Airport Garden Hotel Beijing

This airport hotel is quite a Chinese airport hotel relic but is fine for a stay over of one night if arriving late or catching an early flight. I arrived late from Seoul, South Korea and then had a morning flight to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia and so stayed here a night so as to not have the hassle and expensive of travelling in/out of the city centre. The hotel is very busy and so you may have to wait at reception for a while to be served but once I checked-in, which was fast and efficient, I got to my room and everything was fine. The rooms aren't that large but are well appointed with nice bed sheets and everything you expect to find in a 3-star hotel.

The hotel has a shuttle bus service, which is better value than the taxis, although from the airport it is difficult to locate - I would ask in the terminal.

Accomodation in Beijing is never a problem as its a developed and a huge city. You can even stay in a best hotel in beijing at a low cost.

The Airport Garden Hotel is simply poor value for money. While "good value" and "airport hotel" are phrases rarely seen in the same sentence, Beijing's Airport Garden Hotel was particularly bad.
It didn't help that their agent got our booking wrong, but they then insisted it was entirely our fault. We were able there and then to prove this not to be the case. We were simply amazed that even if it *had* been our fault, the manager and the staff were totally unwilling to make any effort whatsoever to solve the problem. (Note that this was not a language problem: we live in Beijing and can comunicate well in Chinese!)
It all went downhill from there!
The room walls are very thin and we were kept awake by the conversations in the room next door. When these people had a shower at 3am, the roar of water in the pipes woke us all up.
A pipe was leaking in the bathroom, so the floor was constantly flooded. I solved the problem, but feel that as this pipe had obviously been leaking for some time (months? years?) that it shouldn't have been left to a guest to solve. ("Oh they all leak on the ground floor" said the receptionist cheerily!)
There is no Western dining room - and this is a stated requirement of three star hotels in China. Not a big issue, but further indication of the low standards here.
Note that part of the hotel is based on an open lobby concept, with bedrooms leading off landings above the lobby. On the top floor is the Karaoke Room. In the late evening, every time the door opened, very loud karaoke music blasted out. Fortunately our room was not in this area.
The doormen were surly, uncommunicative and unhelpful.

Unique Quality: Let me see. Hmmm. Unique characteristics? Plenty.
We wouldn't stay here again, because we were badly treated. It is really rare to have a bad experience at a 3 star hotel in China, but then this hotel shouldn't have 3 stars anyway because some of the required facilities are not in place for 3 stars!

There are alternative hotels in this area, including the Sino-Swiss which is much more expensive, but - quite frankly - I'd pay twice as much to avoid the hassle we faced.

Directions: By the first tollbooth turnoff from the airport on the Expressway.