One of the things that puts my mind at ease when choosing a hotel in an unfamiliar city is to stick with the fancy stuff. I knew absolutely nothing about the city of Beijing when I was making this reservation, but choosing the St Regis Hotel over a lesser quality brand gave me that twinge of confidence I needed.
I mean if the location is good enough for a St Regis, it would be more than adequate for a lowly and uninformed traveler such as myself. Right?
A full review of my 2 night stay at the St Regis Hotel in Beijing
The St Regis Beijing is in a pretty darn good spot. It’s very central, right in the middle of everything with Tiananmen Square just a 30 minute walk away. It’ll feel like 120 minutes if it’s below freezing.
The location of the St Regis is pretty good if you’re looking for a place to stay right in the heart of Beijing!No you guys, this is not hospital! It’s the St Regis Beijing, my home for this brief trip to China.
Checking in
Unfortunately, choosing high-end hotel brands still doesn’t seem right to me after all these years – especially whenever I walk through the grand entrance that first time with three different hotel employees holding the door for me. For some reason or another I just don’t feel like I belong in fancy hotels such as this, but those thoughts usually only last a second or two before my eyes glaze over from the fanciness of it all.
The St Regis failed to disappoint in that regard and I felt at home right away, lost in a daze from the hypnotic twinkling lights and glossy marble finishes all throughout the lobby. All the glitz and glamour reminded me of the Grand Hyatt in Taipei. Maybe it’s an Asian thing. I ‘m not sure.
The check-in counter is on the right, and if I’m being honest, I was feeling a bit self-conscious about walking into this place with bright red sneakers strapped to my feet.Enough marble and gold accents in here to make Donald Trump feel right at home.This is one of the many café/bar areas just off the main lobby. I totally lost count of the number of restaurants and cafés in this place!
Getting to my room
If you looked up “spooky hotel hallway” in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure this is the picture you would see without any other description to go with it. Yikes!Room 1112 is mine for this stay. Dang it! So close to achieving my dream of getting a hotel room with the number “1234”. Maybe I’ll have better luck next time…
The room
Cracking open the door and walking in the first time.Who else gets freaked out about the thought of some weirdo hiding in your room waiting to pounce soon as you walk in? It makes me think that I shouldn’t have given up karate at such an early age.Thankfully the only weirdo in here was this guy, walking around with the camera taking pictures of everything. He was cool though.It’s actually a pretty nice looking room isn’t it? OK, there’s kind of a lot of “Sheraton Orange” going on in here, but otherwise it looks pretty good.It also features the same floor plan of a low-end Motel 6 found on the side of the freeway in a questionable part of town, but at least this was clean and pretty nice looking.But let’s be honest: after flying halfway around the world and feeling completely spent, the bed is the most important thing in a hotel room anyway. This one looks perfectly nice and fluffy (and I can confirm that it was after a solid 10 hours sleep my first night here).Brown velour and orange carpet. Whoa! That’s a color combo straight out of the 1970s and…I kind of liked it. It was also probably the reason why I was feeling urge to listen to some Fleetwood Mac right about then.You probably think I’m joking, but I totally would’ve fired up the Fleetwood Mac on this Bose stereo if it weren’t for the fact that the connection was incompatible with my iPhone. “Players…only looove you when they’re plaaaaayin’…”Very nice attention to detail here with the bedside mat and slippers.Speaking of attention to detail, the welcome chocolates were a nice touch. Just two though? That basket looks as if it could hold a lot more than just two!Even with all the nice furniture in this place, my eyes are still drawn to that 1970s funky orange carpet in every one of these pics. I’m not hating by the way…as matter of fact I’d love to have this stuff on the floor in my studio at home!That desk, by the way, was the perfect spot to consume copious amounts of room service (which I did). All of it was really good actually!Here’s a wide angle picture of the entire room. Small, yes, but it was a comfy home for a few days.Coffee and snacks on display just off the main entrance. All of it was complementary, but I touched none of it for fear of breaking something and losing a leg from the sharp broken glass. I’m clumsy like that.
The bathroom
The bathroom. Unfortunately there was no 1970s vibe in here with orange and brown Formica plastered over everything, but still liked it quite a bit.To be honest I’m not really sure what to call this style, but “nice” is good enough for me. It was actually one of the nicest hotel room bathrooms I’ve seen in a while.There’s that weirdo again. Someone call security!There was no shower in this bathroom, but this very deep bathtub more than made up for it. Any bathtub deep enough to drown in is a good one in my book.Lots of complementary goodies here next to the tub.
Things I didn’t like about this hotel
Interestingly enough, the initial impression that I had of this hotel being too fancy for my tastes eroded away after the first day. The St Regis Beijing is certainly a nice hotel, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not perfect and not quite up to the standard that I would expect from a high-end brand such as this.
For example, the phone in my room would randomly ring at all hours of the day and night, and I’m ashamed to admit that it took three times of that happening for me to realize that the phone was possessed and there that there was actually nobody on the other end.
I eventually had to completely unplug it from the wall in order for it to stop, feeling ashamed that I fell for it three times. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…
Another minor complaint was the room temperature (a complaint I’ve made before, most recently at the Hilton LHR). The windows were awfully drafty, and I could almost feel the cold wind coming through even with the curtains completely closed. I actually had to sleep wearing the complementary bathrobe because the thermostat couldn’t compensate for all that cold air coming in.
They must have got a really good deal on these windows, because they were about is drafty as a screen door with holes ripped in it.Speaking of windows, check out that view! As you can see, the St Regis is located right in the heart of Beijing.
Final thoughts
The next time I return to Beijing (and I will to check out the Great Wall), I’m not totally convinced that I would stay here again. Of course it is a very nice hotel in a very good location, and I’ve got no major complaints about it, but all the walking around that I did made me realize that there are some other really nice hotels within a 3 mile radius of this place which looked even better from the outside.
That said, I found the St Regis to be very clean with incredibly helpful and kind staff, and it was also very quiet during my stay. Never once was I woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of guests in adjacent rooms, and I heard nary a peep from anyone out in the hallway. That phone though…that stupid phone.
