About The Ritz-Carlton Beijing

The Ritz-Carlton Beijing, China Central Place is located in the CBD business district along the East 4th Ring Road in Chaoyang District, inside the China Central Place complex. Right next to the hotel are SKP and China Central Place, so it’s very convenient if you want to shop for luxury goods. In addition, the B1 level of China Central Place has plenty of dining options with all kinds of cuisines. The hotel is close to Dawanglu subway station, served by Line 1 and Line 14, so getting around is fairly convenient. Since it’s in a major business district, the roads around the hotel are often heavily congested. If possible, taking the subway is the easiest way to get in and out.

Even so, the area immediately around the hotel is especially quiet and clean, and overall it feels quite comfortable.

Also, if you’re taking the subway with a stroller, be prepared to carry it up and down stairs. None of the entrances/exits at Dawanglu station have elevators, and some don’t even have escalators, which feels completely lacking in accessibility. Even worse, after coming up a disability ramp, the next section actually connects to stairs, which is just baffling. And to complain one more time: Tiananmen Station on Line 1 apparently also has no elevator, making things very difficult for travelers with limited mobility.

Booking

Points / Free Night Booking

Although this is a Ritz-Carlton, it was only a Cat 5 property, requiring just 35,000 Marriott points for an award night. That means the annual Free Night certificates from these $95 annual fee credit cards can all be used here: Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, AMEX Marriott Bonvoy, and AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Business.

Of course, note that Marriott now has off-peak, standard, and peak pricing. If your stay falls during peak dates, it costs 37,500 points, which is a bit awkward for a 35k certificate. In Beijing, The Ritz-Carlton Financial Street, The Ritz-Carlton at China Central Place, and The St. Regis are all Cat 5 properties, so you can redeem based on your personal preference. Price-wise, the Financial Street location usually hosts more business travelers, so rates there tend to be higher. Room rates are generally around 1,500-1,800 RMB. Once taxes and service charges are added, it’s still a pretty significant amount.

This time, I booked with a Free Night certificate that was about to expire.

Benefits

One more thing to note: since this is a Ritz-Carlton, even if you’re Platinum or Titanium, you still do not get lounge access. Even if you’re upgraded to the Club Level or to a suite, that’s only a room-type upgrade and does not include any lounge benefits. The only way to get lounge access is to pay for it.

If you’re a Gold member, the paid benefits upgrade costs 550 RMB for two people or 450 RMB for one person, plus 16% tax and service charge. It includes:

  • Access to the Club Lounge
  • Complimentary breakfast for two at Aroma, the buffet restaurant on the first floor
  • 4pm checkout
  • 3 pieces of laundry
  • 10 pages of complimentary printing

Personally, I think this upgrade is well worth it if you plan to spend a lot of time at the hotel. I’d recommend having breakfast downstairs on the first floor; for the other meals and afternoon tea, the lounge is quite good. I’ll also go into more detail when I cover the lounge below.

FHR Booking

If you plan to book with cash, I strongly recommend using AMEX Platinum’s FHR. The room rate isn’t very high, around $270, but the included perks are excellent. You get a guaranteed room upgrade (usually to a suite), breakfast for two daily, guaranteed 4pm checkout, and a $100 dining credit (usable at hotel-operated restaurants on property).

As you can see, this also does not include lounge access, but the other benefits are all included. Comparing the two:

  • Spend one FN / 35,000 points + $100: room booking (upgrade not guaranteed) + lounge + 2 breakfasts + various other benefits
  • Spend $277: room booking (upgrade guaranteed) + 2 breakfasts + $100 + other benefits

In fact, if your FN isn’t close to expiring, paying cash through FHR is probably the better value, since you’re not going to be eating and drinking in the lounge all the time anyway.

Pre-Arrival Chat

We booked the hotel for the next day, so right after booking, the chat interface appeared in the app. You can use this chat to contact the hotel directly. This time, I wanted to try a different approach. Besides mentioning Hilton Diamond status, I also said I was a blogger at US Credit Card 101 and planned to write a review of The Ritz-Carlton Beijing, hoping to showcase the hotel’s best side to US readers.

The customer service team took it quite seriously. After a fairly long wait (I’m guessing they went to ask the manager), they replied and upgraded us to the 109-square-meter The Club Carlton Suite, which is just below the top-tier Ritz-Carlton Suite. I checked the price and it was actually 3600RMB, so I figured I’d better write a proper review.

At check-in, the front desk specifically confirmed that I was the guest, and someone personally escorted us upstairs, showed us around the suite, and checked whether everything looked okay. It honestly felt like very VIP treatment.

Hotel Lobby

The lobby itself isn’t very large, and the ceilings aren’t especially high, but the overall style is fairly classic, with darker, heavier tones. That said, the warm color palette feels very comfortable in winter.

There is only one check-in desk, with three stations. The concierge staff were very polite and soft-spoken, which fit the atmosphere of the lobby quite well.

Room

The room was on the third floor, and someone escorted us upstairs. At the end of the hallway, we saw an impressive set of double doors.

Upon entering, there was a foyer of about 10 square meters. I’m not sure why it was so large. On the left was the

Living Room

The living room was about the size of a standard hotel room bedroom.

The orchid on the coffee table added a bit of life to the room.

Bedroom

The bedroom itself was about the size of a standard room’s bedroom, and the layout was also pretty similar to a regular non-suite room. The bed was especially comfortable, though it was a little on the tall side.

Bathroom and Restroom

What surprised me most was that this suite actually had two restrooms: the primary bathroom and a guest restroom.

The guest restroom connected to the living room and had a standard wet/dry separated layout, with the sink area separated from the toilet, but no shower.

The primary bathroom is quite lavish. Open the double doors and the first thing you see is a double-vanity setup with two sinks.

On the right is an oversized bathroom area, with the bathtub in the middle, the shower on the left, and the toilet on the right.

The toiletries are also the standard Ritz-Carlton Asprey amenities.

That said, the bath hardware does show some signs of age.

Artwork

The room itself does not have many standout features, but the artwork on the walls is pretty nice.

View from the Window

Since the suite was on the third floor, there was not much of a view.

The area around the hotel seemed to be mostly filled with business vehicles.

Xiangyi Restaurant Breakfast

Since I had booked a package that included breakfast for two and lounge access, breakfast was available in both places. The front desk agent suggested that if I preferred a quieter setting, I could eat in the lounge, while the Xiangyi restaurant on the first floor offered more choices. This buffet breakfast was genuinely strong, and even LD said it was worth at least 100 RMB.

Breakfast did get fairly busy, but it was manageable because the restaurant itself is quite large.

The restaurant also has semi-private dining areas, which was a nice touch.

Club Lounge

The lounge is on the 16th floor. If you purchased lounge access, you can tap your room key to take the elevator up. Their key cards did not seem especially sensitive, though. Quite often I would tap once and nothing would happen, so maybe I was doing it wrong.

The lounge offers breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, evening Happy Hour, after-dinner desserts, and alcohol at night. Overall, the lounge quality was quite good. It felt like a curated selection of some of the better dishes from the buffet downstairs. The variety was not especially extensive, though, so if you went through one round and were still hungry, there was not all that much else to try.

Decor

The overall style is consistent with the guest rooms and the lobby.

On the day we went to the lounge, there was a foreigner there interviewing people the whole time. I am guessing it was for admissions at some university. We finished lunch, and in the afternoon the interviews were still going on.

The flowers were quite pretty.

Lunch and Dinner

For lunch there was salmon sashimi, a mixed seafood dish, and curried lamb, all of which tasted good. The Western-style bread was especially hard, though.

There were also made-to-order Vietnamese rolls. The flavor was just okay, but the chef prepared them very carefully.

Afternoon Tea

The desserts at afternoon tea were fairly average.

Service Experience

I had never felt strongly about hotel service before. At properties above a certain standard, it usually all feels more or less the same. But this stay at The Ritz-Carlton Beijing, China Central Place did feel different. The best way to sum it up is warmth delivered in exactly the right measure.

The doormen were proactive about opening doors, with calm and natural smiles. The front desk staff handling check-in also spoke softly and carried themselves with excellent poise, while explaining the hotel services very smoothly. In the lounge, if the manager saw you holding a plate, they would ask whether you needed help. Used plates were also cleared quickly. The service felt natural throughout and made for a very comfortable stay.

I called to request baby toiletries and a crib. The crib arrived quickly, but the toiletries were forgotten. I called again to ask about them, and the front desk was extremely apologetic. They even sent up a fruit plate as an extra gesture and repeatedly said they were sorry for wasting my time. It suddenly felt very upscale, haha.

At checkout, I also mentioned to the front desk that the wood flooring in the room creaked a bit, probably because the room was older. They said they would check on it right away.

Bottom Line

Overall, I highly recommend The Ritz-Carlton Beijing, China Central Place. The service was excellent, and the room was quite comfortable. If you have a free night certificate you want to use within China, this is a very good option. A pure points redemption did not feel like the best value, and booking through FHR seemed like a better play because the benefits are stronger. As for the lounge, families traveling together may want to consider paying for it for the added convenience. Otherwise, it is also very easy to eat somewhere nearby.

I still have not stayed at the Ritz-Carlton Financial Street Beijing or The St. Regis Beijing. Maybe next time.