The New Beachhutman Blog

So, we have about 50 managers in Beijing for a training course, and they are at the Rosedale hotel. Rosedale is one of those hotels that really don't understand, they have just not got it at all. The training rooms are excessively "elegant", all desk sets and decanters of cordial, cello wrapped mints and little cakes. But most of the  rooms have dreadful chairs, silly covered tables, and no natural light.

The hotel charges a  FORTUNE for the services, markets to multi national companies, yet do not employ enough english speaking staff or even give them language training. Given that very few overseas visitors will speak Chinese, most will rely on English. An hotel punting for international business MUST train staff in English.

The lunch is a disgrace. It is not Chinese, not Western, not Indonesian, nor American. It is bland, pointless, and expensive. Lunch costs 180 RMB per head, for which the restaurant around the corner would have given eight people a feast.

And the bar.  On the first night they were clearly unable to manage the concept that 30 foreigners coming into the bar might need more than 30 small bottles of beer, and flew into a total panic. The first round took 20 minutes to deliver. The guys could have walked the distance to the "Metro bar" up the road in less time, and paid less than half price for the beer. Much less.

The hotel, like all "posh" hotels here, has a "Chinese" restaurant. Tihs is a place that serves food that is nothing like Chinese, for prices that you could buy a small car for. It is hideously overstaffed, and the  menu weighs in at two kilos, as it is printed like a wallpaper sample book.

You will gather BHM is not happy after 12 hours of day one. I expect your heart to bleed, get on with it.