We had a large, light and airy de-lux room with a huge window and lovely window seat in this stylish hotel. It was a smokiong room (we had booked non-smoking) but none of the alterrnatives offered were as nice. The vast reception area and the resturant are visually immaculate, but the westernm food in the resturant was dissapointing.
The main problem with this hotel is its location, not within walking distance of any of the sites or even a park. Taxis may be cheap (unless you are ripped off, which we certainly would have been had we not had our Chinese speaking son with us) and the traffic in Beijing is so bad that almost any jouney is a long hot one spent sitting in traffic jams.
We liked the hotel, but will choose on in a better location next time.

I booked this hotel partly because of its location.

If you look at Google Earth and like me assumed it was bordering the Forbidden City, you would be completely wrong. The Google Earth indicators are wrong.

This hotel is a good 20 mins drive from the Forbidden City. You will be able to get a taxi there, but getting one back to your hotel will be almost impossible (the drivers will refuse you). Have fun sitting in backwards in a motorised rickshaw weaving through 8 lanes of peak hour traffic.

You will probably be offered an upgrade to the Executive Floor. I can't say I got too much benefit from it.

There is nothing in the immediate vicinity that would entice you to leave the hotel.

If I was returning to Beijing, I'd find somewhere closer to The Forbidden City.

My wife and I recently returned from our first trip to china having 4 days in Beijing and 5 in Shanghai...Our stay at the Holiday Inn Central Plaza started our holiday in the possible way. The hotel room we stayed in was modern, clean and a good size. Our first morning we met the mighty Storm Li, (my wife was very skeptical about how my late nights trolling through Tripadvisor would be of any assistance and especially all the deeds of Storm). Well it knocked her socks off when we asked about somewhere on the street to have breakfast. He not only told us where to get breakfast but guided us to the place then told us what they were making, helped us order and sat with us over breakfast.

Storm also arranged a taxi for us to the Great Wall for 600 RMB with a visit to the National Stadium (Bird Cage) where we managed to get through the security to watch a rehearsal for the medal ceremonies.

Storm also provided us with a mobile phone for contact with him if we had any communication problems and a travel pass for bus and rail. Nothing was a bother for him. The only unfortunate thing was we did not get the chance to say good-bye to him on our departure. From reading some of the other reviews he was probably performing some good deed to another traveller.

Some reviewers have said the hotel is pretty isolated from the main sites and shopping of Beijing but we found this in fact added to the value of our stay. (and the taxis are very cheap anyway) We found a beautiful park about 300 metres from the hotel which was full of local people taking part in their daily routine of exercise.

We spent 3 nights at this hotel. It is not close to the center, but taxis are so cheap that this is not an inconvenience. We did not have problems to find it.

The room was incredible, big, confortable, nice. The bed was huge and confortable. The window was very big but it had not dark curtains, so we woke up early in the morning. Moreover, our room was in the second floor (the same floor of the pool and the gym) and it was a bit noisy.

The bathroom is OK and you can find an advice about the tap water (it is not safe to drink it) and 2 free bottles of water each day.

The staff is kind and efficient, but they do not speak fluent English and there is a man who speaks some words in Spanish. Anyway, they do their best to help you in a proffessional way, specially bell boys. They are nice and helpfull.

You can find an ATM inside the hotel and the restaurant is very well assorted. The hotel is comfortable, nice and clean and the staff is very nice. This hotel is a very good choice.