I transferred to Raffles from a hotel in the Haidian district, and what a difference! The rooms are equivalent to a 1-bedroom city apartment, and the service from the front desk to the room valet was excellent.

Yes there is construction, but where in Beijing do you not find construction? Located within walking distance of the Forbidden City and Wanfujing also makes this an excellent base for sightseeing and shopping. I will definitely stay here again.

We had a wonderful stay at Raffles at the end of April 2008. We were greeted upon arrival and had a quick tour of the property. Our bags were promptly delivered to our room. We had an executive room with a king bed. The room, including sitting area and bathroom, was outstanding. Modern, clean, comfortable. The bed is harder than what you might be used to as a foreigner and my husband had some problems, but I slept just fine. We never had any issues with temperature or turn down service. The morning buffet and evening cocktails were quite a treat! We thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of our stay at the hotel. The concierge and bellmen were always helpful. We never had a problem getting a regular taxi right in front. They made recommendations when needed and worked hard to make sure our experience was above and beyond. It is true that booking things through them is expensive. We booked an airport pickup since it was our first time in China and we wanted to feel comfortable getting there. The charge was 900CNY for 4 people and luggage. You can take a regular taxi for about 150CNY. Lesson learned. As well, we booked a guide for the Forbidden City and probably spent about 5 hours with her. She was great, but I don't think it was worth 1500CNY. You can certainly find cheaper alternatives for both transportation and guides. But those were both at our choosing so we only have ourselves to blame. At any rate, our experience was not tainted in the least. I would recommend this hotel to any of my colleagues, friends, or family for a fantastic visit in Beijing. The location and facilities were phenomenal.

We spent two weeks travelling China, first stop was Beijing and we were amazed at the standard of decor and furniture within the hotel. The room was spacious with two extremely large beds, a gigantic flat screen tv and lavish bathroom and shower rooms. The breakfast buffet was a banquet, and the restaurant staff extemely attentive, to the extent you could not put down your napkin whilst visiting the buffet without finding it immaculately refolded on your return to the table!. An all round freindly atmosphere. The swimming pool facility was better than most hotels. The hotel was within 3 mins walking distance of the main shopping area.

We stayed ar Raffles Hotel, Beijing, for 8 days in April.
First impressions are good - the lobby has a high ceiling with beautiful chandeliers. However, as was mentioned in another review, there is construction going on around the building, and the view from our Inc. Executive Room was extremely disappointing........ overlooking a building site. Also, the room itself did not meet expectations. It appears much larger on the website photos, than it is in reality. The sitting area and bedroom area are, in fact, quite limited. We noticed stains on the furniture, which is an off-putting experience when arriving after a long flight. We requested another room (with a a view) and were taken back to the original building , where we were offered a Landmark room. No explanation was given as to why we could not have an alternative room in the Inc. Exec Building - which we had booked. We preferred the open arrangement of the Landmark room, although it was extremely dark at all times - facing a wall of another building. Was this the view we had requested? During the night, even with the air conditioning off, the room was cold. Also, we could hear noise which appeared to come from the a/c, but may, in fact, have been due to the construction outside.

The bed was wonderful - really big and comfortable.
On the first night, when we arrived back at 8:30pm, we discovered we had not had the benefit of a 'turn-down service'. A card was left in the room the next day to say that the service had been available after we had retired at 9pm..
On the 2nd day, we left the room at 8:30am and were astonished to find it had not been made up when we arrived back at 2:30pm. It took 2 calls to the Room Valet before anyone
arrived - 30mins later.
On our 6th day, no fruit was left in our room - and unlike the other lucky guest - we never had flowers! We also had to request hand towels and small (complimentary) bottles of water.

We enjoyed the complimentary tea and drinks offered daily in the Inc Executive lounge, which was a pleasant place to sit and read the newspapers, or check email.

The buffet breakfast was plentiful as was the dinner at East 33.

I had informed the hotel, in advance, that my husband would celebrate his birthday during our stay. I was promised that the hotel would offer 'the benefits of your birthday'. Very disappointingly, this never happened and no excuse/apology was forthcoming.

We found the doormen very friendly - although there is a serious problem with getting taxis from the hotel. Many times the doorman ran outside onto the main road to try to divert a taxi to the hotel for us. There needs to be a system put in place whereby taxis are easily contactable.
The concierges are polite but beware, as they tend to promote specific tours /shows etc., which you may be able to arrange yourself, at considerably less expense.

Overall, our experience at Raffles was pleasant, although not up to the standard we had expected - and definitely not comparable with the standards of the Peninsula, Bangkok!