Botai Hotel — Hotel in Beijing

We, two 20 year old females, arrived at the Botai on the 28th June 2017 and we stayed for 4 nights. Upon arrival, the reception staff were unhelpful and unfriendly. After checking us in, we were shown an extremely small box room with a boarded up window. We were given one double bed rather than two single beds as requested. We tried to change this as soon as we were shown the room but the reception staff were unwilling to fulfil our request that evening. ||||This first room had a large gap in the door frame which resulted in us getting a terrible first night's sleep. This was due to the fact that other guests were particularly active and loud in the very early hours of the morning. The room key also didn't work effectively, even the receptionists had trouble opening our door. ||||The following morning, we requested an alternative room with single beds and less noise. We were provided with this and we hoped that we would not encounter any further problems - unfortunately this was not the case. Later that day, we discovered that our air- conditioning unit was leaking and it had drenched some of our clothing. Moreover, during the same evening we also discovered that the shower attachment was faulty - this resulted in water ALL OVER the ceiling, floor and toilet (Please see photos attached). The shower was eventually fixed (around an hour and a half later!) by the non-English speaking maintenance worker but only a mere bin was placed under the air conditioning unit! ||||Due to these problems, we were unable to shower until late in the evening and therefore didn't leave the hotel until 9.30pm to find only a KFC still open for food!||||You would have thought that this would be an end to our problems. However, the following day we found ourselves with a blocked toilet. We contacted the hotel reception to request that it be unblocked. The maintenance worker arrived at our room promptly and, instructed us, quite shockingly, to insert our hands inside the toilet and retrieve the blocked waste. We declined this offer and subsequently gestured for him to provide a plunger. Despite the lack of English spoken, this request was eventually granted (after around 45 minutes!).||||After some sightseeing the following day, we returned to the hotel to find lots of workmen in our room. We were very confused and slightly panicked since we could not see any of our belongings. Due to a lack of ability by the workmen to communicate in English, we were forced to enquire at reception about what was going on. It turned out that our air conditioning unit was being fixed (thank god!) and our belongings had simply been covered by sheets. However, none of this was communicated to us, we had no idea that our room would be in inaccessible at any point during the day, by this point it was 5pm. In addition, we were told that we had to wait around an hour until we would be able to access it. This was deeply inconvenient since we had plans for the evening. ||||Therefore, we politely requested for somewhere to shower and, after some deep reluctance by the hotel receptionist, we were given a new room. This was the third room that we were given and our stay was only 4 nights long! This room was significantly nicer than the other rooms and we have a feeling it was rarely given to non Mandarin-speaking patrons. ||||On our last evening we enquired about the availability of a taxi transfer to the airport. The receptionist booked us in for 10.30am and we agreed on the cost. We even found ourselves somewhat surprised about how efficient this interaction was. ||||However, the following morning, in true Botai style, the very same receptionist had increased the price by 25%. Despite the difficulties we had previously encountered hailing a taxi ourselves, we still swiftly declined her new offer. Thank god we did this, since we saved around 75 yuan! ||||Overall, we were extremely unimpressed with the 'customer service' provided at this hotel and interactions were extremely difficult throughout our stay due to the lack of English spoken. At one point we even found ourselves gesturing to explain that we needed more toilet paper! In addition, following this request one of the receptionists visibly sighed at us. ||||The hotel also wasn't the cleanest, the taps in the bathroom(s) were extremely grimy for example(see photos attached). We also did not have any nice views in any of our three rooms, they were all just brick walls. The hotel wasn't very central but the wifi worked well.(this is the only positive we can think of)||||The Botai is undoubtedly the worst hotel we have ever stayed in. It was also extremely difficult to navigate ourselves around Beijing without speaking any Mandarin - it would be advisable to have 3G access so that you can use...

Our group stayed in 2 rooms the first night and the smell of the room was awful. It smelled like sewer and smoke. Moreover, the neighboring room was so noisy. The next 5 days, we stayed in another room good for 3 people which was reserved prior to our arrival. The lights were not sufficient for reading, the bathroom fixtures were rusted,a small amount of toilet paper was rationed daily, the bathroom floor was always wet after a shower as the area only had a curtain as a divider and was in the same level as the toilet . They provided toothbrush,soap, and shampoo daily and enough slippers for everyone. It was close to the metro so was convenient and accessible to the different sites-Lama Temple, Forbidden City, Tian-nmen Square, local shops and eating places. We were able to eat with the locals by pointing out what we wanted as all the menus were written in Chinese. Public buses were accessible and cheap. You just have to know where to alight as all the signs are in Chinese characters. During our stay, probably only 2 nights were quiet. We wanted to move out but our reservation was non-refundable. There is a no smoking sign in some areas but you still smell smoke, etc even as you enter the hotel.Staff tried to be helpful but communicating with them was a struggle.Some were better than others.There is a tour agency on site but staffing is bad so we booked our tours...

The issues start with this place the second you walk in- 1) reception is the least friendly we've endured yet in our WORLD tour! That's saying a lot, we've been at over 30 +hotels so far! 2) All the rooms are smoked in regardless of what they say. We moved 3 x's and finally gave up because they all smelt of cigarette smoke, which I'm allergic to. 3) When switching to one of the rooms for a "non-smoking" room the maid came banging on our new room telling us to pay for the condom we used?!! huh?! My Husband tried explaining that NO, we didn't use their condom they offer guests, and ended up having to go down stairs and argue with them for 15 minutes until they gave up. 4) 3 out of 4 times we would leave for the day when we'd return our key wouldn't work and it was because they shut it off. Then you have to go down stairs and they say "staying for another night?!" YES! that's why we're here and haven't checked out at 7pm!! ||||I could go on and on, but you should get the picture by now and I've wasted enough of my life on this place! You're better off staying right down the road at Dreams Travel ! We had already booked our place but because our hotel was so awful we ended up booking our great wall tour at Dreams travel with Michael (really nice guy, great English which is hard to find in China) and we wished we would have stayed...