The Westin Beijing Chaoyang — Attraction in Beijing

Happy with the room but other aspects of the hotel let me down. Here's a summary:

Good Points

1. Room: Large king-size bed with ample space for a work table and small couch. Floor to ceiling windows makes for good views of the city during night and day. Large, swivel flat screen TV for easing viewing of TV from anywhere in the room. Provision of a foot massage machine was a nice touch.
2. Washroom: Large washroom with separate toilet, bath tub and shower.
3. Amenities: Usual provision of amenities as expected (e.g. shampoo, toothbrush, shaver, mineral water, etc.).
4. Housekeeping: The standard of housekeeping was very consistent everyday. Everything was replenished without needing to chase up on anything.
5. Location: If you're familiar with Beijing and like taking walks, then the location of this hotel is incredibly convenient. It's only a 20 minute walk to Sanlitun. Alternatively, there is a subway station right next to the hotel (Liangmaqiao Station) which allows for easy access to the rest of the city.
6. There is a City Mall right next to the hotel if you're interested in shopping for luxury goods. There is also a large selection of restaurants and cafes to choose from.

Negative Points

1. Bell boys: On arrival at the hotel, there were a couple of bell boys standing at the ready at the front of the hotel, but for some reason, I had to open the boot and start unloading the bags myself before the bell boys decided to come over and give me a hand. This was quite a disappointing start to our stay.
2. Check In: All aspects went very smooth but there was no communication to me about where breakfast was going to be and how to access the wifi. Would have expected this to be the norm when checking in.
3. Toilet: The toilet in our room smelt of cigarette smoke. This was very disappointing... the hotel probably can't do much about the guests smoking in the room but I would have expected housekeeping to clear the smell completely before turning the room back to reception for check in. Some hotels in London charge an extra night stay if the guests smoke in the room, perhaps Westin could implement this in Beijing?
4. Bath Tub: I'm not sure if this problem was the same in every room, but the hot water flow was really weak in our room which meant that it took about 20 minutes to fill up the bath tub every time I wanted to soak.
5. Room Service: On one occasion, we ordered room service but I thought the quality was incredibly poor. I ordered fish and chips but the batter on the fish was soggy and the fish wasn't cod. Salad on the other hand was palatable.
6. Breakfast: The spread of the breakfast buffet was quite large, with Western and Eastern choices. Even though the staff was very busy every morning, I was quite impressed with their service, I felt they were trying as hard as they could to accommodate the daily, morning frenzy. I just wish they could improve on the taste of their breakfast, I tried something different every morning but always felt the food was mass produced and lacking in flavour.
7. Swimming Pool: I wish the hotel would have told us in advance that we needed swimming caps and goggles to use the pool, then we would have prepared in advance. Perhaps due to the language barrier, we weren't advised where we could go to buy said items either.
8. Check Out: When the receptionist asked for my credit card on check out and swiped my card, she didn't ask me if I would prefer to pay in GBP or RMB and just made the choice herself. I wasn't aware of this until I signed the credit card receipt and noticed that GBP had already been chosen. Considering it's my credit card, I think it's only right that she should have asked me which currency denomination I would prefer to pay in rather than making the choice herself.

Westin is an internationally recognised brand and I really expected more in terms of service. The room was very comfortable but if I take my experience as a whole, I don't think I would be coming back to stay at the Westin in the future, there are many better choices in Beijing to...

A "Memorable" Birthday Night at Westin Hotel It was our first time to celebrate our birthday in this prestigious "five-star hotel".We have been best friends since college, and because our birthday falls on the same day, it has been a tradition that we celebrate our birthday together.This year we did not celebrate birthday with other friends because of Covid-19, but we still wanted to make it special and create a sweet memory out of the bitter days packed with choking workloads and perpetual Covid anxiety/fatigue.We both agreed that it might be a good idea to spend the birthday at a luxury hotel, and we did some research work on the Internet in choosing the hotel a few days before our birthday. Finally we decided to stay at Westin Beijing Chaoyang, as we were impressed by the rating of the hotel-- 9.5 on agoda.com, 8.5 on *, 4.8 on Ctrip and 4.2 on Marriott.com. It is located in CBD, with walking distance to Sanlitun and Liangmaqiao. It seemd like a perfect place for night recreations. We checked in at the hotel on the afternoon of Sep. 11 with joyful mood, expecting that we gonna have a relaxing, loving and romantic night...However, the hotel just failed us in so many ways that our birthday night turned out to be unpleasantly memorable...1. “…wine glasses that never came that night…”We prepared a nice cake and a bottle of wine to the hotel. We told the lady at the reception desk that we were here to celebrate our birthday. Not long after we got in the room, a uniformed boy came in with the fruit plate. We kindly asked the boy whether we could have two wine glasses, he replied he would go get them, but he never came back. We waited in the room around an hour but nothing showed up at the door. It was getting late and we decided to go out for dinner. We didn’t worry much at that time, since two wine glasses wouldn’t be too much a trouble for such kind of hotel.We spent about 3 hours for birthday dinner in a nearby restaurant. With great pleasure and some exhaust, we went back to our Westin room. It was almost midnight and we were ready for the highlight of the night--the birthday countdown: the red-velvet cake was readythe wine was readythe camera was readythe table was set and the right persons were ready....Suddenly, we found that everything was ready except the WINE GLASSES...we received nothing from the uniformed boy at all!We called the operator for help and were told that wine glasses were not available in the hotel. We couldn't believe such five-star hotel could not serve wine glasses! We called room service again. A few minutes later a self-called manager showed up at the door with two ordinary glasses, which, made us quite disappointed. We insisted on the wine glasses and the manager just informed us impatiently that wine glasses were only provided in the suite room...We were so offended by his arrogance and condescending attitude. It seemed like guests staying in the double room don't deserve a pair of "wine glasses", which, according to the room service manager, is a privilege only for the guests in suite rooms. How ridiculous！Later, we were further annoyed by another call from the front desk trying to "explain" that they fell short of wine glasses these days and hoped we could understand…OLALA, what an incredible excuse from such "incredible" hotel!We were picturing the romantic moment of the special BD night—a cozy room showered in the gentle candle light, creamy red-velvet cake, aromatic wine in the RIGHT glasses and the beautiful night scene out there….the dreaming night was so spoiled by the fly in the ointment--wine glasses that never came that night…..The next morning, we decided to try one last time for the wine glasses for the remaining wine. To our surprise, they came finally, but it was too late...For more details of the story pls see the...

A "Memorable" Birthday Night at Westin Hotel It was our first time to celebrate our birthday in this prestigious "five-star hotel".We have been best friends since college, and because our birthday falls on the same day, it has been a tradition that we celebrate our birthday together.This year we did not celebrate birthday with other friends because of Covid-19, but we still wanted to make it special and create a sweet memory out of the bitter days packed with choking workloads and perpetual Covid anxiety/fatigue.We both agreed that it might be a good idea to spend the birthday at a luxury hotel, and we did some research work on the Internet in choosing the hotel a few days before our birthday. Finally we decided to stay at Westin Beijing Chaoyang, as we were impressed by the rating of the hotel-- 9.5 on agoda.com, 8.5 on *, 4.8 on Ctrip and 4.2 on Marriott.com. It is located in CBD, with walking distance to Sanlitun and Liangmaqiao. It seemd like a perfect place for night recreations. We checked in at the hotel on the afternoon of Sep. 11 with joyful mood, expecting that we gonna have a relaxing, loving and romantic night...However, the hotel just failed us in so many ways that our birthday night turned out to be unpleasantly memorable...1. “…wine glasses that never came that night…”We prepared a nice cake and a bottle of wine to the hotel. We told the lady at the reception desk that we were here to celebrate our birthday. Not long after we got in the room, a uniformed boy came in with the fruit plate. We kindly asked the boy whether we could have two wine glasses, he replied he would go get them, but he never came back. We waited in the room around an hour but nothing showed up at the door. It was getting late and we decided to go out for dinner. We didn’t worry much at that time, since two wine glasses wouldn’t be too much a trouble for such kind of hotel.We spent about 3 hours for birthday dinner in a nearby restaurant. With great pleasure and some exhaust, we went back to our Westin room. It was almost midnight and we were ready for the highlight of the night--the birthday countdown: the red-velvet cake was readythe wine was readythe camera was readythe table was set and the right persons were ready....Suddenly, we found that everything was ready except the WINE GLASSES...we received nothing from the uniformed boy at all!We called the operator for help and were told that wine glasses were not available in the hotel. We couldn't believe such five-star hotel could not serve wine glasses! We called room service again. A few minutes later a self-called manager showed up at the door with two ordinary glasses, which, made us quite disappointed. We insisted on the wine glasses and the manager just informed us impatiently that wine glasses were only provided in the suite room...We were so offended by his arrogance and condescending attitude. It seemed like guests staying in the double room don't deserve a pair of "wine glasses", which, according to the room service manager, is a privilege only for the guests in suite rooms. How ridiculous！Later, we were further annoyed by another call from the front desk trying to "explain" that they fell short of wine glasses these days and hoped we could understand…OLALA, what an incredible excuse from such "incredible" hotel!We were picturing the romantic moment of the special BD night—a cozy room showered in the gentle candle light, creamy red-velvet cake, aromatic wine in the RIGHT glasses and the beautiful night scene out there….the dreaming night was so spoiled by the fly in the ointment--wine glasses that never came that night…..The next morning, we decided to try one last time for the wine glasses for the remaining wine. To our surprise, they came finally, but it was too late...For more details of the story pls see the...