We spent 4 nights at the Beijing Westin Hotel in April 2008 as part of a China Cruise/ Tour. We found the hotel staff to be exceptionally helpful. The hotel for the most part was spotless except for the carpet in our room, which was very stained. Overall the service was very good The Italian restaurant was great. The breakfast buffet was superb, however, because we were part of a tour group we were required to sit out in the "hallway" with folding tables and stackable chairs (this was a big turn off since we were treated differently than the other guests). Service in the "hallway" was lacking.....we had to "chase" the wait staff to get a cup of coffee or tea (or refills). The swimming pool was tremendous, as was the steam rooms and staff therein. Although our stay was pleasant we would probably opt for another, more luxurious hotel, when we return to Beijing. As I indicated it's a good business persons hotel.

My husband and I just returned from a 6 night stay at the Westin. The hotel is new, absolutely beautiful, and has the most helpful, gracious staff we've met in years. Every staff member went out of his or her way to make us feel welcomed. Since my husband is a Platinum Starwood member, we were upgraded to a Renewal Suite and were able to use the club level lounge, which has a great breakfast and happy hour buffet. We had a wonderful stay here. We absolutely recommend this hotel.

A wonderful hotel for business travelers.

I have stayed there for 3 nights and attended a meeting held there.

The hotel is centrally located in the Financial Street of Beijing, known as the “Wall Street” in China. It will only take 1 minutes walk to get to China’s “Regulatory Commissions” for banking, insurance and securities. This is especially convenient for people like me whose business is finance related. And cabs took 15 minutes to get me to the National theatre which is just next to Tiananmen Square.

And I just noticed some giant finance companies are just located around the hotel, like Citi, GS and JP Morgan. The shortcoming for this is you can not easily get cabs in the rush hours in front of hotel.

The room is great and well equipped. I personally like the huge Westin “Heavenly Bed” and the so-called rainforest shower. The most important point is the whole hotel is covered by wireless internet broadband, and it is free. I can easily go to surf internet when I was in a meeting and the wifi signal is strong in the venue.

Staff is very friendly and their English is adequate. Every evening they have a ceremony down in the lobby showing some candle lightening up and Taiji show. However, the main corridor of the lobby is under construction and I suppose the ceremony should be better with a nice corridor.

We used buffet in the restaurant in the 1st floor and found it is very busy in lunch time. We have to wait for a while to be seated when we tried to have a quick lunch there. Honestly, the food presented is among the best ones I have seen in Beijing. Staff in restaurant was very proactive and they even taught me some pronunciations in Chinese.

Overall, Westin Beijing Financial Street is one of the best hotels in town with no doubts, especially for business travelers. I will definitely recommendate it.

My husband and I used Starwoods points (11,500) to book a Westin Room for the second part of our stay in Bejing-March 11-16th. When we got to the hotel it was booked so they upgraded us to a two bedroom apartment in the Residence Tower. The apartment was fantastic in it's layout. We really enjoyed having the kitchen so we could stock it with drinks and snacks and breakfast items. The only down side to the kitchen was it seemed to have a strange odor so we had to keep the door closed when we weren't using it. It also was not fully stocked with dishes/utensils, etc. There were glasses but we had to request bowls/silverware. We did not cook anything but if we needed to we would have requested cooking ware also.

It was really nice to be able to read in a real chair and sit on a real sofa instead of a bed to watch TV. There were actually three TV's - one in each bedroom and one in the living area. The only problem I had with the facility was I could not get a feather pillow and I found the pillow they had to be too bulking for me. I ended up using one off the sofa to sleep on.

We found the staff to be very friendly and attentive. English was satisfactory and if they did not understand your question they were quick to get help from another employee.

We thought the food in Prego, the Italian restuarant was excellent. I had the lasagna and was very satisfied with it.

We also ate the breakfast buffet one morning when we had a long day planned. All of the food was excellent, the fresh squeezed juices were expecially nice.

We ate one ala carte meal at the same restaurant, not wanting the buffet that evening. My husband ordered the Wonton Soup and when it came we discovered the Wonton's had shrimp in them. When I tasted the broth it tasted like seafood so I said he better slice open one of the Wonton's since he is allergic to shellfish. Sure enough it had shrimp in it - this was not noted on the menu so I would recommend if you have any allergies - ask to make sure there is not any in the dish you ordered.

I used the ladies facilities by the swimming pool (and the pool). The jacuzzi had a very nice area where you could put your feet directly over some jets - nice after a long day of walking. The sauna and steam room were also refreshing. However one of the days the jacuzzi was cold instead of hot so I didn't use it.

I used the Spa on the last evening to get a 90 minute Chinese Massage. The spa rooms are incredible - they have a private dressing room with an individual shower/steam room combination that has colored lights that rotate through the color spectrum. The therapist I had was very good although I did note a slight odor on her breath, probably due to a different food diet. I also had to ask her to use more oil/lotion since it did not seem to be moisturizing my skin very well and there was some friction when she was doing my hands. Note - they will ask you if you want a man or a woman so definately speak up if you have a preference.

We had drinks in the lounge and they did a very good job with service and had entertainment - singers and a piano player. The lounge was busy during the week but quiet on the weekend. Definately more focused on the business traveler.

We used the hotel "limo" for our transfer back to the airport on our day of departure. It was a very nice Mercedes and you definately felt luxurious riding in it.

The hotel was not convient to walk to any of the tourist sites but taxis were very inexpensive. It also made it nice that it was very quiet every night due to the location.

I would definately recommend the hotel for business/pleasure combination.