Beijing Travel Forum

My partner and I don't want to book a room before we arrive in Beijing so that we can haggle over the price once we're there. From what I've heard, booking upfront will guarantee you pay too much and we would like to avoid that. Besides, I like things to be a bit adventurous. Ideally we will be looking for a clean guesthouse or small hotel in a Hutong area close to restaurants and nightlife. Is there a particular area that suits this desription that you'd recommend? An area with a few hotels close together would be best because this would give the benefit of choice and competition. Does anyone here have experience with bargaining for a good price for a room? Do you have any tips? All advice is appreciated.

Niekie

Try the area around Far East IYH (http://www.fareastyh.com).
Booking upfront doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be paying too much. I would suggest that you book a night at the hostel listed above and then look around for another option that you like after you get there. Otherwise you'll be dragging around all your luggage after a tiring flight just looking for someplace to stay.
Also, I assume you'll not be travelling in the 1st weeks of May or October.

HI!

I agree with Jacelyn about the Hostel. Recently stayed at the Far East Intl Hostel, sited in the midst of Hutongs near the Liu Li Chang area (with plenty of artist workshops). There are restaurants nearby though don't expect too much night life. However, you are near (by bus & subway) the main sights of Beijing ala the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square etc as well as the shopping and nightlife areas of Xidan and Wang Fu Jing.

I booked the rooms via http://www.hostelworld.com to save myself the pain. Yeah, you get some entertainment from the touts for rooms while roaming around but I must say that I'm not sure shopping around will get you any much of a significant deal.

All the hostels I saw in China were really hostel/hotels. They had both private rooms and a few "dorm" rooms. The private room prices were not the lowest you can find, but they were reasonable --generally far less than you would pay for a regular hotel internet reservation. The reservation system seemed reliable.

I expect that once you get a room at a hostel you will likely remain there your whole visit, but you can certainly look around for something nicer or with a different location.

I saw the Far East International Hostel. It was in a modern building in an otherwise fairly natural hutong near where I stayed. It looked nice.

I agree with all the above including private rooms in hostels are good deals. I also found that often you can get a bigger nice room in a Chinese hotel and can pay about 1/2 to 3/4 the posted price (assuming no holidays). However, this will take a little time and effort and not always the case.

I have stayed in both. In my opinion, some if the advantages of staying in a private room in hostels are:
1. Easy to pre-book at a fair price.
2. Usually in good locations.
3. English is more widely spoken.
4. Meet other foreign travelers to get information about your next destination.

Some of the disadvantages of Chinese hotels are:
1. Time waited haggling over price.
2. Fighting off the touts. Or worst, using a tout and getting a hotel at a bad location.

Some Chinese hotel's have web sites with discounted prices. But the web site are useally in chinese. Also, you often don't need to pay a deposit for chinese hotels and hostels.

Thank you all for taking the time to answer my query. I haven’t given up the idea of going without making arrangements beforehand. We will be arriving by Trans-Mongolian train in the morning (in August), so I suspect we’ll have enough energy to go room hunting. The plan is to get a taxi from the train station to take us to an area that has many hotels and is close to nightlife, and to start our search from there. The Far East hostel is mentioned a lot. Are there many hotels in that area? When I look at the map it does seem to have a good location for sightseeing during the day but would you also recommend that area for its nightlife? I thought Hou Hai would be the best place for that. Is this also a good area to look for a hotel/hostel? Or would you say the area around Far East hostel is better?

Niekie

HI! Niekie:

No night life to be found around Far East Intl Hotel/Hostel but yes, there are a couple more hostels and hotels in the area. It's a more local area (you'll see plenty of locals hanging out together in the Hutongs in the evening and people walking their dogs) and not so much a place catered for tourists and this is where I find its charm.

Check out http://www.hostelworld.com choices for Beijing.

Hmmm... sounds charming indeed. About the Far East hostel's location, do you think it's within biking distance of Hou Hai? I'm not very good at judging distances on city maps.
Niekie

Not much help there from me on that though....