Shortly after its opening my family and I stayed at the Rosewood Beijing, the city’s newest luxury urban hotel.
While located in a busy area with lots of traffic, they did an excellent job of sheltering the entrance from the chaos outside. The lobby is well designed and feels relaxing. The decor is contemporary, sleek and quite masculine with muted tones and straight lines, so in many ways it has more of a business hotel look and feel rather than that of a leisure escape. The artwork won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but some of it is quite impressive.
We were in a Manor Suite connecting to a Deluxe Room. The Deluxe Rooms at 46 sqm (just shy of 500 square feet) are quite spacious. It is worth noting that the Manor Suite only has one sink while all other suites have two.
Rosewood takes up the first through 23rd floors of the building, so the views aren’t as sweeping as what you’d get at a couple of the other luxury properties in the city. Views from the Deluxe Rooms look out onto an unattractive apartment building, so we would suggest upgrading for more interesting vistas.
The public areas are very nice. There is a spacious and beautiful club lounge where breakfast is plentiful, complete with an egg station. The main lounge leads into a reading nook with welcoming leather sofas and a pool table.
The restaurants have innovative features like large floor-to-ceiling cold cellars for juices, yogurt and sushi. Country Kitchen, a restaurant serving Northern Chinese cuisine, has a lively atmosphere and fun open kitchens with a large variety of noodle options. Impressively, their Peking Duck was as good as that at Made in China, one of our favorites. There is also the promising potential for the opening of an external hotpot restaurant in the near future.
The spa, which was not yet open during our stay, has a nice juice bar. The pool is fantastic with lots of natural light and greenery but toys for the kids were lacking. Other than that, service was good overall.
At the moment it is too early to know how the Rosewood Beijing will compete with other Beijing properties like the Four Seasons and Shangri-la’s China World Summit Wing, but they are competitively priced and there is no denying potential. See for yourself by booking a stay at the Rosewood Beijing with Imperial Tours here.
(Photos: Rosewood Hotels)
