Holiday Inn Express Beijing Huacai — Hotel in Beijing

We chose this hotel for our first visit to Beijing after reading reviews and considering price & amenities.

We liked the location of the hotel, as well as its connection to the shopping center - with a 7-11 & Burger King only 5 steps away. The Beijing Carrefour (like a Chinese Walmart) in the shopping center made it easy and convenient to pick-up snacks, supplies, sundries & clothes. The price was very affordable as well and the internet worked most of the time (only 1 outage during our stay lasting for a few hours).

I noticed in previous reviews that some people complained about the breakfast. We found the breakfast to be adequate - with fresh fruits & vegetables offered everyday, eggs, bread & traditional Chinese foods. It is the same everyday though so if you are staying more than a few days at this hotel you might get bored. Also, if you show up towards the end of breakfast you might have a problem finding clean dishes or food so I recommend going early.

Problems that we experienced:

The maids would not respect the "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on the door handle. They would continue to ring the doorbell and knock until we answered.

The staff at the front desk did not always speak English and we witnessed other guests experiencing difficulties (asking where the washroom is, asking for directions, etc.) as well as ourselves. We found a solution for this would be to take a photo on our iphone and then show it to the desk person.

One morning at breakfast there were no clean cups for tea so I asked one of the staff to bring me one. The first woman left and came back and told me "no". I asked another staff member - a young man - for a clean cup and he took one from a table, wiped it with a cloth and gave it to me. There was still food from the previous user on the outside of the cup so I didn't have any tea that day.

The hotel room was in ok condition but seemed a little worn out. A few spots of peeling wallpaper, cracked picture frame, the credenza had numerous screw holes and cracks in it, and the office chair had broken arms. The bed was comfortable though. It took about 5 days for the maids to replace our drinking glasses - there was mold growing in them until I finally washed them out myself.

So this is a good hotel if you are looking for something affordable and 20-45 minutes taxi ride from most Beijing attractions. Not so good if you like things clean or are OCD...

Like so many hotels in Beijing that carry International Group Branding, they just don’t get it or simply don’t care that the quality of the room is only half of the story and is not the only reason someone chooses to stay at IHG hotels.||It seems that the owners are only interested in saying they’re a global brand and nothing else. The Holiday Inn Express Huacai has nice, spacious and comfortable rooms but that is where it all stops. The IHG brand is supposed to stand for good customer service, smiles, quality in all areas and above all, superior customer service. It seems that today only the Marriott group of hotels has managed to achieve that lofty goal around the world.||Customer Service does not exist at the Holiday Inn Express Huacai. Everyone has a sour look on their face, they never smile, seem to look at foreigners as bothersome and they do not know their product. When I requested an IHG membership brochure they had no clue what I was talking about. I had to search their front desk counter and show them the membership brochures.||However, I did manage to find a bright lite and smiling face in all of this and that was Charlie, the F&B manager. I had a small issue one day and Charlie did everything in his power to make a customer, me, happy. My commendation to Charlie and please let him know how pleased I was to meet him. Use him as an example for the rest of your employees.||My suggestions, ||1. Always strive to have at least one staff member on duty at the front desk that speaks good english. During my stay no one really spoke English except for Charlie the F&B manager. Again, Charlie seems to understand the IHG brand concept.|2. Train all employees to smile.|3. Train all staff on how to solve issues.|4. Have a staff member who is assigned to perform quality control and make sure all employees follow the IHG brand standard.|5. If you cannot do 1 through 4 above, then I suggest that IHG corporate take away the IHG brand name from your hotel. Hotels which behave like yours damage the brand.||Regards,||A very...

Good services in the same building and nearby: restaurants, supermarkets, movie theater etc. Gym is free and good, includes even a sauna and a swimming pool. Laundry room is a nice service, although the other room is closed when you need it most and the machines are rather ancient. Breakfast has a fairly good selection of Chinese and western stuff to choose from (vegetables, noodles, sausages/bacon, eggs, toasts, porridge, ...). Possible to cook water in rooms, hotel provides tea bags and instant coffee. IHG rewards club members get some fruits weekly and a local English/Chinese newspaper. +/- Physical connectivity is good thanks to subway, buses and 5th ring road, but north-eastern location means that it takes easily 1h or more to access southern, western and even central parts of the city. +/- The location is a modern area where upper middle class people live and work so it is not the place to get genuine China experience, if you are after it, but a fairly clean and peaceful area in Chinese standards. +/- The room temperature was good during winter months but too hot during spring. The hotel provided a fan to help the situation as the air conditioning seems to be on only during summer. The hotel is not old but some facelift wouldn't hurt. It seems that in many bigger rooms which have bathtubs+shower, some water has been leaking into construction. Like in many places in China, some people are smoking in the corridor and a bit of smell comes into non-smoking rooms as well. Chinese internet services work ok, but international connectivity is usually slow or very slow, both via wireless and wired. The cell phone coverage inside the hotel (corridors and restaurants) is poor, in rooms it is ok. Greenness is on a normal hotel level, no recycling and towels are changed every day, unless they are hidden in closets. Hotel provides 2 disposable bottles of water every day, no refill possibility (except tap water). Business centre has only unsafe...