Hotel4Real!

Opened in 2007, the Aloft Beijing Haidian was one of China’s very first Aloft hotels. The hotel and its sister property, the Four Points Beijing Haidian, were Beijing’s only Marriott/SPG properties in the academic- and tech-centric Haidian district (until very recently). Unfortunately, the hotel had not seen any major renovations since its grand opening, and its reputation in the Marriott community online had been generally negative. These are the pieces of information I had prior to my stay. Not that I walked in waiting for a disaster to happen, but maybe this did help me manage my expectations – I actually found my experience here fairly pleasant.

The hotel was recently connected to Beijing’s subway system, so I decided to take it to kill some time after my early flight arriving into PEK. The walk from the subway station to the hotel was very short, and I took the opportunity to explore the grounds. To my surprise, the whole place felt, for the lack of a better term, like a ghost town. I could tell there was a good amount of capital invested into the many ideas the hotels had tried, but unfortunately all that was left in the end was an empty garden and the remnants of their previous projects.

By the time I got to the hotel, it was still quite early for check-in, around 11AM, but I was pleasantly surprised the hotel had not only a clean room, but an upgrade ready for me. Granted, a “Breezy Guest Room” was nothing special minus the higher floor, but it was the effort that counted. The lobby itself was very colourful, with bold colour coordination and expressive design touches scattered all around. There were some places where you could maybe tell the hotel was older, but in the same vein I could imagine how futuristic and ahead-of-time the vibe would have been back in 2007 – which was close to two decades ago!

The guest floors and the rooms, on the other hand, was much more docile and easygoing. The design team definitely held back their paintbrushes a little bit to make the actual accommodation spaces more mainstream.

Don’t get me wrong though, there were still colours and thoughtful little details in the room, namely the Aloft-signature dark teal-coloured carpet, lighter-toned surfaces, and the trusty ol’ alarm clock bedside. However, from the beaten-up looking patches in the carpet to the peeling vinyl around the room, you could definitely tell with more ease, that the hotel was indeed older.

Functionality-wise though, I had zero complaint. There were plenty of desk and luggage space, all the amenities there should have been (minus a mini fridge – the one in my room was turned off, and apparently this had been the case for all mini fridges in all guest rooms for quite some time now), and a to-the-point but workable sink-bathroom-closet area.

The natural light situation in my room was good enough. Even though I was in an upgraded “Breezy” room on the second highest floor, there was not really much to see outside, and I don’t think the one level above would yield a better view. However, I did love looking down to the private garden shared by the hotel and the Four Points next door – seeing greenery always makes me happy.

When I was told my room faced south, I was not too sure if I would be able to stay simply because most Chinese hotels do not operate their central A/C in cooling mode until end of spring. Thankfully, this was not the case here, and the A/C blew chilling cold air 24/7. A trivial little detail – the first thing I do when I settle into a hotel room is always turning the A/C all the way to the lowest temperature, and never had I seen a hotel that allowed me to set the thermostat to 0 – ZERO degrees, until this one.

I did have one concern with my room, and it was unfortunately a big one – there was a lingering smell of cigarette smoke, even though it was a smoke-free hotel and had been that way for at least a decade. I was perfectly fine travelling all across Beijing in the peak of allergy season, but my allergy kicked in as soon as I got to my room. I’m not sure how the smell got there in the first place, let alone why it was there after the hotel allegedly having not had any smoking rooms for so long. This was not the only hotel I’d experienced this at – in fact, it was (and continues to be) an extremely common occurrence in China, and a massive headache for me and my overly sensitive sinuses.

The breakfast situation was also interesting – in fact the outlet situation in general was quite intriguing, in that the Aloft literally had no active outlets during my stay. No restaurants or bars open, at all, even though the hardware was still very much there. Instead, guests were directed to use the dining facilities (including the breakfast buffet) at the Four Points next door, which involved a short outdoor walk across the garden. I found the setup fine, but I can imagine it could be an annoyance if weather doesn’t cooperate. The breakfast was perfectly adequate for a Four Points, but as a guest at Aloft, it was at least one or two levels above expectation for me. The variety was great, with western and Asian options, local specialties, as well as fresh fruits and a live noodle/wonton/egg bar.

Then it came time to check out. When I told the front desk associate I enjoyed my stay, I asked him about the overwhelmingly negative reviews the hotel had been receiving in recent years. He shrugged, and gave me the diplomatic version of “people are expecting too much”. Indeed, while I do agree with the consensus on certain fronts such as the renovation being overdue, the lack of available guest amenities within the hotel, and the general run-down feel of the entire complex, I do believe that yes, guests might have been expecting too much from a two-decade-old Aloft. Comfortable and reliable accommodation, nice people and maybe a little pinch of youthfulness were all I was hoping for, and the Aloft Beijing Haidian hit all three boxes for me during this stay.

By the way, the revolving door exploded on me unprovoked as I was walking out, that was fun lol.

RealScore

Service: 7.5

Design and Room Size: 7.5

In-room Amenities: 7

Bathroom Size and Layout: 7

View from (my) Room: 6

Hotel Location: 7

Available Guest Facilities: 6

Food Quality: 8

Food and Beverage Service: 7

Executive Lounge Quality: N/A

Final RealScore: 7.13

Final RealRating: B

Hotel is built/opened: 2007

Total number of rooms: 186

Length of stay: 1 night

Membership level at check-in: Titanium

Room type experienced: Premium Room (better amenities)