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Park Hyatt Shanghai Is Serious About Its Service and Its Toilet Lids

Where: 100 Century Avenue, Shanghai, China, 200120

Allegedly the highest hotel in the world, the Park Hyatt Shanghai (which takes up the 79th to 93rd floors of the Shanghai World Financial Center) isn't just amazing for its high views and dizzying heights. It's also one of those hotels that's found all kinds of small and not-so-small ways to make it stand out from the crowd.

For one, the service is intense. And we mean intense in a good way — as in, there's a lot of it. Every floor has a 24-hour housekeeper and they'll greet you when you arrive, help you unpack and get your first cup of Chinese tea brewing. Apparently there are 750 employees for the hotels 174 rooms. Yep — quite the ratio.

According to a recent review by Toronto's Globe and Mail, the Park Hyatt Shanghai is also good at including technology and gadgets that are actually useful and not impossible to use. There's free WiFi (just as there should be), cordless phones, a DVD player and heated flooring in the bathroom. But there's one piece of technology that the reviewer thought was going too far, and in fact got listed as the only negative of their whole hotel experience:

A toilet lid that lifts of its own accord may be more service than is needed.

More than we need? Actually, we're thinking that could be a great way to avoid leaning over and lifting up the toilet lid, although we're wondering what kind of command we have to use so that it does actually lift. We love technology for lazy people.

[Photo: LitteMay]

Tags: Santa Monica Hotels / Green Hotels / Hotel Delays / Eco-Hotels / Hotel Amenities / Hotel Renovations / Hotel Openings / Hotel Toilets / → All Tags

The Shangri-La Might Be Actually Green, Not Just Gimmick Green

Where: 1301 Ocean Avenue [map], Santa Monica, CA, United States, 90401

It's hip to be green. And when something is hip, marketers jump all over it promising that everything they do is green. Usually they're not lying, but they are creatively explaining their budget cuts. Green gimmicks like one-page menus instead of four, or no more bottled water, are examples of hotels cutting costs rather than actively helping the environment.

We can't help but frown on this sort of behavior, so we're super excited that the newly renovated Hotel Shangri-La is bragging greenness with actual green evidence:

· dual flush toilets
· amenities are all natural and come in bio-degradable packaging
· bottled water is in glass bottles which will be sanitized and re-used
· men's restrooms will have waterless urinals (don't worry, they still get cleaned, just differently)
· restaurant food will be from local vedors and purveyors
· wine list will feature AMerican wines to help lower carbon impact
· pool will be solar heated (which might be code for unheated, we're not sure)

In addition to the above, they have all the standard green stuff: newspapers will only be delivered by request, sheets will only be washed by request, windows are double layered to prevent loss of heat/air, non-toxic, organic cleaning products will be used, all paper is recycled, and other easy green moves.

We're hoping for a mid-November opening, but don't have a confirmed date yet. It looks like they have a pretty good reason for that delayed opening.

Tags: Hotel Toilets / Green Hotels / Starwood Hotels / → All Tags

Starwood Exec Perpetuates Fear of Dual-Flush Toilets in Hotels

If you've ever been to Europe, you've seen the toilets that have two buttons for flushing: one for a 0.8-gallon flush for liquid waste and another for a 1.6-gallon release of water for--ahem--solids.

A recent New York Times article, "Will Americans Accept Greener Hotel Rooms?" asks why so few American hotels have adopted the dual-flush toilet when such water-salvaging and more eco-friendly loos are standard in hotel rooms around much of the world.

Poor Brian McGuinness, a vice president with Starwood Hotels and Resorts who is responsible for Starwood's eco-friendly Element brand, bears the burden of answering this question on behalf of the American public: Because consumers expressed concern that the dual-flush toilets would not work, the Times quotes him as saying.

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Tags: Hotel Technology / Four Seasons Hotels / Peninsula Hotels / Park Hyatt Hotels / Hotel Bathrooms / Hotel Toilets / → All Tags

Mood Lighting or Hi-Tech Toilets: What Kind of Hotel Geek Are You?

On a day when every hotel you're looking at booking starts to sound the same, a bit of out-there technology can help you make your mind up. Travel + Leisure Australia recently put together a list of their favorite hotel gadgets and gizmos, and there are a few hotels on their list that we would book just to check out their new technology.

They've got the Peninsula Tokyo on their list, not just for the nail dryer and ultra-portable phone but also for the three mood lighting settings; speaking of lighting, the Tarraleah Lodge in Tasmania has "chromatherapy" lighting in the bathtub so the water will glow the color of your mood.

There's more than just cool lighting to be had, though: the T+L story mentions Tokyo's Four Seasons at Marunouchi because of its hi-tech warm toilet seats with multiple spraying functions to take the place of toilet paper, for example. There's also the Park Hyatt Seoul in South Korea which has gadgety non-fog mirrors inside their rain showers. Yes, we admit it: we're hotel geeks who would choose a hotel just for the non-fog mirror. Sorry.

[Photo: Tarraleah Media]