Review: Hilton Beijing Airport

Next time try the Langham Place next door, it's a nicer property and has even better food!

Fantastic looking property, especially with the convenience of a free shuttle and nice breakfast. I've got an overnight in Beijing coming up next month and again in November. I will definitely be taking a closer look here.

It's too bad you didn't feel like you could take more time for breakfast: in at 5:30am and on the shuttle at 5:55am. Grab a coffee and go! 😉

As a Gold, you only get Executive Lounge benefits if you are on the Executive floors.

As a Diamond, the last time I was upgraded to a suite was 2012.

I stayed at this property a couple of years ago using a points & cash award as a HH Silver on a one night stay (arrived late in the evening and left early the next morning), and I also was upgraded to a suite like the one above.

An amateur question for you. What do you do about drinking water at these western chains in China, Mongolia, and so forth? You don't drink from the tap, or do you? If not, the tiny little welcome bottles and minibar bottles don't seem like they'd last very long - how do you procure more water?

As a Marriott guy, this is an impressive hotel, especially for an airport hotel. In my experience, the Westin, Sheraton and Marriott airport hotels I've stayed at have always been kind of older, dumpy hotels.

Now I find the decor a little too dark and heavy in the earth tones, but otherwise the amenities look quite nice, the room looks well-maintained and spotless, and the service -- particularly the upgrade -- seems well-executed. The executive lounge actually looks like somewhere you would take an executive for a high-level sales meeting.

I also had the same suite in 2012 on a points & cash award as a Silver.

I was on my way to London and woke up at 4am to watch the Olympics opening ceremony. My only complaint was that the channels weren't high def, but hopefully they fixed that in the 5 years since.

I have stayed here a few times. They actually put out a decent amount of food for dinnertime at the lounge. I have always eaten breakfast in the restaurant and they are always very friendly and nice. Once I was asking something about dragon fruit (I think it was my first visit to China and was confirming that what I thought was dragon fruit was) and a few minutes later he came over with a whole fruit cut open and a spoon and showed me how they eat it. Another time there was a special thing they made and brought me, due to being a Diamond member I think. It was really good and I said that, and so they brought me another! They work hard to please.

The king size beds are huge, bigger than any king size bed I have ever seen. I have always been upgraded to a suite (3 stays here, I think) and I would stay here again anytime I am having a short stay in Beijing and going into the city didn't make sense.

Wow, looks great for an airport hotel. However, I'm no Beijing expert, but isn't the rate a bit high for Beijing (considering the location)?

I have always found the rate to be around the same as other Beijing hotels. I always thought it should be a little less, as you are so far out, but never found that. I have used points for most of my stays.

Good review Ben. We have 1 night transit in PEK this coming Dec. We are thinking to stay either here or the Langham. What drove you to pick Hilton as opposed to the Langham?

Lucky, please enlighten me: your site is supposed to be about using (or earning) points & miles for great redemptions. I get it that, sometimes, it makes sense to pay for a room rather than booking it by points, as you usually explain.

But sometimes it doesn't seem to make any sense. You're not a Hilton loyalist. And I assume (perhaps I'm wrong here) that you have some HHonors points. So why paying 180 dollars for a ~16 hour stay?

Is that really the best value you can get?

I'm really curious about this, because even if you value points less or more, it seems to be a tremendous amount of cash for such a short stay in a hotel chain you don't seem to care about that much.

Good to know T-Mobile gets around the Great Firewall. Take that, Communist Party of China!

Since Lucky gets the airport shuttle, free breakfast, and suite upgrade it is worth spending $180 for a night in Beijing.

Otherwise there are many 4-5 star luxury hotels in Beijing for around $75 per night plus a $10 taxi ride each way to the airport.

Just remember to have name and address written down in Chinese letters if ariving to other terminals as no cabdriver understands english! I flew into terminal 2 last year and tried to take a taxi to Hilton. Three different cab drivers and the taxi dispatcher didn't understand the name Hilton hotel spoken or in writing (or maybe they only wanted to drive into Beijing?)

I'm curious -- how is it that your phone was getting around the great firewall? Did you use a vpn on your phone (that worked, whereas wifi was blocking vpn addresses)? In my experience, my phone has full access over wifi for about a day in the mainland before services start getting blocked. So if you weren't actually using vpn, I'd be careful before giving people false hope that tmo can magically break through.

Andy - my experience with my AT&T phone was that I could access anything normally using a cellular connection during my week in the mainland, but a VPN was necessary when using wifi. Never really looked into it further though.

I had the same suite for a night as a Diamond last summer, but at the very end of the hall. Nice upgrade and lounge, but nobody mentioned that breakfast in the restaurant was also an option. I was under the impression that breakfast in a restaurant was only an option when a lounge wasn't available. is this normally the case?

Tmobile roaming routes all data back to the US, so vpns arent required. I would imagine AT&T does the same

I had an unplanned stay there in January after missing a flight to Sydney. I was astonished to be upgraded to a two story, two bedroom, two-and-a-half bath suite and given a 6PM checkout (my flight to Sydney didn't leave until 11PM the next day). I only have gold status with them and can't explain how this happened. It was everything you said and I enjoyed it very much, even thought I was supposed to be at the Park Hyatt Sydney. Glad you had a good experience, too.

Thanks for the great review. I'm staying at the hotel now, and have had the same experience -- upgraded as a Gold member, enjoyed the executive lounge. I've also found the service in the lounge and the restaurant to be very good.

Thank you ~ I have stayed her before, but couldn't remember the shuttle information, you saved the day.

I was in a similar suite but on the top floor only couple of weeks ago for three nights. I am sure there is a path to the terminal if you're feeling a little adventurous. It was -5 as I waited for the shuttle. Remember that you have to cross to the furthest lane to access the stop.
The hotel was dead for the three days I was there - maximum three people in the lounge and one person in the bar.

On my free day there I got the hotel to arrange a local cab to take me to the aerospace museum just outside Peking. Magnificent outdoor museum with over 100 static aircraft displays; including rows of MIg fighters, a Trident, Il-62, Viscount, Chinese Daks and helicopters. It is a former air force base with hangars dug into the rock face. About 50 minutes drive but don't watch the traffic if you are of a nervous disposition.