Fly by Knight Courtyard — Hotel in Beijing

My family was originally booked to stay at the Fly By Knight Courtyard Hotel in Beijing in early December. I selected this hotel as we wanted a Courtyard Hotel in an authentic hutong, close to public transport and most importantly suitable for four people (2 adults and 2 kids). We had booked this accommodation months in advance after many weeks of research and we booked through booking.com (the last time i’ll trust them too).||The hotel made first contact with me on a few days before my stay. Mid afternoon they contacted me to clarify bedding requirements - I responded immediately and all appeared good. Imagine my horror when a few short hours later, when packing the car to go to the airport that I get an email (not a phone call!) suggesting there is a problem with my booking and that I have two options – cancel or move to another hotel for part of my stay. They said they were shooting a TV commercial at the hotel (that they had just organised????) and that they would need to relocate me to a sister hotel for the first two nights and then I shift back to the original hotel for the last four nights (i.e a real pain when you are lugging luggage around with young kids). The hotel they wanted to transfer us two had 2 beds having my son on a fold up bed, and my daughter sharing with my wife and I. This despite us booking bedding for four people.||In the hours we had before we flew out, my wife and I frantically searched for alternative accommodation (always made more difficult when you don't have time to research where hotels are) however many were either outside our price range, not available or not suitable (number of beds). We were unwilling to move to one of the "western" hotels as that defeated the purpose of our trip - that is to show our kids a more authentic Chinese experience. After numerous calls to and from Booking.com, we reluctantly agreed to the hotels request to move us to the sister hotel. What other option had they given us at this late stage???? While we accepted the move they hardly gave us any other option and suggesting a free cancellation was hardly a favor. What decent hotel effectively forces you to cancel or accept a lesser quality visit at such short notice? This hotel had no concern for our welfare or comfort and was more interested in revenue from their TV commercial shoot.||To the hotels credit, the sister hotel was cheaper and they dropped the price by 10% however in hindsight this was a poor token effort. Had we been given the courtesy of more notice I would have cancelled on principal as I don't appreciate shifting hotels half way into our stay when day tour pick ups had already been arranged. Upon arriving at our temporary stay - the sister hotel was fine, other than the bedding did not meet our requirements. The staff there were beautiful. For what we paid, we were relatively happy. We should have stayed there!||For the third night we dragged our bags to the next hotel - Fly by Knight and were surprised to see the TV commercial still shooting. Given we were going out during the day we thought we would let it rest and they would be gone when we returned later that night. They didn't. At 10:00pm that night I went and spoke to the hotel staff (there didn't appear to be anyone else staying there at the time) politely asking when the noise would stop. They spoke to the workers and asked them to keep it down. While they were quiet for 5 minutes or so, within no time they were back up on the roof (immediately above our room), shovelling "fake" snow off the paving and generally making unreasonable amounts of noise in what is supposed to be a quiet hutong hotel. The fake commercial had a snow like setting so the roof and courtyard hotel had fake snow everywhere which they had to remove by whatever means (think shovel along a concrete floor). The hotel resembled nothing like the pictures on their website. ||After the commercial was cleaned up, we then saw maintenance work (painting, floors, bathrooms) all being performed resembling more of a construction period than an operating hotel. At one stage we had to ask them to turn the water back on as they were doing works and we needed to flush a toilet. If works were so planned, why wasn't the hotel shut down or the bookings accepted AFTER advising people of the intended works. They didn’t shut down as their management is greedy and wanted to maximise their return! Our bathroom appeared mid renovation and while clean and tidy inside the room, it was not in any way worthy of hotel status.||To be fair to the hotel, the staff were friendly and empathetic (David was helpful) and I did toy with not "complaining" as such, but I now realise on reflection we were very flexible when we shouldn't have to have been and this hotel added stress during a period where I was supposed to be on a "break" and focus on my family. I did await a response from the hotel (through Booking.com) before posting this review and was effectively fobbed off and told it shouldn’t have happened. It was our holiday and we were stuffed around not only with the change to our booking, but also with the noise and lack of amenity. For the inconvenience of them keeping my kids up hours past bed time, we did gratefully accept one load of free laundry (David again deomonstrating he was concerned about the way we were treated), however his management couldn’t care less. ||The hotel staff at Fly By Knight were lovely – I can’t fault them and I hope for others sake, this was just a one off incident. Regrettably, the management of the hotel clearly have NO IDEA of what customer service is and will do anything to fill their rooms. By all means book with the hotel, but don’t be surprised if at the last minute they cancel to make a quick buck. A dishonest hotel that ruined part of our stay – I will tell everyone I know...

We originally booked to stay 4 nights at this "hotel". I chose it because of the excellent reviews in all websites I checked. We wanted to stay in a traditional hutong area and this seemed a great place.||||When we arrived on the day of check in, we just left the bags in the 2 rooms we booked and headed out for the day returning at night. Then we discovered how filthy this place was. Our double room was covered in dust and foreign hair everywhere, including the bed sheets/covers. The bathroom was moldy, and the air conditioner dripped in the bathroom next to the toilet! The bathroom was dirty and a used razor was still there to remind us of this.||||As for our friend's room... even worse! They rented the loft room but realised that they wanted to use the couch to sleep on since the beds were literally on the floor with no support (If it was clean, that wouldn't be an issue!). When they picked up the sheets from the beds to place on the couch they found blood stains on them! How disgusting! On both of the bed sheets. Stripping the beds, also revealed the filth underneath: foreign hair, body hair and weird stains on the bed itself. To top that up, a cockroach crawled under the door!||||This place is infested and they wouldn't give a damn about it. The lady at the reception kindly offered to change the bedsheets but honestly, the rooms needed a deep clean not the kind she thought was enough. We cancelled, contacted agoda to get our money back, and tried endlessly to find a decent place to stay. Unfortunately, all the receptions were closed (who knew!) at 11pm so we had to stay in this dump for one night before checking out. We paid the initial rate for 1 night which included breakfast, but no breakfast was offered. ||||We ended up sleeping on top of the bed covers/quilt by placing the towels so we won't touch the covers. Not that the towels were clean but we thought this is the least of all bads - towels were spotted and had holes in them!||||To be fair, the staff ( both Mikka, and the boy next morning) did their absolute best to help us cancel, rebook other hotels and get our refund. They are the only asset this "hotel" has and the owner should be thankful for them but ashamed for the state of his "hotel".||||I was literally amazed by all the positive reviews here and had to come back to make sure I didn't miss anything! Please, book carefully as in my 20 years of travelling this is the 1st time I had to check out of a hotel because...

The hotel was clean, super quiet, with friendly and helpful staff. Located 10 mins walk from the subway, 20 mins from Forbidden City. It was so nice to turn off the Main Street and walk a few minutes through the quiet hutong to arrive at the hotel. Nice breakfast with tea and brewed coffee provided. The loft bedroom was quiet, bathroom clean and modern. Common area had a stocked fridge that worked on an honesty system. Key card access to the hotel and room. Taxi could drop off and pick up at the hotel, which the staff helped arrange and guide taxi there. Only point to note is the loft bedroom would be difficult to reach if you were mobility-restricted, with steps and a low ceiling to negotiate. But fine for people without restricted movement. Thank you FBK for making our stay in Beijing so wonderful - it really made all the difference to our visit...