We loved the charm of this hotel and the location, which was a close to the subway, autoteller and local shops, including a pastry/coffee shop. It was up a quiet Hutong (small side road) off a busy road. The people who worked there were fantastic and very helpful. Our room was exactly like the photos and a highlight of our stay. The biggest challenge with this inner part of Beijing is the heavy traffic on major roads during the day. Taxi drivers occasionally refused to take us into the area from across Beijing, due to the gridlock getting there (at first we were quite confused about these refusals). We found the nearby subway good, modern and convenient and very easy to use with bilingual ticket machines and station names.

We traveled to China in January and we were two of very few guests of the hotel. There was always an English speaking staff representative available, and the employees bent over backwards to assure our stay was enjoyable. This was a beautiful courtyard hotel though located off on a small alley-street and across from some construction (and down from a school). Apart from the great location and the beauty of the hotel itself, the staff alone would have us visiting again. I would definitely recommend this hotel. A note: the beds are as comfortable as most beds you'd find in China - fairly hard mattresses, but sleepable.

We traveled as a couple with our 12 year old daughter, and enjoy the small, quirky places with a little charm and personality. What a disappointment!

First, Do Not even consider staying here if there are more than two persons in your room, even children. The cot for the third person (at 150 RMB/night) was unusable -- most of the metal lattice-springs were broken, a few were held together with telephone cord so that when you sat or lay on it, you sank to the metal support in the middle. The mattress was thin and filthy. The whole contraption was like a cast off from the Long March. When we asked for something better they offered a few blankets to put over the mattress. Moving to a suite was not possible, since they told us the same cots are also used for extra guests in the suites as well as in the standard rooms. We were not inclined to pay for two rooms, which seemed to be our only option.

All of the blankets looked and felt like army surplus. The standard room was small, 10.5 feet X 15 feet and also contained a small wardrobe, desk and chair. The floor was wood with no carpet. The windows had been open before we arrived, so it was hot and sticky and there were bugs flying around. Once on, the air conditioning worked well, and the bathroom was modern and clean. We did not see any cockroaches, as other reviewers have mentioned.

After we said that we would stay only one night, the woman at the front desk became very unpleasant and said they would not give us a refund for the other nights we had booked. (Fortunately, our terrific travel agent was eventually able to get a refund after much effort.)

Internet service was 5 RMB per half hour at the "business center" which was a room with 3 computers on a table. It looked like the common room at a youth hostel.

Even though we arrived at the breakfast room early the next morning, the spread was meager with few choices and small quantities available. No staff were there. We ate muesli and all 3 of the boiled eggs that were in the bowl.

The location is good in terms of proximity to Tiananmen Square, the subway, and shopping. It is on a small street that is very dark at night, and about two blocks away from a pleasant street with upscale shops -- not really a typical Hutong neighborhood, since construction of something big is going on across the street and the majority of the block is made up of modern buildings. It is nothing like the trendy Hutong neighborhood near the Drum Tower.

All in all, it didn't have any of the charm that it promised and felt more like a cheesy budget motel with some decorations and furniture added to distract your attention. The red lanterns were cute at night but even that lipstick couldn't cover up the failings of the rest of it. We left after one night.

We like to stay at little off beat hotels when we are traveling. Haoyuan Hotel is one of those. It is quiet and quaint. It is also totally overpriced for what you get, which is minimal service, bugs in the room, and a mediocre breakfast. There were 3 of us in the room. We required an extra bed. We have no great expectations for roll aways, but what they gave us was incrediably awful. When we requested another--they gave us a better one--the question is why did they give us such a poor one to begin with broken springs and smelly mattress. We found 4 live scorpions in our room, and when we reported this to the staff there were no apologies or seeming concern. We attempted to get help with train station information, an acrobatic show, and other fairly common questions and got minimal help. This was not based on language problems, one of us is fairly fluent in Chinese. The price of the hotel was higher then many we had initally looked at, but had passed up because of the positive reviews we had read about Haoyuan. If you want to spend too much money for little in return, this is the hotel for you.