Crowne Plaza International Airport Beijing — Hotel in Beijing

Only 10-15 minutes from the International airport (not Daxing). Approximately 45-50 minutes to centre of Beijing and various attractions. ||I’ve stayed here several times and unfortunately this time was not as good and nowhere near as good as other Crowne Plaza hotels.||It was for a large exhibition (about 10 minutes walk away) and yet reception and bar were both undermanned with large queues and long waits – even though they know the dates etc of the exhibitions. Check-in used to be allowed on floor 12 at the Club for Club/Executive room guests. Not anymore and that is now a chore and not what you are paying for. The lounge used to be open for simple breakfasts – at least a coffee – and not anymore so you have to go to the main breakfast restaurant on the ground floor. The lounge now only opens from 14.00 and the complimentary (you are paying for them anyway) food & drink 17.30 to 19.30 only. Food & drink is good in the lounge and the staff very good but it is now limited.||Room was good again and exactly that which you’d expect. The safe was already closed & locked so I had to take the long trip to ground floor reception (as no-one is now in the 12th floor Club lounge and the floor I was staying on) to get someone to unlock it for me. So going up & down & up again in the lift is a big pain !!!! A/C worked even though it was between 0 and -6 outside and that is a good thing otherwise the rooms would be too stuffy. Bed good, shower good. But not enough hangers and not enough long hanging space. And no clock (other same/similar rooms had a clock). |Room keys – nightmare !!!!! They keep stopping functionality. I had to keep going down to reception to get them reset and even then you had to put the key card into the door or lift multiples times. It was simply a random game of chance. And you MUST use these keycards in the lifts so if yours doesn’t work you either go nowhere or go to whichever floor someone else is going to. This is a BIG problem. The panel of the lift which has the slot for keycards is just a bit too small to properly cover the actual slot and so the keycards can go between the metal cover and the slot so you might think you’ve inserted your card when you haven’t. It’s all a bit naff and typical of people who just ‘Almost’ get things right but fail. ||Bar – utter, utter farce. An exhibition’s on and they have ONE barman. And the fridge at the bar holding drinks is way too small so this same barman has to keep wandering off somewhere to get more drinks. Then it takes an age to pay or charge to your room as their system is too complex and with too much paperwork. And if you are in a ‘queue’ at the middle or wrong end of the bar then you won’t get served as the till is at the other end and the barman will only serve whoever is in front of him. And this fiasco happened EVERY night. The hotel didn’t have the basic common sense to put an extra barman in there (in the past there would have been at least 3 people working behind the bar). Really, really bad lack or organisation. ||Breakfast restaurant was OK. Wide selection of foods but not exactly what a western person might want. But OK. However, coffee machine was faulty and would not make hot coffee. IT made coffee but only that which was almost cold. This happened every day. I challenged a guy who asked me how everything was and he said (yes, it’s faulty’. I asked why it had not been repaired or replaced and he just shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t know. He said to give him 3 minutes and he would make me a hot coffee. Nice man I thought. And then 26 minutes later I had to go and get him again !!!!!!!!!!!! Useless.||Sadly just nowhere near as good as it was and nowhere near as good as others and nowhere near the level you’d expect Club to be. ||And then IHG send me a survey request by e-mail and the e-mail says to use the link when there is NO SUCH LINK !!!! Then you copy & paste it and it DOES NOT TAKE YOU TO THEIR SURVEY !!!!! You couldn’t make...

Dear Customer Care,

I very rarely take time to share comments or write reviews, however; in this case I was really unhappy with this stay at the Crown Plaza in Beijing.....enough so that I have thought very seriously to find a different property to stay during my next trip.

Here are a few things that may help to explain.....first I think will really help explain because it may be more the reason than any...

1. My Beijing visit was imeadiatly after staying in the Shenzhen Crown Plaza property and I have to tell you, the staff, the rooms, the service, the facilities, the pool, the Priority Club Lounge......the whole experience was pure joy. It is excellent so, the Shenzhen Crown Plaza has really raised the bar......and by doing so, the staff and the Crown Plaza brand will have to get on the ball in Beijing if they are going to compete with their conterparts down in Shenzhen (...where I will for sure be staying next time I am there).

2. The Beijing property is already looking run down. My guest room was a two room suite but the "living room" area was only average and the furnishing were in need of repair. The counter top was dirty and looked like it had been used for a small conference or meeting room but had only quickly cleared it off in a hurry. I was not pleased with this room.

3. Upon check-in, I was told I was being upgraded to this room/ suite and I was pleased.....but when I arrived at this room, I was disapointed because it is not as nice as the other rooms I have stayed in on previous visits to this location.

4. When I visited the Priority Club lounge later in the evening, after helping myself to some food and drink, I was told I had given up my right to enjoy the club privledge because I had excepted the room upgrade. Wow....now I was beyond disappointed..........in fact, I felt myself getting angry....and I left the lounge and made way for the elevators, very unhappy with this treatment. I know the hostess understood and was concerned she upset me as she came after me and apologized for the misunderstanding.....and invited me to return. I tried to regain my composure and returned but the evening was not the same afterwards. And my stay really never got any better after this evening.

5. I do want to add this positive note.....this actually just happened within the last 24 hours of posting these comments. I had to contact Priority Club Rewards customer service for help with this stay because it did not appear on my account and I needed a copy of the receipt. This also meant I hadn't recieved points for my stay. Well, I received excellent service in response to my request...from the first agent I spoke with AND from both the Guest Service Managers, Ashley Cao and Kirk Xin in Beijing so, I know you have great people at this level of the organization. And knowing that, I can also assume you have things well in place at both the hiring level and/ or the training level so, I am confident the issues with this particular stay can be easily handled.

I hope this account of my experience, with both these Crown Plaza properties mentioned, will be of some help. I only offer it to provide some feedback that may help someone looking at any improvments that may be needed to keep up with the image of the Crown Plaza brand on a global level. Shenzhen has done a beautiful job with their new site.....and I am and intend to remain loyal to the IHG brands so I only want the best for the Biejing site....and I'm sure the staff would love the help to take it to the next level.

Wishing you continued success and the best of luck....and thank you for all the great stays I've enjoyed over the years. I look forward to my next stay at an IHG property.

Please let me know if you feel like my next stay at the Beijing property will be better and perhaps I will visit them...

Service was severely delayed. The shuttle service was not every 30 minutes. I had arranged for pick up at 6:40-45pm on the check in date with Charlotte from IHG customer service. She noted it in the system 48 hours in advance. A shuttle arrived at 7pm and would not let us on-board. I had the confirmation number but the driver kept showing us that it was for crew only but it was reserved for us because we had arranged it 48 hrs in advanced. The driver would not let us on-board at all. During this time, the driver had said that another shuttle was coming and we should get on that shuttle. The driver just parked there for a whole hour and did nothing but deny us. We had no cellphone that worked in china. About 50 minutes later a person let us use their cellphone and we called the hotel. After the call,the driver received a call from the hotel and immediately insisted that we get on his shuttle as another shuttle had just arrived. This whole incident robbed us of attending the hors d'oeuvres & cocktails that evening. After we checked in and got freshened up, we told management about it. We talked to a Caucasian male in a uniform and tie & a Chinese lady in a red dress behind the premier member counter. They informed us that it takes 30 minutes from the airport to the hotel and that is what the sign means. We have pictures that say otherwise. We also informed management that we had called 48 hrs in advance for that specific shuttle that was denied us. We missed the hors d'oeuvres because of the driver, the hotel's horrendous communication & coordination, and hotel’s apathy to platinum members plight. Management then informed us that because we missed hors d'oeuvres, they would give us complimentary meals at the buffet. The buffet was delicious, however I got charged anyway for the meals. The room was lovely. In the morning, The same driver drove us to the airport. He was swerving all over the road, cutting people off & blaring his horn at other drivers on the road. The passengers were taken a back as were we. The service of this hotel when it comes to communication & coordination is severely lacking. The sign is completely false for every 30 minute shuttle service. We will not stay here again & most regret...