My husband and I stayed at this hotel for 4 nights at the start of our trip to China, and one night prior to leaving. We chose the Holiday Inn Central Plaza after studying Trip Advisor. The hotel rooms were well furnished, spotless, with fairly comfortable beds. Two bottles of water, and usually 2 pices of fruit were complimentary daily. We had several meals at the main restaurant, the buffet choice was comprehensive and tasty, but did seem a little expensive. One night we chose from the menu but we were both disappointed with the quality
We had the perfectly adequate 'Two egg' room service breakfast (coffee extra) several times, the cost was reasonable, and the eggs were usually still hot on arrival. The location of the hotel was OK, we found it very interesting going for walks to check out the neighbourhood. There is a nice bakery a short walk to the left of the hotel, bottled water/soft drinks were very cheap locally (approx 100yds to right). Taxis were very easy to find, and we were only turned down once one evening. The hotel was well staffed, they were very polite, and most had a reasonable command of English.
We had read many positive comments about Storm, we were pleased when he introduced himself to us on our second day, and asked how he could help. The next day he arranged a Pedicab ride from the hotel to the Hutong to finish with Peking Duck lunch. That evening he arranged tickets for the excellent Acrobatic Show. When we returned to the hotel for the second time he arranged a driver to meet us at the airport, and detour via the Olympic Stadiums which we had wanted to see.
Storm really went up in our estimation when he took time out of his busy day to accompany us to catch a train to Zhengzhou. It was a huge relief to have him guide us through the massive Beijing West Station. When we discovered we had been booked on the slow instead of the fast train he managed to find 2 people to exchange trains with us! Lastly he helped us onto the train and made sure we were able to sit together. We just feel so grateful to him for all his help. There is a world of difference between someone who says "have a nice day" and Storm, who takes the extra trouble and time to make sure it is.

We had a large, light and airy de-lux room with a huge window and lovely window seat in this stylish hotel. It was a smokiong room (we had booked non-smoking) but none of the alterrnatives offered were as nice. The vast reception area and the resturant are visually immaculate, but the westernm food in the resturant was dissapointing.
The main problem with this hotel is its location, not within walking distance of any of the sites or even a park. Taxis may be cheap (unless you are ripped off, which we certainly would have been had we not had our Chinese speaking son with us) and the traffic in Beijing is so bad that almost any jouney is a long hot one spent sitting in traffic jams.
We liked the hotel, but will choose on in a better location next time.

I booked this hotel partly because of its location.

If you look at Google Earth and like me assumed it was bordering the Forbidden City, you would be completely wrong. The Google Earth indicators are wrong.

This hotel is a good 20 mins drive from the Forbidden City. You will be able to get a taxi there, but getting one back to your hotel will be almost impossible (the drivers will refuse you). Have fun sitting in backwards in a motorised rickshaw weaving through 8 lanes of peak hour traffic.

You will probably be offered an upgrade to the Executive Floor. I can't say I got too much benefit from it.

There is nothing in the immediate vicinity that would entice you to leave the hotel.

If I was returning to Beijing, I'd find somewhere closer to The Forbidden City.

My wife and I recently returned from our first trip to china having 4 days in Beijing and 5 in Shanghai...Our stay at the Holiday Inn Central Plaza started our holiday in the possible way. The hotel room we stayed in was modern, clean and a good size. Our first morning we met the mighty Storm Li, (my wife was very skeptical about how my late nights trolling through Tripadvisor would be of any assistance and especially all the deeds of Storm). Well it knocked her socks off when we asked about somewhere on the street to have breakfast. He not only told us where to get breakfast but guided us to the place then told us what they were making, helped us order and sat with us over breakfast.

Storm also arranged a taxi for us to the Great Wall for 600 RMB with a visit to the National Stadium (Bird Cage) where we managed to get through the security to watch a rehearsal for the medal ceremonies.

Storm also provided us with a mobile phone for contact with him if we had any communication problems and a travel pass for bus and rail. Nothing was a bother for him. The only unfortunate thing was we did not get the chance to say good-bye to him on our departure. From reading some of the other reviews he was probably performing some good deed to another traveller.

Some reviewers have said the hotel is pretty isolated from the main sites and shopping of Beijing but we found this in fact added to the value of our stay. (and the taxis are very cheap anyway) We found a beautiful park about 300 metres from the hotel which was full of local people taking part in their daily routine of exercise.