I'm just back from a five day stay at the IC Puxi, and had also stayed here in December. I am Ambassador Platinum, and on my last visit had booked a club room. Previously I had a non club room booking.
Building
The hotel is a new build, and there was no expense spared in the fit-out, with marble everywhere. The common areas are very well appointed, really elegant and luxurious. One excellent thing is that the hotel fittings have a real Chinese feel – you know you are in China. Many five star hotels miss this completely, going for a global feel, rather than a local feel.
Rooms
The rooms are very comfortable. On both stays I was upgraded, once into a corner deluxe room, and once into a suite. The decor is modern, stylishly comfortable and practical. In particular, the suite was well designed and I used all parts of the room. One could live there for a month except for the tiny wardrobe and general lack of storage.
The bathroom was impressive, circular bath, separate wet-room shower, and separate electronic toilet. Bizarrely the tiny wardrobe is in the bathroom. Two design oversights - There are no hooks or rails to hang things up in the bathroom, and the toilet roll holder is too small to hold toilet rolls!
In the suite, there are two massive plasma TV’s that turn on when you come into the rooms, (incorporating a DVD and ipod dock), a full size desk, great for working at, with a comfortable office chair. High speed(ish) internet is wired, with no wireless in the rooms (something that seems the norm in Chinese hotels). There are no hooks to hang your coat or bag in the room.
In the non suite room, there is one plasma TV, same large desk and chair. Unfortunately the DVD players in the rooms don't play European DVD’s - probably only Chinese region play, so useless for foreign guests.
Dining
Dining options are varied, but extremely expensive. The quality of the food doesn’t match the price (up to 1,000 Yuan for 2 including beers) and the restaurants are very quiet, resulting in no atmosphere. I have eaten in the Chinese and Japanese restaurants, where the food is good, but you are almost the only guest. The main restaurant’s food isn’t good enough for a five star hotel. Breakfast in the main hotel is the usual bland flavours- nothing memorable.
Room service is slow, but of good standard – the club sandwich particularly good.
In one of my business meetings outside of the hotel, when I was asked where I was staying – the response from my client was – “great hotel and we recommend that guests stay there, but the food is really expensive, and not very good”. Perhaps the hotel has to get its dining act together or be tainted with this mantra forever.
Club Lounge
Not only does the hotel have a club lounge, but a club building – a mini hotel in its own regard, which is well worth the additional price. Staff here are excellent, remember your name and your requirements. The food and drinks in the two floor lounge are of good quality and are well presented. Evening drinks are free flow, with a good range of snacks. There is a small meeting room which can be hired, but there are plenty of quiet areas for meetings.
Concierge
Very poor. The concierge only seems to be interested in selling you overpriced tours, and not answering the questions you ask – a request for a train ticket results in a 10 minute ‘too late to book train – how about a tour?... out come the brochures, followed by ‘how about taking a car and driver for the day?’ and finally when pressed admitting that the very train ticket that was too late to be booked is available after all.
This type of thing happened twice on a five day stay. So much for the Intercontinental ‘this is my city’ insight they promote so much. This pushy unpleasant approach is what I would expect from a three star hotel, not five star. By contrast, the advice from the staff in the club area was unbiased, helpful and not self-serving.
Location
The immediate surroundings of the hotel leave a lot to be desired. Right behind the hotel (Club rooms) is a block of housing that can be best described as approaching slum conditions. This will probably be knocked in about three months for another round of building, as most other blocks immediately around the hotel are already knocked. The area around the station isn’t the most upmarket in the city, but is safe to walk around, as long as street hawkers don’t annoy you too much.
The hotel is well located however, with Shanghai central train station a 5 minute walk from the hotel, and central Shanghai is a 5 minute taxi drive away. Wherever you stay in Shanghai you have to take a taxi to your destination anyway, so this hotel is no less badly positioned than any other supposedly ‘central’ hotel. Just don’t stay here if all your business is in Pudong, or if it’s just a PVG airport overnighter. However it could be handy-ish for SHA airport.
Summary
Perfectly appointed, well located hotel with world-class Club facilities. Let down by expensive, soul-less dining and a concierge more interested in commission than providing you with insight into the city. I will probably stay here again, but eat out, and ignore the concierge.
Rating 4/5.