Nice hotel in a great location. Pleasant lobby bar with good prices and good music. Terrific breakfast buffet.

If the 10-15 minute walk to the major attractions is too far for you, a cab is less than $2.00 USD. Lots to do within the 10 minute walk range.

Staff was very helpful in arranging tours and trip to the Great Wall.

Would definitely recommend this property.

We moved from the Marriott West to the Novotel because of the convenient location. The entrance to the hotel is spacious and beautiful. The people at the desk were very helpful but we could not see a room when we came to check it out. We decided to give it a try and stayed 5 nights. We were put in a room in the "newer" part of the hotel. The room was a good size and the beds comfortable but that's about all the positive things I can say about the room.
It was very, very dirty: dark stains on the blue carpet, stains on the grey, old curtains, stains on the lamp shade, poor lighting, and broken cheap furniture.
The walls also needed a serious coat of paint as they too were very dirty.
The electric tea kettle was melted at the rim from the heat and I ended up with piece of pastic in my cup of tea. The bathroom was also in very poor condition. The towels were very old and the sink was chipped and had old black dirt marks.
I talked to the manager and explained how surprised I was to see a room in such poor condition in a 4 star hotel. I ask her to come and see the room. She did, and she seemed very surprised when she saw all I was pointed out in the room.
Within 2 hours, she called us to tells us that she was putting us in a Deluxe room on the 16th floor.
The room was a bit cleaner and there was newer, more sturdy furniture,the sink in the bathroom was also chipped, but overall, we were not impressed.
The best part of this hotel is the location and the food. The breakfast and dinner buffet were excellent with a large variety and good quality of food.

This was the second time I stayed there and both times were great. I rate it a standard 4-star, but at very resonable prices. The rooms are modern, clean, and large. The location is excellent; you can walk to the Forbidden City. Best of all is the amazing buffet breakfast/lunch with both western and eastern food. When we first ate there on this trip, we pigged out for two solid hours! (Mind you, we had just spent the previous three weeks in northern China and Russia.)

We had a small problem where we were too close to some construction in the hotel, so we had to ask them to move us, which they did.

I stayed in this hotel for 4 nights during May 2006 and really enjoyed it. My room was clean, spacious (two beds) and on the 14th floor away from the road noise outside. In fact the whole hotel was nice and quiet. Bathroom was fairly basic but the room had everything you could want. Good small pool in the hotel, with sauna etc which was again always quiet.

Staff had a reasonable amount of English and the concierge were helful in finding restaurants etc. The main restaurant in the hotel had a buffet most days which I didn't fancy but the one occasion I did eat there the food was good!

Someone else mentioned air crew, and they were plentiful. I think they keep the hotel going! but not a problem.

You could walk to the main shopping street and some good restaurants, and in 15 minutes you could walk to the Forbidden City. Taxis are plentiful in that area, but be warned you need your destination in Chinese (the hotel has some handy cards with the main tourist locations in Chinese for you).

Just down the road is the Chinese night food market - one for those who want to try something different! It's an experience! Only once did I experience hte pimps outside but a simple "no" got rid of them. They are everywhere in China so nothing particular to the hotel.

I got a taxi from the airport which cost around 80RMB which wasn't bad but I was lucky with the traffic. In fact I got taxis around most of the city as they are cheap - never consider driving as traffic is mad!