Zen Hostel - Review from James Wat

Not too sure how much you can trust a review that directs you to a website so here is an honest view from someone who has stayed there. (Also, the photos put on here are taken by the hotel - it didn't look like that! All the 'public' rooms are closed - perhaps they are just for show!) This hostel / hotel may well be fine IF YOU ARE A MANDARIN CHINESE SPEAKER, if not, stay somewhere in the touristy centre. It is in the hutong, which makes you very obvious if you are a western tourist. There is only one restaurant in the area and no cooking facilities in the hotel. As for English speaking, they have a temporary English speaker employed who was lovely, but we only saw her once in 6 days. The final straw was with their tour to the Great Wall which was a rip off. 260 RMB to visit jade factories etc. We complained about this and to be fair got 100 RMB each back, however, after that the hotel refused to help us any more - even refusing to call a taxi for us when we left to go to the train station. They have the idea that they would like to cater to budget western tourists, but they don't know how to do that at the moment. Honest opinion, this hotel is fairly cheap, but useless location and poor staff make other places a better choice. It was also very cold in April (no heating)! Stay at an HI hostel if you want budget accommodation with useful staff.