I think HappyExPat mentioned it before, but sometimes hotels won't allow you because they don't have the paper and it is more work for them? You can go to the nearest police station to get some paper and bring it back so that they know you are staying there. I have never done it, so I don't know the details. I'm sure he can explain it better than I.

The Chinese will not let us stay in a lower class hotel or what they think we would call a dive.

They don't want us to think bad of them.

when we get to a big city somebody usually will approach us and offer a hotel

My wife will the negotiate a price and we will get a good room at a good price.

some times you can here their Boss tell them that we can't go to a particular hotel because of the white monkey however we get away with a lot because of my clever wife.

maybe you could go to a net bar and surf the net and book it on line

that way you know you will be welcome and get a good price.

plenty of travel sites to look at.

hope this helps

good luck

How about 50 RMB?

http://www.hostelbookers.com
http://www.hostelworld.com

be my guest

I've never had this problem, ever. The only stipulation is you have to show your passport. But to cut down on legwork of finding a place, do as manayst suggested and use hostelworld.com. I always book my trips around the country through them and have never had a problem. 

Hotels need special permit to take foreigners... They should have the system to scan your passport/visa/last entry and forward to Police Station.... Cheap hotels dont have this permit.. as they dont expect foreigners often...

Its also a point that hotels without any class/star are not safe.. and obviously chinese govt doesnt want a foreigner to be hurt/killed and create big news..

If you want cheap but reasonably safe place to stay.. i would recommend the chains like Home Inn, Super 8, Jingjiang Inn etc... they do accept foreigners.. (pls. dont forget to check with them over telephone that they accept foreigners.. some of them in remote locations doesnt have permit.. but mostly have)

you'd better book the hotel online before you come to China. and Youth Hotel is very cheap. blew 100RMB per night. I met lots of foreigners there. 

They don't want you to be able to squeeze any Chinese tits without paying High hotel price...

Thakkudu was correct they don't have the permit... Just Like all the crap apartments for around 1000 u can't rent it because the owners don't pay the taxes and the government wants foreigners to be in a clean environment like at least 4 stars I think . They say it's to prevent diseases in poor areas and other problems such as crime

try 7 days inn, it is around 200rmb per day, comfortable hotel, you can email me if you need my help...free for you

if you cant find any hotel you can try a cheap hotel  they will not ask you anything and you can get a room easily so if you dont wana scan your passport then you should better try cheap hotels

7 days inn, Comfort Inn are by far the cheapest and allow foreigners to stay

Half of the 7 days inns, Home inns in Beijing don't accept foreigners. I searched for a whole day on the internet. I must have called like at least 20 hotels.
Haidian, Chaoyang and Changping are the worst. Barely any place to stay.
Luckily Manasyt gave me some valuable information. The youth hostels around Tian an men are really cheap. I called some of them and the people there were really helpful.  Some reviews of some of the hostels were rather poor but I'm sure my friends can handle the conditions.
I really don't buy into that whole thing that the government wants foreigners to stay in safe places. They just need people to stay in all those 5 star hotels littered all over the major cities because unless they're extremely well off, Chinese people will never stay in a place for 300-600rmb a night.

No worries man, you can travel the world with those 2 websites, of course there are more...also Wikitravel. I can't say I'm a true backpacker or anything (I got a suitcase LOL), but I stay in hostels most of the time and its just fine...When I go to another country I like to stay at least 2 weeks and go to 6-7 different places...so that suits me. Malaysia is next!

We recommend to tourists traveling in China - sleep in the rental car. We traveled with rental car 60 days in China and slept in the car, when hotels don't welcome tourists! I must say: most hotels in China do not welcome tourists! We were traveling in China as foreigners nearly 60 days and our goal was to sleep in hotels. We drive during the day, as we like and search on the GPS a hotel with a good location. We asked in some cities at more then 10 hotels for available rooms, but we got treated like criminals. It's frustrating! We pay all hotels, we never destroy something, we are clean - but they don't want us!!! One night we already checked-in in a hotel, already slept, we had to leave the hotel at midnight, because they realized, they cannot take foreigners. But when we asked, we payed, we showed passport! We realized that hotels in China have this old-fashion ugly rules and we started to sleep in the rental car. In a SUV fold down back seats, use sleepy bag and it's fine. When there was hotel available for tourists, we stayed in hotels. But there are only a few. Most in the cities Centre and we do not want to waist our time stay in the traffic jam to get a hotel which does welcome tourists. For us it was not the matter of money. We like to stay in 5star hotels. When there was one like Hilton at Beijing Airport or Crown Plaza close to Panda Station in Chengdu we choosed those. But we totally don't want to waist time to search hotels which welcomes tourist, we don't want to waist time in the traffic to city centre where such hotels are and don't want to have another one which we have to leave in the mid of the night. There is no reason about safety as some peopel say, there is only regulations (old-fashion). There are cheap hotels they do not ask for passport, we do not want to stay there (most dirty rooms). How it comes there you can stay? We were happy with sleeping in the car and we could sleep at this nice spots at the lakes or nice landscapes, where plenty of good hotel rooms were available - but only for Chinese and not for tourists! A shame for China! We saved a lot of money, we wanted to spend in China....

If it's a biracial couple they don't want because their resident hookers won't get any business.

Maybe this post was relevant 3-4 years ago but go to booking.com and pick any random city in China and you can find hotels to book at normal prices. I'm looking at a smaller city in Anhui and I see rooms I can book online for $20 US...130 RMB/night.

I would be very surprised if Erin_B up there was too incompetent to figure that out but somehow was organized enough to rent a car and travel around.

I completely understand what you're going through and it's very frustrating. I dealt with it in Shijiazhuang and in Jinan when I was on vacation.

The first time I stayed in a hotel in China was when I went to Shijiazhuang and before I arrived I never realized this rule existed, and neither did my Chinese friend.I went to several hotels in the area and all of them refused me.

The only ones that accepted foreigners were all of the expensive international hotels, and on a teacher's salary 600+rmb a night is really too much.

Finally, I found a 7 days inn, which accepted me for around 250rmb a night.

I came to the conclusion that all 7 days inn ought to accept foreigners in China, because it's an American hotel chain. So, when I went second trip to Jinan and went straight to the 7 days inn and they said no way.

I spent the next few hours running around the city looking for a hotel that would accept me. I found one eventually, but at the cost of a lot of time.

In the future I will do all of my hotel booking online.

Go for super 8 hotel ,you can book a room from their website