James Winkler
Google
I traveled with my girlfriend to Beijing recently and I had one criteria when selecting hotels: a private bathroom with an actual door. None of that sliding, fogged glass nonsense where you can wave to each other while one is on the toilet. We couldn't find *any* so we decided to gamble with a serviced apartment. And I gotta say it totally paid off.
Our unit was a one bedroom unit, a little over 600 sqft. Tiny for an apartment but colossal for a hotel room. It was in the same price range as some 4 star hotels in the area, even a little cheaper. The view was phenomenal, as this is one of the highest building in the area and the apartments start on the 40th floor.
They offered all your typical services of a hotel room. They gave us shaving kits with some cream and a razor. Free bottled water. Free wifi. They even cleaned our dishes. There was a washing machine in the unit, but no dryer. You can purchase detergent for the washer but not fabric softener. As expected, the clothes turned out pretty stiff and dry after a cycle but fortunately I only had to wash them once and the residual softener kept them wearable.
If you're reading this you're obviously a traveler, so I'll add that I was using an e-sim from Nomad and Mullvad VPN (recommended by Consumer Reports) and both worked reliably during our stay in Beijing.
The only "catch" there is in staying here is that they will take a security deposit. In our case it was 1200 RMB (about $200), but since you get that back if you don't destroy the apartment, it's not a big deal.
This place surpassed my expectations for a hotel and in the future I'll search for places to stay starting with converted apartments.