Originally Posted by
moondog
1. It is possible to book a specific hotel before you leave your home country, assuming you or your employer are well connected; MNCs like Apple and SOEs have an advantage in this area
2. Failing that, when you arrive in Shanghai, you have the opportunity to pick a district (but, almost certainly not a specific property) from the ~9 on offer. The people at individual district desks ask for an address, which you may or may not need to prove (e.g. lease, piece of mail, temp residence form, business card, invitation letter, etc)
3. If you're final destination is outside of Shanghai and you tell them this, you're probably stuck with luck of the draw, BUT if your company has an office in Shanghai, and you like the area (you can't leave your room so location doesn't matter too much, but maybe there are good food delivery options), it doesn't hurt to say that you'd prefer to stay nearby
4. It is okay (and common) to change your post-quarantine plan during those 2 weeks; you just need to advise the hotel on day 13 where you are going next
Apologies; it wasn't 100% clear from your previous posts that lying & cheating was required to get a choice of hotel.
I understand now.
Added:
This is an open forum, followed by many, many people.
If someone asks a simple and general question: "Can you choose your quarantine hotel in Shanghai?",
the answer should reflect whether this is generally allowed and possible, and clearly spell out that if a 'loophole' exists that could be exploited, that this is done by bending the rules.
Here the answer is clearly:
----->
No, you can not choose your quarantine hotel in Shanghai, unless:
1) your final destination is in specific districts within Shanghai that allow choice of hotel (very, very few did, not sure if they still do), or
2) have significant connections, or
3) you lie and cheat about your final destination, in which case you can POTENTIALLY choose a specific district with better quarantine hotels