China Travel Tips

Reflections on Travel in China

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Hotels In China




The most questions I get asked about is the hotels in China. Pictured above are good representations of 3,4 and 5 star hotels. Tourists do not usually want to stay in anything less than a 3 star. The top photo is a good 3 star hotel in Beijing called the Tian Rui Hotel which is very well located.  The second is a 4 star hotel in LiJiang and the third is a 5 star hotel in Xian. There are many other luxury hotels too with even more deluxe rooms. What is usually quoted is the standard room in each hotel as the price. There are actually 5 price levels of rooms within the hotels. The standard room in China is two single beds and is about 75% of the rooms. The next level is Superior rooms, then deluxe rooms usually on the business floor and then Jr. Suites and Deluxe Suites and then some hotels have a Presidential Suite. I have stayed in all of them in 25 years and inspect hundreds of other hotels in the cities all across China. The latest is that hotels are starting to have their own names for rooms so you can not compare hotels. One 5 star hotel calls their Superior rooms, "Landmark" rooms and so on. Many hotels are eliminating the name "standard" room in favor of something more exotic or simply call them "Superior" rooms which are the same rooms. Some hotels also change their names to better attract new clients or if they remodel also change the name of the hotel. An excellent hotel in Shanghai use to be called The Grand Nation just a few years ago, then changed it to the Ramada Plaza Hotel until they realized that Ramada is not a top class hotel in the U.S. and just this January changed it to the Majestic Plaza Hotel. Check with me if you want more information on hotels. My 25+ years experience in working all over China in the Tour Business has given me excellent insights to hotels. I have given lectures to hotel staff in the Sofitel Hotel chain at their request and often get called upon for sales meetings in China.
Click on the photos for full screen views!

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