundry service.
The main problem we had at the hotel was communication. To be such a grand hotel no one spoke english after 5pm. NO ONE. They spoke a little here and there but not enough to communicate. One night the weather change caused our room to be freezing cold. We attempted to work the heater in the room but had no luck. We call to the front desk they didnt understand what we were asking for. They sent someone up and they didnt understand either. We pointed to the heater, made cold gestures, the employee just smiled. They came back with blankets. The second night the same problem. This time someone spoke a little better english and told us that they dont cut the heat on until November??? About 20 minutes later someone brought us up a portable heater. Same issue with laundry. Several websites said the hotel had laundry facility, when questioning the front desk one night the lady said no, they only have laundry service. The next night I went down the front desk. The attendant didnt speak english so I pointed to the laundry bag that was also written in Chinese. The attendant said they had a laundry facility downstairs. I go down stairs and there is an attendant by the pool. I point to the laundry bag and she shook her head no and pointed upstairs. I tried to inform her that the upstairs attendant sent me downstairs. She just smiled, bowed, then said she didnt understand...sorry. It got to the point our tour director did all the communications for us. He didnt stay in the hotel though so it was a bit frustrating. -Only frustrating though-. I really cant complain. I am in their country ..ya know what I mean....so that’s it all in all. On a scale of 1-10. they get an 8. The only reason for them not getting a 10 is the language/communication issue. I hope this helps you. I uploaded some pictures also of our room and the front of the hotel.

I stayed at this hotel for one night due to its proximity to my customer's offices. On arrival, I was struck by the grand entrance, attempting to mimic the grand hotels of Paris. The hotel has a broad frontage and a shiny gold statue and fountain in front, along with a circular driveway. The lobby is very spacious and on the ornate side but not offensive. My initially pleasant surprise wore off when I was shown to my room. Though it had all the usual amenities like shower, tub, minibar, toiletries, etc., everything was tired and seemed run down. The beds were uncomfortably firm, and the airconditioning was inadequate.

The only saving grace was that the service was cordial and prompt. However, I won't be going back.