I stayed here in January and I find it to be a nice property. The beds were comfortable and the bathrooms a good size. It's hard to say if the location was good because everything in Beijing seems so spread out, however it was something like 3-4 blocks from Tiannemen Square. The staff were all friendly and most spoke good english or at least humoured my poor attempts at mandarin. The hotel is a very 'western' style hotel and seemed to cater to that market. Further down the road there was a very large shopping precinct with supermarkets, department stores and fast food outlets. The chinese love their fast food outlets and are great if you don't speak the language as you can point at the pictures to order. The only negative I had with this hotel was that you had to buy a swimming cap for about $10 to swim in the indoor pool. This was annoying but not enough to sour my stay.

Location: not the best, wrong side of Tianammen Sq
Rooms: we got upgraded, so happy with size, but decor outdated
Staff: nice, helpful
Value: you get what you pay for

If you can take the location, I recommend staying there

PS: asked for a private tour to the wall WITHOUT any 'shopping' (i.e. jade factory tourist traps) stops - were made to stop anyway, so beware

The Marco Polo Beijing is a just "ok" hotel that doesn't live up to its 4 star rating. Yes, the rooms were clean and the location was decent, there wasn't anything spectacular about the hotel at all. My wife and I found the room to be dark and uninviting, although we weren't in it other than to sleep. I don't have anything horrible to say about the Marco Polo, but there isn't much good either. Really it is just an average hotel that will disappoint if you are expecting luxury, service, or special amenities.

I booked the marco polo hotel using airline network and for £68 per room per night including breakfast it was by far the cheapest price. The hotel is 5 minutes walk from a Tube station and a shopping mall is also close by. Due to Beijing being so big and the sights so spread out we found being close to the tube extremely convenient and at appox 30p to use the tube a cheap option to get around. The reception is beautiful and all staff were very friendly and helpful even allowing us to leave our cases there for 2 days whilst travelling to Xian. On our first 2 nights stay we were upgraded to the continental suite which was on the 10th floor. The only real difference to standard rooms was a larger bathroom and shower cubical. The rooms were spacious with extremely confortable beds. You have a mini bar and free water along with all the usual free toiletries. The breakfast was lovely with a choice of fruit, breads, meats, cooked breakfast, cereals etc etc what you would expect from a 3-4 start hotel. My husband and I would certainly stay there again and would recommend it to our freinds and family.