@KuiXing: any idea what the law is about refusing foreign guests? I've had the experience of staying in a hotel in Jinghong that was not, apparently, registered to accept foreigners or whatever, but then they accepted me, I just had to go to a photocopy place and copy my passport details, etc. Have returned to this place many times, they remember and accept me now with no trouble. Room 60rmb.
However, I think different provinces may have different regulations about all this.

There used to be a law many years ago. There isn't anymore. If you've got a spare 30 minutes read this:

www.lostlaowai.com/[...]

If a hotel is legally registered to accept Chinese guests then it can also register foreign guests on the same system.

There ugh one thing I've come across with work booking hotels is some list Chinese only rooms for which they charge less. I've still had bookings in the same hotel but the room had been more expensive. Possibly related to tax/fapiao issues.

Even if they can, doesn't mean they will or bother. Many clerks at small places can't work the entry system for foreigner details. Sometimes you can ask to do what Alien did and get the psb involved. Most clerks aren't unwilling to call their psb if asked. But it might mean you then leaving the hotel and finding the psb on your own and then coming back. Also, cheap prices in ctrip or booking isn't always for a room, need to click through to see if it's not a bed in a dorm.

I was refused at several hotels within the last year or two. Doesn't matter what something you read says, many hotels off the beaten path do not accept foreigners. Many of them only have an RFID scanner which can scan Chinese national identity cards as the only way to register a guest.

There may be a new system which they don't know about/don't know how to use/don't care to upgrade to or maybe the newer regulations though may exist haven't actually been implemented in many places. I travel in China a lot and my Chinese is decent so I tend to look for more off the beaten path hotels that don't have any english signage or anything and regularly get turned away from some, even in Kunming in the last year. I also have a Chinese driver's license so sometimes they'll let me check in with that if they can. Not sure about the law regarding it but just know this is a reality that still exists. There are definitely situations where you can get away with it in a place that just can't be bothered, but most travelers will never end up trying to check into one of those hotels anyway. It's not that there is a regulation against foreigners staying anywhere, it's that the hotel has to have the licensing which allows for anyone including foreigners to stay at their hotel which is a bit of work that some hotels don't care to do and they may get into trouble if they are caught having foreigners stay there without doing the proper paperwork. At least that's how it's been since I've been here.

Having said all of that, most hotels in most places that travelers will encounter will have no problems registering anyone to stay. It's occasionally when you end up in some back alley somewhere and find a little hotel where everything is in Chinese and no foreigners are never anywhere in the area where you might end up being refused, definitely the exception, not the rule.

1. Even the RFID scanners have a manual entry backup.
2. Once you get to the manual entry - merely pad your passport number with leading zeroes (0's) so that your ID number is 18 digits long - the current length of currently issued Chinese IDs.

If a budget hotel does NOT accept you, there's a higher probability it's because it's a "love" hotel for hourly entertainers and they don't want you mucking up their business.

Thanks Kuixing, this is my understanding...

"t's not that there is a regulation against foreigners staying anywhere, it's that the hotel has to have the licensing which allows for anyone including foreigners to stay at their hotel which is a bit of work that some hotels don't care to do and they may get into trouble if they are caught having foreigners stay there without doing the proper paperwork"

@ Hotwater: I think you are correct. It has been my understanding is that hotels must report all foreigners resident, if any, daily. This has a bureaucratic cost that smaller places don't care to bother with.

Once, the issue seemed to be a need to copy passport pages and the hotel did not have a copier.

@ Geezer, know what you mean about lack of copier. Had one small guest house where they took photos of the relevant sections assport pages with their phone! But I've also had some places where they refused my passport and just took my wife's ID card ;-)

@KuiXing: There is no licensing to accept foreigners anymore.
Even private individuals can offer their sofas legally.
You just need register the foreigner at the PSB.

The problem is that the staff doesn't always know how to use the system in those small towns, as they probably never served a foreigner before.

I once also helped a hotel in southern Sichuan to get the registration done in their system, after reading the how-to on lost laowai. It's really not so complicated, but one has to learn it once in their life.