Yitel Beijing Jiuxian Bridge — Hotel in Beijing

An average semi-budget hotel across the road from the 798 Art District - if you need to be nearish the Wangjing area, this hotel is ok. However, the road out front gets very very jammed at peak hours.||||At the time of writing - the hotel does not offer a laundry service! And don't help or offer alternative solutions. The closest we could find was a 10 minute cab ride away, but at least they were willing to deliver the clothes back to the hotel. It would help to speak Chinese to sort this one out.||||We were there for about a week and the front office was undergoing extensive renovations, so it was a bit of a shock on arrival. ||||It also becomes a bit of a marketplace during check-out times. We witnessed a bunch of arguments between the front desk staff and guests. ||||Rooms were ok - fittings were modern but there was a frustrating lack of towel hooks in the bathroom so we ended up having to drape our towels on the bathtub. The stand-alone bathtub looked luxurious, until you rest on it - then it creaks and sounds like it's about to collapse - I can't imagine anyone actually uses it, so a bit of a waste of space.||||Breakfast was quite dreadful ... but in a trip where we tried out some other poor hotels, it turned out to be one of the better ones, sadly.||||For non-Chinese dining options, head out to 798 where there are a number of good restaurants serving anything from Japanese to Italian food. One of them, called Timezone became our regular go-to for a bit of relaxation and decent grub.||||This hotel is NOT central - it's a good 30 - 40 minute ride to get to a more central place like the Nanluoguxiang hutongs or Sanlitun, so if you want to be nearer those places, choose elsewhere.||||The hotel also seems to have a lot of dead space - not sure if this was something to do with the renovations but it was a...

The taxi cost 53 RMB from airport to Yitel after midnight. The ride was about 10min. ||I arrived to a very unwelcoming foyer. It was dim & the staff at the front desk were nonchalant. It made me doubt if selecting this hotel was a good idea. I took comfort in the fact that I was going to stay on it for 10 hours before moving into town. ||Although I was traveling solo, I took the twin room as it was cheaper than getting a room with one bed. The room was spacious & comfortable. Interestingly, there were different options for pillows. The menu was at the bedside table. But it was too late in the night for me to bother requesting for any of the unique options. ||There was free wifi available in the room. ||There was 2 bottles of water provided as well as a special tap in the toilet for drinking water. There was an electric kettle, coffee, tea & a mini fridge. There were toiletries provided. The towels were thick. ||The electrical sockets were ample & they even had panel for media related equipment. I didn't use it but thought it to be an unexpected inclusion. ||Just across from the 798 Art Zone, it was a convenient location to stay if you wanted explore the area. The walk over was about 5-7min. Since the check out time would occur while I was probably still exploring the art zone, they allowed me to keep my bags with them. ||The hotel is nowhere near any train station. But there was a bus stop right in front of the hotel. However, I managed to hail a cab at the road in front of the hotel with my huge luggage to get into town. ||Overall, I was happy with my stay at Yitel. I would recommend it to anyone looking to stay near 798 Art Zone or near...

Pros:||Close to Sanlitun (about a 20 minute easy walk)||Large bathroom with good bath amenities||Nice rainfall showerhead||Bed is soft with comfortable pillows - not hard like other China hotels.||Located on a pleasant quiet street||Hot water pot provided with tea||Housekeeping was likable and helpful when requested an iron/ironing board||||Cons:||Even though it is a new property it needs some work||Rooms are very small||No western Edison style outlets - so an adapter was needed||Front desk clerk was not rude but also not very welcoming||It is a new hotel so the location can be hard to find for taxi drivers||Television reception has only China channels||No breakfast service other than day-old coffee/tea in lobby||No room service||No in room refrigerator||||Other:||Internet good but not great - but it is...