We chose the hotel due to its great discount rates for midweek and off season. It's location is excellent and the airport shuttle drops you off right outside. The rooms themselves were quite nice and provided a lot of amenities although there is only Wifi and not internet in the hotel. There is also a considerable level of traffic noise at all hours give the central location.

On arrival, the hotel required us to put 300 yuen a night deposit down for the room as well as 300 for the room key which is quite excessive (given that we have been quoted a rate of 280 a night) compared with other hotels in china which would only ask for 100 deposit for the key or a percentage of the room rate in case you use the mini bar.

There was also a misunderstanding as to the number of days we were staying, even though we had both emailed the dates to the hotel when confirming our reservation and reconfirmed at check in when we were querying why such a high deposit was required. This meant that we were locked out of our room on our last night and the reception were not willing to let us back in until we had paid a further 300 yuen deposit even though we would be checking out in 12 hours time. We were only let back in after I pointed out that my credit card was locked inside the room. After that, reception phoned our room wanting us to come down and pay the additional deposit.

Aside from the obsessive issue with the deposit, we generally found the staff to be quite rude and unhelpful - if they didn't speak english, they would ignore you when you spoke to them and phone someone else to come and deal with you. Reception also dealt with other Chinese guests when they were in the process of dealing with us, as Chinese speakers appeared to have priority. Another member of reception also looked over my hand covering the credit card machine to read my pin number as I was keying it in which I found quite an invasion of privacy and very rude and unprofessional.

Location is superb, you can beat it really...imagine dropping off from the airport shuttle at the doorstep of the hotel literally.

It's opposite the drum tower, so it's in the middle of the city walls. Around it are fast food restaurants, Muslim quarters, drum tower and convenient access to buses going to the train station.

Reception service was brisk and not so courteous but that is typical of hotels around China. Tried to borrow an adaptor but they weren't very helpful.

Room was clean and adequate. I had a single room with a double bed and just enough space to walk around. But in the morning at 9am, housekeeping knocked on the door on 2 mornings anxious to clean the room - best to hang the Do Not Disturb sign if you do not want to be disturbed.

For internet access in the room, you have to pay extra.

Overall, great place to stay although you won't get 5 star service or anything fancy.

The only thing positive about this hotel was the location, but even that was underwhelming with the loud traffic and drunk people noises filtering into the room all night (and we're not too fussy about that sort of thing normally). The rooms were dirty and poky and the bathrooms horrible. We found the staff to be disinterested and at times rude, and there was a large amount of confusion over some (overpriced) laundry that we had done.
On our first morning we had an unrequested 5.50am wake up call, and on the second day one at 3am. Needless to say we wish we had read and heeded the reviews on this site - I would never return and recommend sacrificing location and cheap prices for a decent hotel experience.

We stayed at the Melody Hotel and had a very good overall experience. It's gotta be one of the best locations, very central in town, close to the city wall, which is a recommended visit! Overlooks the Drum Tower - you need to request a room with a view though! Close to the Muslim Quarter..... Tourist Info Centre, which we found very helpful, the girl there told us which bus to take to see the Terracotta Warrior's and how to get there, she also wrote a note for the taxi driver as many don't speak English. Taking the bus was no sweat and we saved a heap of money, rather than organising a driver.
The room was your typical 3 star room, not flash, but comfy enough. The staff were friendly and when we requested a different room because the first one smelt bad, there was no problem, it took just a few minutes to change.