Atour Hotel Beijing Chaoyang Road Joy City

Pros +

• the staff were very helpful and polite, always greeted us when we came in the lobby. the rooms were very clean, comfortable and modern. Slippers and toothbrushes were all given to us on arrival which was a nice warm Welcome and the products in the shower and bathroom were lovely. The best value for money in my eyes compared to other hotels I searched for in Beijing, I didn't expect this hotel to be anything special but I am so glad we chose this one. As a foreigner it was easy to communicate to staff and was great access to the city.
• I’d like to share my experience of staying in Atour, which is a representation of their blatant violation of contract terms, discrimination to senior customers, and unreasonable attitudes in treating customers. My 80-year-old father, 14-year-old child and I arrived at Atour around 8pm on August 15, but was told that our 4-night reservation of a family room (including one queen bed and one twin bed) was automatically cancelled at 6pm and the room was sold to other customers. I told the staff that there was no such policy of automatic cancellation after 6pm on my Bookings.com confirmation letter. They suggested us staying in a superior executive (a queen bed and a couch) for one night and then moving into a family room the next three nights. However, when we entered the room, there was only one queen bed without a couch (an executive room rather than a superior executive room that they promised at check-in), which means that my 80-year-old father had to sleep on the floor. My father went to the front desk to argue with them, but was told that the room they allowed us in (without a couch) was the only room that they had left that night. All they could do is to provide two extra blankets so that one of us could sleep on the floor.
• Superb

Cons -

• My father came back very upset. This was a family trip that I arranged when we reunited with my father after 4 years of separation because of COVID, and it started with this unexpected “automatic cancellation”. I found my Bookings.com confirmation letter and went to the front desk and asked for talking to their manager. I showed her the term on that letter “If you cancel the order after 18:00 on the day of check-in, you will need to pay the room rate of the first night. In the event of a no-show, the no-show fee is the same as the cancellation fee.” She said Atour had a different policy than Bookings.com. I responded to her that so long as they had a contract with Bookings.com and confirmed my reservation, they were obligated to follow whatever on the contract. Then she said that they didn’t have any other rooms, and asked me to find another hotel by myself. I pointed out that their overselling behavior was a violation of the contract. At this point, she conceded and told me that they still had a room with a couch (a superior executive room) that night. By the time we moved in that room and settled, it was already 11:30pm. I was very exhausted and disturbed. I have been to many countries and always used Bookings.com for hotel reservation, and this was the first time that my reservation was cancelled without any notifications.