GreenTree Inn Beijing Xicheng District Caishikou Express Hotel

It's a nothing out of common. It would be a really expensive hotel somewhere else. It has the hard bed and no breakfast, but its Beijing, so the price i think is kind of normal. Staff doesn't speak english at all. I think one or two of them speaks a little english so you have to struggle a little with that, but again, it is beijing, CHINA.
It's located close to Caishikou subway station so you can move really easu everywhere. It's just like 15 min from Tiannanmen square, same time to heaven temple/pearl market.
If you want to eat, you just have some of those little chinese restaurant in the street, there isn't any fast food or something like that.

Important: You have some kind of bar or something next to the hotel, so any hotel room is pretty loudly.

This is a no-frills hotel so do not expect much. The only saving grace is that it is within walking distance from a MTR station.

Pros:
1) Location: It is near caishikou mtr station on line 4, approx 5 mins walk from exit A. This will bring you directly to the Summer Palace, Beijing Zoo and Xidan. Tiananmen and Wangfujing on line 1 can be reached easily by changing to line 1 at Xidan, only 2 stops away from caishikou. The airport bus (from the airport) stops somewhere near. But the bus the airport only stops at Guanganmen, which is 2 bus stops away.

2) The cleaning staff are polite and nice. They provided extra pillows and blankets readily at our request. I threw away a bag which was spoilt but the cleaning staff was afraid to throw it away and made sure to check with us first.

3) They have triple rooms with 3 single beds instead of the usual 1 double & 1 single.

4) Bathroom slippers (in addition to bedroom slippers) were provided which was a nice touch.

Cons:
1) The bed is super hard and the pillows are super flat. Very poor sleep experience. I kept waking up in the middle of the night because it was so uncomfortable.

2) No air-conditioning till the end of apr. We were told that it is spoilt for the whole hotel but we figured that they refuse to switch on the aircon in order to save electricity. Heard from a local friend that they do not usually sleep with air-conditioning other than during summers. We had to open the window and Beijing's air quality isn't something I want to subject myself to the entire day.

3) Breakfast sucks so don't bother.

4) There is a KTV beside the hotel so you'll hear loud singing into the night. We stayed on level 3 and could hear the song very clearly.

5) Smoke smell everywhere in the hotel, including the elevators and room but this is the same for most places in Beijing.

6) The cleanliness of the towels are not consistent. They are generally fine but some looked really worn and others had stains. My bed linen had a cigarette burn mark.

7) Toilet door can't be locked

Nice hotel with a friendly staff. Stayed there for the Olympics, so prices were absurd. It's at the entrance of a Hutong, so I had a difficult time with cab drivers. Some simply refused to take me there, imagining there wouldn't be enough room for a car to get there, which is not true, but my chinese wasn't good enough to explain them that.
Although nice, the staff speaks a very poor english, making simple things like asking for coffee a challenge. There was no subway station nearby, but there was one in construction. The room was OK: spacious, confortable and quiet enough for a good night of sleep. I don't recommend this hotel to those who are travelling alone, but it's OK for groups.