Chinese Hotels

I’ve travelled in China extensively and have had the opportunity to stay in hotels that range from ultra-luxurious to filthy and disgusting. China has a huge range of hotels available particularly in larger cities, where western amenities are commonplace. Most tourists to China will stay in these hotels. But as a careful observer will notice just driving around Beijing – there seems to be tons of hotels everywhere that have strange names, like Traffic Hotel or Petroleum hotel. What are these places like? What are Chinese-style hotels like?

I can answer both of these questions. In my view there are three types of ‘Chinese-style’ hotel: the dirt cheap, the tries to be nice but ends up strange, and the new breed of western-style hotels.

Let us begin with the dirt cheap. I have had the opportunity to stay in a few cheapies in China. These hotels are typically next to train stations and have no private bathroom. They have concrete floors, dirty linens and public bathrooms with no partitions between the stalls that may or may not have ever been cleaned. They are typically about $5 a night.

The second type, and most common, is the ‘tries to be nice but is strange’ type. These are often new hotels, perhaps only a few years old, but they still are badly designed. Most of the poor design decisions involve the bathroom. In a hotel in Shuozhou for instance, the bathroom actually had a shower stall, but there was no place to put any of the toiletries except on the floor! In a hotel in Xinzhou, the toilet was located to close to the sink so when I sat on the toilet one leg was pressed up against the sink. Hot water often seems to be an issue. In Datong, a hotel just had scalding hot water! There was no cold water at all! Toilets often don’t flush correctly, rarely is there a shower partition and cleanliness can be a problem. These kinds of places also like to have ‘ladies’ call you late at night offering ‘messages’. Is that a euphemism for something else? I don’t know because I have always turned them down. However, the sleeping area of these places is often quite reasonable, there is always air conditioning offered and they may even offer internet access. These places typically cost from about $10-25 a night

The third type is a new type of budget hotel that is increasingly being found in the large cities. Home Inn and Jinjiang Hotels are leading this model. These hotels all offer a similar standard of rooms. Basically, they would be the equivalent of a motel-type accommodation in the west. Basic, but clean and reasonably designed. Free internet access is available in all rooms. These are about $25-40 a night.