My boyfriend and I stayed at this hotel for 3 nights and four days while touring Beijing. I love Westins so I was looking forward to staying here.

The heavenly beds are not like the ones in North America but it is still a very comfortable bed. The shower is not the dual head heavenly showers like in the North American Westins I have stayed in but it was a rain shower (shower head in the ceiling) which was nice, but it was also have been nice to have a regular shower head. They actually did have one of those shower heads that you can detach but you can't use it like a regular shower head attached to the wall because it spits out at 90 degrees instead of 45 degrees.

We were placed in a room that had a door so that it could be used as an adjoining room if necessary. The problem with this, is that the wall is SO THIN at the door that it's incredible. Right as we were drifting off to sleep the people in the next room walked in their room and we could hear EVERY word they said and I could even hear when one of the guys was crinkling up a piece of paper. The exact same thing happened the next night - right as we were drifting off to sleep, tired from a long day of being tourist they walked into their room and we could hear everything. We were already totally unpacked and I was so tired both nights that I didn;t have the energy to call and ask to be switched but to those that will be staying at this hotel, I would double check that your room doesn't have an adjoing door - you'll regret it maybe not immediately but later on.

The next issue I had with this hotel its location in Beijing. Every evening when we had to return, I would dread hailing a cab because we would routinely get turned down at least once, sometimes twice before a cabbie would agree to take us there - they just don't want to go there. THe hotel gives you a business card from the address and street map showing where it is but the writing on the business card is SO SMALL, especially at night, that some cabbies couldn't even read it properly - ask for someone at the hotel to re-write it in large letters so that it is very clear. Also we found that cabbies tried to cheat us by taking us round about ways - your cabbie should drive south on leaving the hotel to the major road, that's the fastest way to get east where most of the attractions are.

There were about 10 western restaurants within a two minute walk away, and for those who want something more authentic there is a hotpot restaurant very close by as well, just ask someone at the hotel how to get there on foot. I kind of liked having the western restaurants close by, they were good when you just wanted to grab something on the go, or when you need a break from cultural food.

All in all, probably not the best hotel in the city but very good nonetheless.

This is a very recent hotel that offers high quality ammenities and good staff but this hotel is far from the action. Definitely, it is the least interesting of the 10 or so hotels I tried in this city.
Starting with the positive aspect, the rooms are spacious and well furnished. The hotel is out of the way from most interesting things (it is in the so-called financial district). While taxis are cheap, many drivers have not heard of the place and need to call the hotel for directions. It is also not fun being stuck in traffic most of the time.
I found the staff polite and pleasant although they had this bad habit of barging into my room unannounced. I know I should use the "do not disturb" sign more but they still should knock first or ring the doorbell.
Also I find that the area lacks atmosphere. Unusual for Beijing, there is not a soul on the streets around there. The subway is a good 20 minute walk and there are not too many things around the hotel except some "western" restaurants.
I was staying in the "serviced apartment" tower. Don't count on the kitchen to have any meals there. The drawers are empty. There is a kettle and some coffee and tea bags but no cup and no spoon!
What I found most annoying however was the lousy internet connection. It is extremely slow and I continuously got disconnected. If you plan to do some work from your room as I did, you may decide to change hotel. This is what I had to do. Could not get anything done. Really really bad. Took me several attempts and over one hour to get this review in.
The one saving grace is the price as I paid US$100 for a one bedroom apartment.

We stayed at the Westin with our 2 teenage daughters for 4 nights. We booked a suite in the residence section of the hotel for the amazing price of US$150 per night through a website.

The suite was beautifully appointed and was very big - 131 squ meters with 2 bedrooms & 2bathrooms, large sitting room with comfy sofas ( big screen tv and dvd) & dining area, seperate kitchen with cooktop, oven, microwave & washing machine / dryer combo. Both the bedrooms (one had a king size bed and the other had 2 double beds) were huge and both had flat screen tv's, desks and large bathrooms with all the amenities ( nice toiletries, robe & slippers, umbrella etc). We were on the 27th floor with a lovely view. There building going on next to the hotel so not sure what the noise was like on other floors but as we were so high up it did not bother us.

The breakfast buffet was teriffic with a huge selection but a bit pricy for China at US$20 per person. All the room service we ordered was nicely presented and quite good value. If you get stuck for food take a 15 minute walk from the hotel & there is a Starbucks, KFC, and bit further on there is a pizza hut. We prefered to eat in neighbourhood restaurants so about a 15 min walk in the other direction is a street with bakery, small shops, tea shops & about 5 - 6 restaurants. None of the restaurants we tried had English menus but they were very friendly & helpful & we got by with pictures & our mandarin phrase book.

As other people have mentioned the Westin is a bit out of the action part of Beijing but taxis are so cheap it didn't matter. Although one day we had to walk back from Tianamen Square as no taxi driver would stop for us, it was on Oct 1st which is a national holiday for the Chinese so unbelievably busy. I think it was about a 30 - 40 Minute walk back to the hotel but just shows you can walk to places from this hotel if you need to!!!)
We only had one taxi driver ( from the airport )who had slight trouble finding it but the other drivers were fine. Just make sure you don't get overcharged - we had one taxi driver who took us a very long way to the hotel but we indicated to him on a map that we knew what he was doing . When he tried to charge us we wrote down his taxi number & he soon changed the price. The taxi industry in Beijing is regulated so they really frown on the drivers trying to rip tourists off & they can get into trouble.

The concierge and tourist desk share the same area. The girl at the tourist desk offered to book us tours around Beijing but it is just as easy ( & cheaper )to do it yourself via taxi. But we did organise tickets to "The Legend of Kung Fu Show" through her & they were no more expensive than booking directly with the theatre and the seats were great. She also booked a hutong tour for us with the Beijing Hutong Tour Company (the one mentioned in the Lonely Planet guides) and again it was no more expensive than if we had done it ourself. We decided to go through this company as there are lots of people touting "Hutong tours" and we have heard some of them are a bit disreputable & take you to places you really don't want to stop at. The tour we took was RMB220 each & was about 2 1/2 hours long. The guide we had was excellent. As well as touring the area by rickshaw we stopped off at Price Gongs palace & had a private tea ceremony, visited the Drum tower and heard the drums sounded and this is worth going to just for the view over Beijing from the drum tower ( we had a rare clear nearly smogless day ) and also visited a retired archaeologist & his wife in their courtyard home which was very interesting as my daughter studies history so there was lots of conversation & laughter which our guide interpreted for us.

Rather than have a guided tour we hired a taxi for the whole day via the concierge( I think it was about RMB 300 - 400 ) and went to the Great wall, Forbidden palace etc.
This was my husband 4th trip to Beijing so rather that going to the Badaling (McWall) section of the great wall we went a bit further on to the on to the Mitianyu section which he said was not so busy & much better. Get there early, it opens at 7.30, and you will beat all the crowds & tourist buses. We arrived at opening and there were not many people about so we had the wall mostly to ourselves for a little while - we stayed a couple of hours and by the time we left it was starting to get very busy with cars parked the whole way down the hill so it must have been a long big walk for those people just arriving. There are 2 cable rides up - the 1St cable ride also has the option of taking the taboggan ride down which is lots of fun or you can take the cable car back down again
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When we visited the forbidden palace you could not move for people and also most of the rooms are not open to the public at the moment as they are doing work on them in preperation for the Olympic games.

We would definately stay at this hotel again and really enjoyed our stay.

I've stayed here twice now. It's perhaps the newest hotel in the financial district of Beijing. If I were a tourist, probably not my first choice for location. Check-in and check-out have been flawless. Even getting the Chinese tax receipt, fa piao, is fast which for those who need them, is a surprise.

The rooms were decent sized with very good storage, in-room safes, multiple AC plugs, excellent broadband, mini-bar, comfortable beds and furnishings and excellent bathrooms.

The bar downstairs is nice and service is good. I've eaten at the Italian restaurant twice and it too is quite good.

There is no place nearby to eat unless you want Shanghainese food. In that case there's a restaurant across the street in the China Life building called Shanghai Xiao Nan Guo which is excellent. Also as the district is being expanded, the construction will start at 6am so and this will probably not change anytime in the next year or so.