Great idea for a thread. I'll just edit what I posted in the "Where are you going next" slightly.
Year round recap:
HIGHS
Amansara - excellent, if pricey. Great location, nice rooms (you pay a lot for them though!), but it's all about the service here. Food needs a huge amount of improvement.
Peninsula Shanghai - one of the finest city hotel experiences I've had; wonderful location (its the only new building on the Bund in 70 years or something), rooms are stunning, concierge and staff even better. However, it comes with all the trappings of a Peninsula (gawking/gaping tourists in the lobby for lunch/afternoon tea etc, full restaurant etc), and very surprisingly, the food (especially breakfast) was very much below par. Worst
xiao long bao I've ever had...the one thing I was most looking forward to in Shanghai!
Review for Shanghai coming shortly. Here's a video for now:
Amanjiwo - one of the best experiences, EVER. Right up there with Amankila and Amanpulo for me. Could improve on food consistency (had a chat with Shane about this) but there were some real food highlights at the same time
Photos, videos and reviews coming very soon.
MIDDLE
PuLi Shanghai - best way I can summarise this hotel is that it's Upper House-lite. Think the rooms are a bit dark, and didn't get to try much of the food (what little I did it was pretty poor - however, they were catering to a large event in town and I think the hotel's entire occupancy must have been made up of event/exhibition guests, myself included). It fails (perhaps a harsh word - but it doesn't quite hit the notes) where Upper House succeeds, but overall it has the same/similar sort of vibe, and a nice location too. Lovely pool/spa area though which I regrettably didn't get to use. Overall a decent hotel if the price is right (seen it at ~USD 200/night).
LOWS
Belmond Residence D'Angkor - some of the worst service I've ever experienced. The recent renovation has definitely made the rooms 'fresher' but extremely confused at the entry level rooms being called a 'suite' (even accounting for the loose interpretation of this term) when your options for lounging are "hard desk" or "bed"
More here: Amansara + Belmond La Residence D'Angkor + Siem Reap Site Visits
Hideaways Club @ Villa Layan in Phuket - the single worst experience I've had at a hotel/resort/villa for as long as I can remember. - I've stayed in hotels that have cost USD 30/night that have been better than this. Forget the service (which was absolutely dreadful), the villa was dirty. Essentially, it boils down to how good your appointed villa manager is - ours was, and I typically give the benefit of the doubt, completely, absolutely, and utterly useless. I know some people who are Hideaways Club members who swear by it, and I can see the appeal for large families/couples who regularly travel together in larger groups with their friends, but based on this villa alone I absolutely, vehemently cannot recommend this. Ignoring anything Hideaways Club related, the villa itself is a pretty standard (lower-level/mid-level) Phuket villa. Fairly large (4-bedroom), nice common spaces, huge pool (think ours was 20-25m in length). It's tucked inside a villa compound (of about 40 or so similar looking villas) that's on sea-level so there's no sea views and neither is it right by the beach (15-20 minute walk - I'm not sure if they had a buggy or car to drive you over but it was never mentioned to us so we never went).
SITE VISITS
Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor - very much a Raffles in every way; small but cozy rooms. The 2-bedroom suite by the pool is stunning. Lovely outdoor pool. Food for lunch (buffet) was some of the worst on the trip. Everyone felt extremely overdressed for Siem Reap.
Anantara Angkor - probably the best hotel food we had while in Siem Reap. Hotel itself is quite nice (bit of a retreat), only concern is the location which is not great at all.
Park Hyatt Siem Reap - bit of a 'standard' hotel. I'd like to have seen this under the . Rooms are nice, some of the restaurant/common grounds are nice too, but the pool is absolutely horrid.
Phum Baitang - the Siem Reap pick of the bunch. Beautiful villas in a beautiful setting. Vegetation needs time to grow. Location might not be ideal if every evening jaunts out to Siem Reap town.
Video of Siem Reap hotels here:
Waldorf Astoria Shanghai - classic hotel, beautiful location on the Bund, incredible lobby. Poorly maintained and extremely outdated rooms (without feeling 'classic'). Badly in need of a refresh.
Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai - see Waldorf Astoria Shanghai.
Trisara - stayed here previously of course. They've refurbished some of the entry level rooms, very nicely done.
Anantara Layan - only saw the villas here - absolutely magnificent (and huge!), however, unlike Amanpuri's or Andara's villas, they seem a little less 'homely' and definitely have a 'mini-resort' feel to them. Great views.
Andara - stayed here previously. Food at SILK (one of my favourite Thai restaurants in Phuket) was a little underwhelming compared to usual. There was extensive renovation work being done in September in time for the peak period.
Old hotel review: https://www.thesuitelife.com.hk/anda...-hotel-review/
Amanpuri - covered it previously in a previous site visit, but just as an update: they've added a few things like a South American restaurant-lounge (great idea), a DJ (not such a great idea), open kitchen at the beach club (nice), NAMA and the new Italian restaurant were not open/ready when I visited but the food at the Thai restaurant was super as always, as was the selection of afternoon tea.. Got a chance to check out the 8-bedroom ocean villa. PHWOAR!
Photos, 360 photos and walkthrough videos here: https://www.thesuitelife.com.hk/aman...-site-visit-2/
Upper House - not even sure if this counts as a 'site visit' anymore because it seems like I'm back there every other month to take some sort of photo with a new gadget I just got. One of my favourite city hotels ever (arguably the very best) despite it's shortcomings (fitness/spa facilities, food options but you're not exactly hamstrung here with it being above Pacific Place). I've done a video before - I also did some 360 photos there recently, let's see how they come out but that will be new/exciting stuff for people to check out
