The Red Hotel

The reception staff were amazingly helpful. We booked through trips.com and didn’t have any CNY to pay for the cab, so the receptionist covered it and showed us where the nearest ATM was. I’d recommend this hotel and would definitely come back if we’re in Beijing again.

Even the tiny rooms are reasonably cosy for one person. Just know that the cheaper rooms are in a different building, about a one-minute walk away, and the larger rooms are in the main registration building. When you arrive, they’ll first try to upsell you to one of those bigger rooms. They explain the offer through a translator app, so you can just say "bu yao", meaning "don't want" in Chinese.

The reception team were helpful, and the bedroom was spacious and clean. The bed, pillows, and shower were good. It got a bit noisy at night facing the main street, the TV reception wasn’t good, and the Wi-Fi was weak. It’s not bad, but the hotel is starting to show its age and needs some improvements.

We ended up booking another nearby hotel because the location was noisy and the room situation felt like a scam. The platform didn’t make it clear upfront that what we booked was in a separate building, not the one shown in the photo. They asked for another 100 RMB per night for a more comfortable room, then bargained when we turned it down. People from the booking platform said the offer was a room upgrade, but what we were offered didn’t feel like a small fee.