The hotel was very nice overall for the price paid. It is in a very good location just minutes by foot to the Xidan shopping area, which is the main shopping district in Beijing, complete with a lot of malls.
The decor all over the hotel is very modern and nice. Breakfast was plentiful with a nice variety of western and chinese dishes.
The room we stayed in was large, clean and very nice. The room was a bit warm on the first night, though not really uncomfortably hot. I made a call to housekeeping in the morning and they fixed it by the time we got back in the afternoon. It was pleasantly cool afterwards.

Got a good deal, in combination with the flights from uk so worth while, Make sure you get the address in chinese character and also Marco Polo (as many taxi's still know it as this..)
Appears very out of the way on arrival, but it has very good subway connection 2 stops to Tian'amnen, you can walk to this but subway clean safe & very good, and runs late.
Lots of modern Malls on doorstep of hotel(best part is there's no Westerns!). Starbucks 2 min walk (hotel coffee really awful). Lots of building around hotel, although off putting at first this is everwhere on run up to 2008.
Taxi's easy from front door, all very cheap (hotel has little card to explain popular locations in chinese to taxi drivers).
Rooms o.k. - averaqge standard, nice modern bathrooms, room stank of stale smoke (non-smoking room) didn't clear all week.
beds very comfortable, tea coffee water in room.
Hotel restaruant really bad (got served half a semi-raw chicken), breakfast buffet ok & adequate for most peole (although a large choice)- if you want silver service you'd be staying at a big US chain and paying 4 times the price. Mall next door has basement foodcourt many options for food (chinese/ japanese) and very good quality, clean/modern and cheap (aimed at young professionals). Other guests either chinese or european which makes for quieter environment.
Summary: I'd stay again, as Mercure takes over from Marco Polo would imagine steady stream of improvements will be taking place. Hotel has pool and gym, but to be honest why use when so much to see! (appearred clean and modern)

This hotel has now been taken over by Mercure and I am hoping they will make some necessary changes. Overall it was a good enough hotel in a convenient location, but there were some flaws. Our room (at the front) was far too hot and the aircon made no difference. You either opened the window and had lots of traffic noise or had the fan blasting out air that was little different. The carpet had a big wet stain when we checked in which was disconcerting. On the plus side the staff were nice enough and the pool was very good and quiet (swim caps needed). Breakfast was fairly good, if crowded. The restaurant seemed quite pricey for what it offered and the so-called "happy hour" did not include most drinks. We found a good local restaurant over the road and the nearby Times Square was full of designer shops with a good pizza restaurant if you wanted a change from Chinese. We walked to Tianamen Square and an excellent Peking Duck restaurant quite easily, but taxis are only 10 yuen.

Enjoyed our free upgrade from superior room to suite when we check-in on Dec 23. A very romantic surprise for us! Staff at restaurant were friendly. Spent christmas there and enjoyed the terrific location i.e. shopping at xidan (walking distance under 10 mins) and nice restaurants like the famous korean BBQ nearby.