Making Hotel Reservations in Beijing

When I was in Beijing a few weeks ago, I found it necessary to change hotels because of dissatisfaction with my current accommodations. What I found to be interesting, however, was the difficulty in getting a good rate when making reservations directly with the hotel. I had checked out room rates online with several candidate hotels, including the New Otani Chang Fu Gong and the Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven, and had found good room rates online–both on sites such as Orbitz and Expedia and on the hotels’ own websites. However, when I called the hotels’ front desks directly in Beijing, I was quoted much higher rates. When I told them that I had found lower rates online, they did not seem surprised, and instead encouraged me to make my reservations online rather than with them! So, keep this in mind if you ever need to make a last minute hotel change in Beijing. In my case, I made my reservations for the Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven online (using the complimentary internet access in my room) about 30 minutes before I checked out of the Holiday Inn Downtown. Had I not done so, I would have paid considerably more per night.