Rainbow Hotel, Beijing

Stayed in a standard twin room in September, 2006. Didn't take any pictures of the place but they do have a website with some pictures at http://www.rainbowhotel.com.cn which has the option of English, Chinese or Japanese.

The hotel is supposedly a 3-star hotel but I don't know. I have traveled quite a bit, but this was one of the worst hotel experiences I've ever had.

Let's start with the good--the lobby looks elegant, with bright chandelier lights and busboys willing to help you with your stuff and hold the door for you. Pricewise I think it's pretty cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Again, I stayed in a standard twin room. First of all, the phone in the room didn't work when we first got to the room, so they sent up a guy to fix it. The room itself was extremely poorly lit, even with all the room lights turned on, as if they used 15 watt light bulbs only. The carpet was filthy, so you had better put on the slippers they provide for you, or your feet would get dirty really fast. The toilet was a little dysfunctional also, as I had to flush it a certain way so that it would not keep drawing water into the tank and make noise. The TV channel selection was pretty limited as there was only one English channel (the rest were Mandarin). However, the worst thing about the place was the beds. The mattresses were VERY hard. Even by using the comforter/blanket as padding for the bed I would say I still didn't get more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep on any given night. The furniture (and the TV) in the room was rather old, but functional. The air conditioning unit worked okay. There is a safe in the room, which we used and did not have any problems with.

The hotel does have an in-house massage parlor, a gift shop, a bar, and several restaurants. Did not try out many of these amenities but I did try the buffet breakfast one morning. It was of the Chinese variety, but it was just okay. However, if you don't fancy a typical Chinese breakfast, you won't miss much by skipping it.

There is also massive construction going on outside on the nearby main street so it is extremely dusty outside and only adds to the already polluted Beijing air. This may change once the Olympics arrive in 2008 (all of Beijing is under construction in preparation). I also suggest you take the hotel's card with you as it seems very few taxi drivers speak English, AND even if you speak Mandarin, a good percentage of them do not know where this hotel is.

All in all, I would not stay here again if I had the choice.