UrCove by HYATT Beijing Forbidden City — Hotel in Beijing

Since Hyatt started this joint venture with a Chinese brand, I was super curious to see what it’s about so this trip to China was finally our chance to see! Unfortunately, this particular property is simply a renovated old local hotel and this shows throughout. On arrival, only one staff member spoke a tiny bit of English which wasn’t ideal (and kudos to him!), but we managed. ||Unfortunately, our Globalist status somehow had not “transferred” into the Urcove system so we had to debate the breakfast inclusion. Generally asking about breakfast I can muster with the little Mandarin I’ve learnt but a debate like this is way beyond my skills. In the end, I showed him my Hyatt app, he took a picture of it and somehow that granted us our breakfast (which turned out to be pretty awful anyway but more on that later). ||Strangely, Urcove hotels insist on payment on arrival and wouldn’t accept American Express , this chain is the only Hyatt property-type we encountered in all over China that didn’t. After paying we were sent to our room, which of course was not an upgraded room category, as our status had not been recognised.||The room looked nice enough at first and had clearly been renovated after Hyatt took over. On first glance, it looks very very similar to any Hyatt Place elsewhere- nice wooden floorboards, smallish sized but not outrageously tiny, a very comfortable bed, okay enough bathroom. Unfortunately, this being an old building started to show as the deadlock on the door wasn’t operating and the rooms had paper-thin walls, so we constantly heard the family with their two annoying little screechers next door causing a rockus but also doors slamming, people talking, all that jazz. The worst, however, was the aircon that simply did not work which seems to be all too common in China- as per usual, it showed all sorts of phantasy temperatures on the display but then turned out to be not individually controlled at all and temperature remained way too hot throughout. So in order to get some air at all, we needed to sleep with the window open which was noisy and uncomfortable. This was in April, so during the Summer months it would be totally unbearable. Wifi is an issue at this property too and at UrCoves in general. There is the normal hyatt wifi appearing on your list of available wifis but unfortunately this doesn’t work, instead you must login to the wifi via WeiXin (WeChat). So lucky for me, not so lucky for my partner who did not have WeChat installed. A really good benefit, however, were the free laundry facilities which were of good, clean quality. They provide washing detergent, it’s built into the machine. This is great if Beijing is neither first nor last on your China-itinerary.||We decided to have Hotpot and Beijing Duck in the restaurant the first night but really struggled as the restaurant seems to be operated by a third party and thus no one spoke English, and they only accepted cash (!), not even WeiXin (WeChat) or Ali. The Beijing duck was VERY average and the hot put just boring but at least the meal was pretty cheap. ||Breakfast in the same place was also not much better with a coffee machine that was constantly under repair and black tea only available from a dispenser which tasted as bad as it sounds. The saving grace was a little made-to-order cart by the side which produced decent noodle bowls and even omelettes. ||Finally, the one redeeming factor for this property is, of course, the location. Wow oh wow, it really doesn’t get any better as a tourist in Beijing. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City are literally 10 minutes away, on foot, if that! Beijing is a big and fairly difficult city so this is a HUGE advantage, especially if you’re here for the first time, as we were. Plenty of sights, food, shopping, everything, all in walking distance. One side effect of walking around so much was that we got to see the back of the hotel and the rest of the building, which explained why it is so noisy outside at night: Let’s just say that from the back, the hotel building isn’t the fanciest of places and looks more like a rundown youth hostel than a Hyatt!||So our final verdict: If you speak a bit of Mandarin and want a relatively affordable accommodation right in the centre of Beijing (or if you just so badly need this brand stamp in your Hyatt Brand Explorer collection), just be aware of the downsides but by all means, stay here, it is “good enough”. But if you need a working aircon (sweltering Beijing Summer, anyone?) or want to ensure your Hyatt status gets recognised (or simply prefer using your American Express card for payment like, you know, in literally any Hyatt property anywhere else in the world), then maybe fork out a bit more to stay...

Since Hyatt started this joint venture with a Chinese brand, I was super curious to see what it’s about so this trip to China was finally our chance to see! Unfortunately, this particular property is simply a renovated old local hotel and this shows throughout. On arrival, only one staff member spoke a tiny bit of English which wasn’t ideal (and kudos to him!), but we managed.

Unfortunately, our Globalist status somehow had not “transferred” into the Urcove system so we had to debate the breakfast inclusion. Generally asking about breakfast I can muster with the little Mandarin I’ve learnt but a debate like this is way beyond my skills. In the end, I showed him my Hyatt app, he took a picture of it and somehow that granted us our breakfast (which turned out to be pretty awful anyway but more on that later).

Strangely, Urcove hotels insist on payment on arrival and wouldn’t accept American Express , this chain is the only Hyatt property-type we encountered in all over China that didn’t. After paying we were sent to our room, which of course was not an upgraded room category, as our status had not been recognised.

The room looked nice enough at first and had clearly been renovated after Hyatt took over. On first glance, it looks very very similar to any Hyatt Place elsewhere- nice wooden floorboards, smallish sized but not outrageously tiny, a very comfortable bed, okay enough bathroom. Unfortunately, this being an old building started to show as the deadlock on the door wasn’t operating and the rooms had paper-thin walls, so we constantly heard the family with their two annoying little screechers next door causing a rockus but also doors slamming, people talking, all that jazz. The worst, however, was the aircon that simply did not work which seems to be all too common in China- as per usual, it showed all sorts of phantasy temperatures on the display but then turned out to be not individually controlled at all and temperature remained way too hot throughout. So in order to get some air at all, we needed to sleep with the window open which was noisy and uncomfortable. This was in April, so during the Summer months it would be totally unbearable. Wifi is an issue at this property too and at UrCoves in general. There is the normal hyatt wifi appearing on your list of available wifis but unfortunately this doesn’t work, instead you must login to the wifi via WeiXin (WeChat). So lucky for me, not so lucky for my partner who did not have WeChat installed. A really good benefit, however, were the free laundry facilities which were of good, clean quality. They provide washing detergent, it’s built into the machine. This is great if Beijing is neither first nor last on your China-itinerary.

We decided to have Hotpot and Beijing Duck in the restaurant the first night but really struggled as the restaurant seems to be operated by a third party and thus no one spoke English, and they only accepted cash (!), not even WeiXin (WeChat) or Ali. The Beijing duck was VERY average and the hot put just boring but at least the meal was pretty cheap. Breakfast in the same place was also not much better with a coffee machine that was constantly under repair and black tea only available from a dispenser which tasted as bad as it sounds.

Finally, the one redeeming factor for this property is, of course, the location. Wow oh wow, it really doesn’t get any better as a tourist in Beijing. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City are literally 10 minutes away, on foot, if that! Beijing is a big and fairly difficult city so this is a HUGE advantage, especially if you’re here for the first time, as we were. Plenty of sights, food, shopping, everything, all in walking distance. One side effect of walking around so much was that we got to see the back of the hotel and the rest of the building, which explained why it is so noisy outside at night: Let’s just say that from the back, the hotel building isn’t the fanciest of places and looks more like a rundown youth hostel...

Urcove by Hyatt Tiananmen Square is ideally located. It is near Wang Fu Jin, which is next to Tiananmen Square. The hotel is about 800m away from subway line 1 and subway line 8, and is within walking distance to Tiananmen Square, the museum at Forbidden Palace, the walking district of Wangfujin. It is a very convenient location for a base to visit Beijing. |The hotel is about 1 block north of the Chang ‘an street, a major artillery of Beijing. However, being close to Tiananmen square, there are more traffic restriction around the hotel. To enter the plaza of Tiananmen Square, you will need a reservation (though the reservation is relatively easier to secure during the workdays, you need to have access to WeChat mini-program and submit personal information though). You also cannot cross to the other side of North Riverside Road that the hotel is located upon, as there is a barrier in the middle of the road that prevent the car/bike from turning. You will need to find a small gap to the north of the road where you will be allowed to cross. |The hotel is pretty well managed. Once you entered the hotel, you are directed to the 8th floor lobby to check-in. The hotel elevator is controlled by key card, it can normally stop at level 1, 7 (for transfer) and 8 (for receptionist), but otherwise, you can only access the floor of your room with your own keycard. There is a rooftop bar area, which you can do some relaxing and tea drinking, and overlook the roofs of the Forbidden Palace area. |The Hotel room is basic but adequate. My two twin bed room has an outside window that faces a quite street. The room is fairly quite at night. Though sometimes, there are guests talking at the hallway, and the sound can easily leak in. Your room are provided with bottled water, coffee pod (but no cream and sugar), tea bags. There are cookies and soft drinks (4 bottle, coke, sprite, soda water and lemon tea) provided every day for free at the mini-fridge. The hotel also provides free congee for guests to relax from 6pm to late night. |There is a small fitness center at the basement of the hotel. There are also two washers and dryers that are free for guest to use. The laundry detergent is automatically dispensed by the washer machine. You can also use the provided color loss prevention sheet (for washing) and flagrant sheet (for drying). The washers and dryers are LG brands, and are pretty good. The washer cycle lasts about 30-90 minutes (90 if hot/sanitary washing is chosen), and the drying cycle is 10 minute increment and can lasts 10-90 minutes. To be able to wash and dry cloth during the travel is a big plus. |With this hotel, I had an unpleasant experience in earning Hyatt Points and qualifying nights. This experience is unique to this particular UrCove, as I had no issue with the other UrCove hotels stayed (e.g., in Shanghai and in Nanjing). For this hotel, when I checked out and found that 72 hours later, no points and/or qualifying nights are posted to my Hyatt account. I reached out to Hyatt member service by phone, which directs me to UrCove member service, which told me that I had to reach out to the hotel to resolve the issue. Both member service told me that they could see my reservation (booked through Hyatt Website/App), but their procedure requires additional approval by hotel (doesn’t make sense to me). I was directed to call the hotel, and add hotel WeChat account, after jumping through all the hoops, and about 1 week after I checked out, I finally got the points and qualifying nights.|If you care about Hyatt member benefit, you may need to particular persistent to secure...