Originally Posted by
jehflyer
Stayed at Raffles about a year ago.
Lobby is tops and that was about it.
Room unexceptional, service ok no more and executive lounge terrible.
I am probably in the minority here but have always liked the China World.
I know, it is a huge hotel but Shangri La maintains exceptional standards for service, restaurants and exec lounge
So sounds like Raffles is a no go =P
China World and Shangri La ...
I haven't stayed at China World. I've been to the hotel a lot because the shopping center underground and to go ice skating with friends. The concierge there spoke less than ok English when I was asking for a Thatsbeijing magazine.
Shangri La - Definitely awesome. I guess I didn't really think to put Shangri La in the same category. In my opinion, Shangri La is like an S class Benz or a 7 series BMW. By all standards, definitely super super nice - but its not really luxury. I never realy thought to compare Shangri-La to luxury hotels but of the top hotel chains, I'd say Shangri-La is all around solid and probably the strongest out of the non-luxury chains - better than hilton/marriott/starwood. I've never been to bad or even just a "good" Shangri-La. All of them are excellent.
I've been to bad and awful hiltons, marriotts and starwoods.
Last thing, the Shangri-LA I'm referencing is Haidian - not really a wonderful location ...
I think what really differentiated the difference was service/quality/hotness of staff.
At Hilton / Hyatt Beijing etc - you get a LOT of staff. It's like they will zerg you in order to meet your needs. I loved it. Getting 10 people at your side is awesome, but most of them speak less than perfect English with the occassional Chinese American working there too who I typically go to, but again, QUALITY is lacking, but they sorta make up for it in quantity. It's very nice at a restaurant to have 3 people waiting on each person in your party.
I feel that Shangri-La - you won't really find any Chinese Americans working at the hotel at all. Just local Chinese folks with a lot of students that are ex Beijing Foreign Studies University who speak very proficient English, but wouldn't understand Eminem.
At the Pen / Ritz / JW - you find Chinese Americans that speak English and Mandarin that are interested in a career in hospitality and understanding the tastes of western cultures.
I personally think that the service at Pen / Ritz / JW is comparable to the service you'll get at the Conrad / W in Hong Kong. HK service > BJ service. Everyone speaks very good English, they know foreign cultures and can get you reservations pretty much anywhere you want.