Experience in booking rooms when traveling to China by yourself

When coming to China, you can take advantage of many services and effective support from the host if you know how to exploit the convenience of booking a room.

As a country with strong tourism development, China offers tourists a variety of accommodation services, including services suitable for independent travelers. The following experiences will help you get a good place to stay at a reasonable price, with convenient transportation.

An apartment complex in Beijing. Photo: Trinh Hang

Apartment for rent

Renting an apartment in a high-rise apartment building, not living with the owner, is quite popular. Large groups of tourists can rent an entire apartment, but if they are traveling in small groups and want to save money, they can rent a room in a multi-bedroom apartment. These apartments are usually fully equipped with furniture and household appliances such as a stove, rice cooker, refrigerator, washing machine, iron, free wifi and private toilet. Tourists can cook, do laundry and live comfortably like at home. The downside is that most apartment owners do not provide regular hotel services such as daily housekeeping, breakfast, and laundry service.

If you want to enjoy full services, you should rent a hotel room. But with the same price, your usable area will be much smaller than renting an apartment and the location is further from the center.

Room for rent near center

Most cities in China are very large, the famous historical sites and scenic spots are very large, tourists can spend a whole day and still not see all of them. Therefore, you should save time and energy by renting a room near the urban center or the tourist attractions you want to visit. The price may be more expensive, but the transportation is much more convenient, you do not need to transfer too many train lines and walk for hours before reaching the tourist attractions.

Depending on the quality of the room, the price is very diverse, with significant differences between large cities and small localities. In Beijing and Shanghai, the common rental price is over 1 million VND, in some other provinces and cities, the price can be only 300,000-400,000 VND per room per night.

Inside a rental apartment in central Shanghai. Photo: Trinh Hang

Contact the landlord in advance

If you don’t know Chinese and are not familiar with the roads, finding your way and asking for directions will be a bit difficult. Therefore, as soon as you book a room, take the initiative to contact the host (via email, Wechat, or text via the booking app). You can ask the host for essential information such as the nearest metro station, bus stop, the shortest route from the airport, train station to the apartment or hotel, and whether there is a convenience store or supermarket nearby.

Wechat is an indispensable application when you travel to China, so as soon as you arrive in this country, buy a SIM card and ask the seller to help you install Wechat. Then you can easily contact the host and hotel staff. Most of them are very professional, enthusiastic, and ready to support tourists quickly regardless of early morning or late night. They can send you all the information you need via Wechat: a list of attractions, shops, restaurants you should try, photos and locations of famous destinations, train routes to each place, ticket prices, and can even help you talk to locals in difficult situations. These are "value-added" services that you will rarely see from hosts in other countries.

Use the shuttle service

In China, with the development of public transportation, you can easily get from the airport, train station to your hotel or apartment by bus or metro. If it is too early or too late to take the metro or bus in the city, do not hesitate to ask your host about transportation. You cannot always call a taxi - you have to use a Chinese app and communicate with the driver. Many hosts are willing to provide a pick-up service for tourists at a reasonable cost, and you can feel more secure when getting in their car instead of catching a car on the street.

You should also discuss check-in and check-out times with your host in advance, if your arrival or departure falls outside their normal check-in and check-out times. Most will work with you to make your trip as smooth as possible, even if you want to check in at midnight, or leave your luggage there all day after checking out.

Prepare your own personal belongings

Most accommodations in China provide guests with a full range of personal items (toothbrush, shampoo, shower gel, shower cap, comb, etc.). However, they will appreciate it if you bring your own to reduce waste. Like in Europe, China has been promoting environmental issues for many years, and limiting the use of disposable items is also a way for you to contribute to a clean and green world .

When renting a room, you should also use electricity and water reasonably, because energy and resource issues are also emphasized in this country. Do not turn on the air conditioner at too low a temperature, both to save electricity and to protect your health. Whenever you leave the room, turn off electrical appliances. Be a happy and civilized tourist.

Apartments for rent are usually fully furnished. Photo: Trinh Hang

Choose the optimal booking app

When you go to other countries, Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda.com are popular booking apps. But when you go to China, you can hardly find any results when using Airbnb, and there are not many options on the other two apps. Most hotels and landlords post rooms for rent on the popular app in China, Trip.com. This app has a Vietnamese version, with Vietnamese staff ready to support you via chat and phone, even when you are in China.

Note that most hotels and hosts in China require guests to pay in advance of check-in, and allow free cancellation within a certain period of time.

Trinh Hang

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