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Did We Get Hotel Shanghaied? Part II

Where: Maojiayuan Road No. 1-3, Zhonghan Road South, Shanghai, China, 200011

We stayed in two different rooms at The Waterhouse at South Bund , Room 15 and Room 31. We had a completely different experience in each room, thus we are doing two reviews for this hotel stay.

The Sequel
After a night in Room 15, while we appreciated the great service and the post modern design of Waterhouse, we were ready for a change. We approached the front desk with an open mind, and told the fine folks behind it that Room 15 was incredibly noisy last night -- was there another open room perhaps?

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Shanghai Hotel Reviews / HotelChatter Reviews / Design Hotels / → All Tags

Did We Get Hotel Shanghaied?

Where: Maojiayuan Road No. 1-3, Zhonghan Road South, Shanghai, China, 200011

We stayed in two different rooms at The Waterhouse at South Bund , Room 15 and Room 31. We had a completely different experience in each room, thus we are doing two reviews for this hotel stay.

Preface
It is fairly important that you understand the state of mind of your reviewer before you read this review. We had travelled a fairly significant distance to get to Shanghai, granted over multiple days, however, once we arrived we immediately went into a meeting, then to dinner, then after that to the hotel to check-in. Why is this important? Because, our state of mind was this: get online get caught up on email then get to bed.

Two problems with the above state of mind. First, China bans many popular, and in our case compulsory sites: Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube -- all totally or somewhat inaccessible. Yes we know you can buy a VPN and get around the bans -- not something we wanted to figure out that night. Second issue, our room was "street facing" which meant it had both river and street noise -- and there in lies the biggest issue weighing on our minds that evening.

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Shanghai Grand Mercure Going Chinese Five-Star

Where: 180 Yixian Road , Shanghai, China, 200434

Over in Shanghai (home of the spit sack), fancy hotels are getting fancier. Formerly known as the Baolong Hotel, Shanghai, an ongoing renovation and a recent takeover means that the now-named Grand Mercure Baolong Hotel Shanghai is about to receive a five-star rating from the China National Tourism Association.

Launched as a Grand Mercure as recently as Jaunary 26, the two-phase renovation (much needed, according to some reviewers) is due to take another 12 months, so it should be fully five-star in time for the tourism rush of the Beijing Olympics. There'll be a new rooftop swimming pool, new gym and (something they seem quite proud of) a ballroom that has no columns.

With a location near Duolun Road, you can shop for antiques and handicrafts when you get sick of swimming or dancing in the column-free ballroom. It's not central Shanghai, but in an historic area instead; so beware if you think you'll be staying centrally. And it's probably bes to wait until it really turns 5-star.

[Photo: at_polarbear]

Related Stories:
· Shanghai Baolong Hotel reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Launch of the Spit Sack [Jaunted]

Hotel Awards / Shanghai Hotel Reviews / Hilton Hotels / → All Tags

Hilton Shanghai Gets "Most Trusted" Award

Where: No. 250 Hua Shan Road,, Shanghai, China, 200040

We haven't revealed our Best and Worst Hotel Awards of 2006 yet, (that comes next week) but already hotels are snapping up awards here and there.

The Hilton Shanghai was recently voted "Most Trusted Hotel in China" by the Reader's Digest Trusted Brands Awards 2006. Here's some PR gibberish:

One of the first five-star international hotels to operate in China, Hilton Shanghai belongs to a lineage of fine hotels with over 150,000 team members in 80 countries worldwide.  Experience has taught Hilton what matters to the traveler is a variety of great facilities and services....Judges recognized Hilton Shanghai for having the guest at the heart of its business and deploying and managing its resources to effectively meet the needs of its customer base.

Voters for this had to choose hotels that had the highest marks in six categories:  quality, value, innovation, trustworthiness, credible image and understanding customer needs.  However, we're guessing that hotel technology doesn't play at all into this award as the Hilton Shanghai had poor WiFi service back in 2004. We're hoping they have fixed this and the coffee since then.

[Photo: Imdk328]

Shanghai Hotel Reviews / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags

JW Marriott Shanghai in Tomorrow Square

Where: 399 Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, China, 200003

If you're not afraid of heights or being surrounded by buildings that resemble Tomorrowland, then settle in at the JW Marriott Shanghai.

The hotel is located within Tomorrow Square (aha, we understand why the buildings are space age-y) and is a futuristic 55-floor building that contains 342 hotel rooms (each with sky-high city views), 255 Marriott Executive Apartments and 20,000 square meters of commercial space.

Some of the hotel amenities include restaurants, a complimentary fitness center for guests and an indoor pool. However, the place promises some hi-tech room amenities but the only thing we saw out of the ordinary was a hydraulic shower.

Still, most of the guest reviews are pretty positive.

This hotel has that iconic look to it that can be seen fitting into any major metropolitian area. The rooms were spectacular with grand views of the entire city below. Our room had a separate sitting area/ office slightly seperated from the bed, which was beyond our expectations and perfect for sleeping off the jet lag from the trip to china. The bathroom was large and featured separate shower and bath, the shower featured a traditional shower head along with wall mounted spray's that was a nice touch. If you have a chance to access the "executive lounge" great breakfasts and pre dinner meals (the JW Burger is to die for), make if difficult to pull yourself away to try the local fare.

Related Stories:
· JW Marriott Shanghai reviews [TripAdvisor]