Booked the Park Plaza in Beijing for April 28th through May 1st. Selected a Plaza Club Room- high floor with breakfast at $193 per night. Starting to notice that the Regent, next door and the Peninsula nearby have dropped online rates to approximately $50 to $60 more per night then the Park Plaza. I know this is a very subjective question but do you feel that the Regent or Peninsula are that much nicer? My wife and I are the type that like western style hotels and need to know that our reservations are in order before arriving. Comments would be greatly appreciated.

At little use of the search box would have found you this:

I wonder how up-to-date the observations on the service at The Pen and the Park Plaza are?

The Park Plaza is four-star and attached to The Regent. I stayed at The Regent early last year, just after it had opened, and was astonished at how good the service was by Chinese standards: Not only helpful, but actually anticipatory, which is rare in China indeed. These results had been achieved by training the staff in the Park Plaza as a fully functional hotel open long before The Regent, giving them practical hands-on experience.

However, I stayed in The Peninsula and The Regent consecutively in late summer last year, and The Peninsula service came about as close to Western standards as it's possible to get in Beijing (several Shangri-La properties would receive the same accolade), while The Regent's service was so poor it was a bad joke.

You can blame The Olympics for this, and the opening of 10,000 new top-rate hotel bedrooms in just a few years (including this year alone, a Mandarin Oriental, another Ritz-Carlton, another Intercontinental, a Park Hyatt, etc., and last year a Sofitel, and others).

Staff have very little loyalty to their employers in China, and what's happening now is that new properties are outbidding older ones. The Regent/Park Plaza staff have gone to the new Ritz-Carlton, I was told. One manager said some had tripled their salaries, and with his financial planning already done and approved, there was no way he could match these figures.

In short there's turmoil at the moment, and properly trained staff are a small percentage of the total hotel workforce, so views on quality, unless very recent, need often to be revised.

The longer-standing hotels that look after their staff are the ones still consistently delivering the goods at the moment, at that includes The Peninsula, the Shangri-La properties, and the Hilton, oddly enough.

The rooms at the Regent are significantly better than those at the Park Plaza. The rooms at The Peninsula are smaller but far more solidly furnished with far better materials and far better housekeeping, and since The Peninsula has managed to hang on to its people, the service is several orders of magnitude better.

Peter N-H

Thank you Peter, I've switched my reservation from the Park Plaza to the Peninsula as they have come down in price since I originally booked and I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't drop some more by the time we get to Beijing. I was told that the pool is closed until early May for maintenance but I'm not in Beijing for swimming anyway.

I have booked the Red Capital Ranch for the evening of May 1st as I thought it may be a nice escape from downtown Beijing for Labor Day.

I appreciate all your postings and advice to us Fodorites and I've picked up your invaluable Cadogan Beijing Guide. Too bad the update hasn't been released in time for my trip.

Just came back on 4/20 and spent 4 nights at the Peninsula in Beijing. Liked the hotel which is significantly more understated than I expected. Service is great, but note that the meals in the restaurants (which are quite good) are expensive. The breakfast buffect is approx. $34 US and the dinner buffet is over $40 US. There are also a la carte items that are much less expensive. Beware of ordering drinks . . . We ordered a large bottle of Peligrino with dinner and it was $19. We spoke to the manager and mentioned that this was obscene and he voided it from our bill. Coffee was also approx $6 pp at breakfast and dinner. I would definitely recommend the Peninsula but beware of paying up for food.

Hello all,

I wonder if these comments are still up to date now in March 2009...

Am looking to book a hotel for the 1st week in April and the Regent would cost almsot half the price of the Peninsula? Is the Pen worth the difference?

Any advice welcome
thanks