One of Beijing’s newest hotels is now my favorite on so many levels it’s not even funny. The Westin Beijing Chaoyang served as “geek central” for the recent Geeks On A Plane tour. Thanks to the introduction by Jenny Bai of The Red Connect and the generosity of Sean J. Kelley, Sales Manager at the hotel, the Geeks On A Plane group received nothing less than 5 star service throughout their stay. This included upgraded rooms, complimentary breakfast buffet in the morning and free wifi!
Seriously. This tour was our first. All the details were put together in about 6 weeks. We had a little window open on whether it was a go or not and I am not a cross border travel expert so was sort of freaking out at trying to make sure 20+ Silicon Valley geeks were happy on their first trip to China. I was looking for the best geek friendly hotel for our budget. I must have sent out some kind of distress signal disguised as a tweet because my friend Jenny Bai comes out of nowhere in my timeline and says “my best friend works at the new Westin in Beijing” right after I sent out an RFP. The least I can do is say a public thank you to the folks over there for making our first tour rock.
Following a day long commute from Tokyo to Beijing, the geeks arrived later in the evening and were greeted by a special welcome by Sean J. Kelley and staff. We were told to drop our stuff off in our rooms before heading right down to Mix where they had a VIP reception waiting for us.
I rode an elevator to the 25th floor and inserted the key to a corner room …and didn’t want to leave! Absolutely beautiful. Heavenly Bed, flat panel TV in the room AND the bathtub, separate shower, dual sink, plenty of room and wifi. As if that wasn’t enticing enough, sitting in the corner of the room by a grey couch was a leg massager. Seriously did not want to leave.
Mix bar had a separate room reserved for our group complete with really yummy canapes and buy one get one drinks. As we all slowly strolled in over the next hour, there were big wide grins on the faces of lots of geeks with iPhones in hand tweeting about how awesome the rooms were and in the case of fellow geek Josh Williams he could not stop raving about how he couldn’t wait until he had a chance to watch a ballgame from his bathtub.
A few videos I streamed live via Qik while at our Mix reception. You can catch the awesome Sean Kelley of the Westin in minute 1:41 of the second video. I bet it was his first time being around a room full of people who didn’t mind other people staring at their phones and tweeting, streaming live. :D
Each morning during our 3 days there, the group met up for complimentary breakfast down at Taste. Ok seriously. This was a serious breakfast buffet. I mean serious. Eggs cooked to order, Japanese, Chinese, cereal station, fruit spread, hot dishes, waffles, pancakes …you name it, they have it there. If you are staying at this hotel, get the rate that includes the breakfast buffet. It’s so worth it.
On the second day of our stay, I skipped out on the trek to the Great Wall of China. I’ve been there about 6 times in the last 15 years, it’s not going anywhere and it’s not changing any time soon but definitely something for the rest of the group to see since it was their first time in China. So instead, Jenny and I hung around the hotel all day brainstorming business ideas. This included a long ladies lunch at Taste where the lunch buffet has a ton of choice across various regional cuisine and the dessert station leaves you wishing you could work out right after – of course, wishing and doing are two separate things …but I did include a picture of their gym since there were girls in our group like Tina who definitely made use of it.
The Westin Beijing Chaoyang (I keep referring to it by its full name because there’s another Westin in Beijing) was also the site of a number of great events. I’ve shared the slideshows below.
Breakfast with Daniel Aylmer, GM of the Westin Beijing Chaoyang. It was great getting a chance to meet him in person to thank him for making our group feel welcome. As you can see, they went all out for our group in the Jinmao Ballroom on the 3rd floor. I took just as many shots of the beautiful buffet spread as I did of the people in our group who were blown away by the set up.
Startup2Startup Beijing Dinner. Dave McClure’s signature startup dinner from Silicon Valley was held in Beijing on the last night of our leg there. Again, the hotel went all out for us. The table spread was gorgeous and the food was amazing. Everyone had a great time (except for poor Mike Su who got whisked away in the middle of it to quarantine no thanks to someone who sat behind him on the flight over.) Aside from that, it was a successful Startup2Startup Dinner and the Westin Chaoyang Beijing really went with the flow of the format that Dave’s dinners are known for.
GeekyChic After Party hosted by The Red Connect. Following the Startup2Startup Beijing dinner, the group met up with after party guests at a bar lounge called Touch. It’s located on the 2nd floor of the hotel and you can almost miss it and walk right by if the doors are closed. Who knew there was such an awesome space hidden in there. Jenny Bai of The Red Connect worked with the hotel to come up with custom drinks for the party in addition to some interesting geeky dancers in white spandex! Only in China? :)
So…you jealous yet? Don’t be. If you’ve got a stay coming up in Beijing, just drop Sean J. Kelley a tweet and tell him Christine Lu sent you. Seriously. I know I am gushing all over this hotel, but our stay here was that awesome. Disclaimer! Surprise. I’m not a journalist. I blatantly admit bias and giving a public thanks to two friends of mine who really helped us pull this trip together by making our stay in Beijing awesome. When doing business in China, it helps to know people. Then again, isn’t that how everything works in China?