My wife, our 8 months son and I stayed a week at this charming hutong hotel. The location is excellent, being very close to one of the most funky hutong streets in Beijing. The staff was very friendly and helpful and the reception staff speaks good english. The rooms are cosy and very different from modern style hotels. The large courtyard with statues and live birds is super. During our stay there was live traditional music every evening, which was very cool.
Our room was very small and since we also had a baby bed (for free) we had nearly no floor space. As in other hutong hotels the bed is super hard, but that was ok.
Generally, we had a great stay at this hotel, but of course there are minor details that could be improved. The room would benefit from a small renovation and a new carpet. The breakfast could be more interesting and the coffee better - but this is really minor details.

I was prepared for contrast when I decided to stay in this hotel for 4 days after having stayed in a 5 star ultra-modern hotel in Shanghai. But I wasn't prepared for the shoddiness. Things didn't look good the moment I checked in. I had booked and paid for 3 rooms and had even written to the hotel's management 2 months before just to make sure they knew what type of rooms I would like to have for me and my family.
On arrival I was told the hotel was fully booked and I was checked into a small room at the end of the corridor with a back wall for a view. If I wanted to change to a bigger room I was told I had to pay more. After (loud) verbal intervention by my Beijing friend they finally gave us 1 suite and 1 adjacent room to accommodate 6 adults.
The rooms opened into small courtyards which offered just the type of old Beijing ambience we were hoping for. The hotel itself was in a hutong, about 100m from the main road which was convenient. Although it was quite dark at night it was reassuring to note that there was a police station just about 50m up the road. The interesting Nanluogooxiang hutong was only 10 min walk away. Internet was free and the power points worked.
Despite all the good points with regards to the location there were many irritating and shoddy aspects which spoilt my stay.
The rooms were basic, quite dull and smelled rather musty which was forgivable, being a converted traditional old house. What was not forgivable was that there was dust on the window frames and the carpets. I could accept that, being a small hotel, the carpets had seen better days but finding the same patch of dust on the carpet under the table for 4 days obviously meant that nobody vacuumed the carpets. On the third day of my stay, my bed was not even made.
Nobody picked up the phone when i dialed for service so one of us had to run up to the front desk whenever we wanted to make any request or enquiry.
There was a slight but constant smell of urine in the toilet but keeping the air extractor constantly on managed to keep the stench to a minimum. The shower heads leaked and the shower area had a constant pool of water due to poor drainage. One night the hot water was suddenly cut off in the middle of my shower. Enquiry at the front desk revealed that they had shut down the hot water to do some repair work and I had to wait another half an hour (ie freeze with soap and shampoo all over) before hot water would resume!
One of the air conditioners rattled and dripped water in the early hours of the morning but nothing was done about it despite reporting to the front desk. The following night I asked for some pails or containers to catch the water drip but was told they could not provide anything as it was already night. There was no full length mirror in any of the rooms. The kettle was missing from my room so there was no drinking water available. When I asked for a kettle the housemaid said it was missing because I had probably misplaced it myself and refused to supply another kettle. The porters were rude and unhelpful. When told to take the luggage to my friend's car parked at the main entrance the porter retorted, "Don't tell me what to do. I will do my job my way!"
This hotel had many good features but the shoddy management and substandard maintenance of the place made a stay in the hotel a test of one's patience and endurance. And that's a pity.

This place was excellent, it was in the perfect location and being in the hutongs alleyways) gave you a taste of traditional beijing living. It was not far from all the major attractions, forbidden city etc etc. The staff speak good english and were able to write the names of placed down on a card for us to show the taxi drivers (in maderin) as none of them speak any english. Take your guide book and show them the maderin name for things to get anywhere. The hotel had a great atmosphere it was very traditional with teak furniture and no mod cons (except wireless internet) a lovely court yard. the only cons were the bed was rock hard , but other than that i would go back again... there is plenty of great shopping within 10 mins walk down the alley ways..

We pre-booked this hotel as it was our first stay in China. On arrival, they cut our pre-agreed price in half so that is always a nice start!
This hotel although old and a little shabby was charming. The lay out was lovely and our room had its own courtyard, hung with lanterns. Our room was small (we had a double) but certainly not too much so, and the bathroom was quite large. We did have to get the water to run for about 20 mins (advised by staff) prior to use but this was no problem.
The staff were lovely and helpful and the location is second to none - there are lots of cute bar, restaurants and shops as well as being close to the forbidden city and other attractions.
The hotel operates its own tours however we opted not to sue there (the Great Wall ones offered include things such as shopping that we didn't want to do - I recommend the tourist info centre near the forbidden palace for booking this), however there were a range of tours that looked good and ere at reasonable prices.
We loved our stay here and for the price have not found comparable quality since. It was a great way to be introduced to the amazing city of Beijing.