Lee Garden Service Apartment — Hotel in Beijing

For anyone considering this location in long term stays.

Primary Issue: If you have any disinclination towards smoking and cigarette smoke, I cannot recommend.

We came to Beijing as an expat through a US employer that hired a third-party company to manage relocation for our team members. At the time of apartment hunting, Lee Gardens was at the top of our list--it wasn't perfect but it checked off most the boxes for us the other options didn't. The unit we walked through at Lee had no obvious issues, but the unit that we were actually placed into had previously been home to terrible smokers--a fact that Lee Garden never disclosed to us despite advertising itself as a non-smoking residence. The smell of cigarette smoke was immediately apparent, mainly in the back bathrooms. You could smell it pouring in the air vents when the a/c turned on, and the floor of this unit was frequently smelling of it.

At the time of this review, Google maps indicates Lee is not smoke-free. The management advertises themselves as smoke-free--there is no shortage of no-smoking signs in bedrooms, hallways, and the lobby. This was part of the decision to move here. But the smoke smell coming in through air vents into our unit happened almost every week. Multiple times the smell would wake us up in the middle of the night. And multiple times we got tenants on our floor who smoke in their room with their doors open and would permeate the whole level.

Lee was under certain contractual obligations to manage this situation. During the first couple months, we wrestled relentlessly with Lee to do literally anything useful to stick to its non-smoking commitment. Vents were checked, deodorizers were sprayed, and tenants were fined, but the problem persisted for two months. It was apparent they were unable to find an acceptable solution. Other team members didn't have this issue in their hotels, so we can't see why this was such a problem for us. It wasn't until after we started experiencing this that we were notified of the history of the issue here. Had we known before hand, we absolutely would not have bothered with this place.

It's fair to mention that despite a smoking ban in this country (city?), the culture here is still heavily OK with smoking and they don't really care about the ban. None of the other expats on our team had this issue with nearly a half dozen other locations we were spread throughout.

Other items of note: •Wi-fi is terrible, and uses outdated WEP security, not the standard WPAS2 security, probably because the hardware is old (which would make sense given the slow speeds we experienced.) •Only a combo washer/dryer unit that made our clothes smell like mold •Our unit had mold in the bathrooms, and if we weren't smelling cigarette smoke come out of the A/C it was mold or some other unit's cooking •Furniture was on the uncomfortable side. •Our unit was facing the school, and every morning at 8am came loud AF yelling through a megaphone in the courtyard •Not a ton of sunlight in our unit •Small kitchen

Pros: •Gym and swimming facility are nice. •The layout was the least hotel-ish we saw on our options. •For work they arranged a direct shuttle to the project site. Huge plus. •Surrounding area is heavy on the mall shopping if you're into that. •Unit had a dedicated office space that I genuinely really liked. •Twice a week cleaning •I do think the management here has good intentions. They got my wife a terrific bouquet for her birthday when I asked them to...

I have been delayed in writing this review, but I've never forgotten about our great experience at this hotel! Here's why I gave it Five Stars. ||||My partner and I were in Beijing for a month for business. We needed a place that felt like home. It has a fully functional kitchen, a dining room and a lounge area. It has a washing machine that is dual washer and dryer. The bathroom was a good size and so was the walk in robe and bedroom. The cleanliness was only OK. But I'd say most people are not as fussy about cleanliness as myself (forced my partner to buy bleach and cleaning products so I could scrub mould from shower and mop floors, wipe cupboards) to my standards it was dirty when we arrived. But I got it up to scratch so I could live in it for the next 4 weeks. ||||The gym is great! Used the treadmills, and the rest of its equipment looked good. I wanted to use pool but the smell of chlorine was the most overpowering I'd ever encountered, had to leave before I passed out (others may not be affected by this, so I can only speak for myself).||||The staff are so kind. They greeted us every morning and every evening coming back. The door man was very helpful suggesting local grocers as we cooked in the rooms kitchen. The hotel is very central to all the big attractions and shopping centres. The train station is just around the corner (5 min walk). If we needed anything from the staff they were happy to help. An example (which is probably common in china) there was someone's spit dried up on the bed skirt which I asked them to change the bed skirt, and they were more than happy to do it. Also even though the hotel is NO SMOKING, as you can imagine in China it can be hard to police this rule. But the staff were willing to inform the other guest who was smoking out front the elevator on our floor that the rule applies. ||||I can't review the hotels restaurants as everything we ate was our own food. Our fridge was full of our own groceries. I also suggest buying (at the shopping mall next door Nespresso store) or bringing your own mini Nespresso machine cause they don't provide coffee machines in the room. ||||There is a balcony, and it's decent size, however to prevent risks they prefer you to keep it locked. The heating and cooling system in the hotel was great!! (We went in the cold winter. -14 in the mornings and top of -1 during day, we were so comfortable when in the room. ||||I honestly cannot fault this hotel though, my complaints I realise are only because I'm from a country with higher living standards therefore I can't expect it to be so clean, or the pool not be doused in chlorine. This hotel was great to us and I truly recommend it to anyone staying long term in Beijing. ||||Thank You Lee Garden for the memorable...

i really liked the property and the surrondings, got at the hotel around 9am and my room was not ready, even though i called and requested to do an early check in. Hotel was full they said and could not accomodate. we left our luggages at the hotel and went to explore the surroundings, front desk was really nice for telling were to find eyeglasses and the directions. apartament was spacious, 2 bedrooms with full kiitchen a washer/dryer unit. i stayed at the 12th floor, building is pretty solid, you cant hear the surroundings neither the apartment above you . they give water bottles. toitletries were super high quality. you need to request an iron board if you need one. plenty of outlets to charge the phones whithout the outlet converter . our apartament was cleaned everyday but for some reason the floor was not swept or maybe the cleaning lady missed the living room, who knows...||on our second stay afterleaving for 4 days , we stayed for one night and got upgraded to 3 room apartament which was really nice. my flight was at 1am of next day of our check out ,and i requested if we could take a shower at the hotel pool bathrooms , they allowed us with no problems. I want to say thank you to Lincoln of the front desk who helped us with what we needed in our stay. CiCI for booking us a transfer to the airport , the front desk men of the moring of aug/08 who helped us to find Carrefour supermarket and the lady of the morning of the july 31st for telling my kid where the...