Here I sit, at 3:30am in Shanghai, sipping ginger ale and trying to deal with my jet lag. Seems like an opportune time to pass along some notes regarding the hotel I’m currently staying at, the newly opened Renaissance Yuyuan Garden.
First, some background. I’ve been a frequent visitor to Shanghai over the last year. This is my second stay at Renaissance Yuyuan (“RY” for brevity). I’ve also had two stays at the JW Marriott Tomorrow Square (“JW”) and three at the Shangri-La Pudong (“SL”). My stays are typically from 7 to 11 nights. I fight a huge case of jet lag every time, and I make use of onsite food and entertainment frequently. Probably my top three keys to a good stay are: Room cleanliness and quietness; Staff service level; and Quality lounges and restaurants. Location and price come after these in my judgements of where to stay.
RY is located in the Pu Xi district, close to Yuyuan Garden and the Bund. I work on the Pudong side of the river. The commute by taxi is reasonably easy for me, easier than from the JW to Pudong. The SL is on the Pudong side of the river so obviously for work that locations suits me best. However, for the nightlife, the RY is within walking distance of both the Xintiandi district and the Bund, which have my favorite restaurants and nightspots. I prefer these to the Nanjing Road area of the JW and the Pudong area of the SL for evenings.
The RY is a new hotel, and the facilities are correspondingly very clean and modern. The 17th-floor lounge is very nice, with quality meeting rooms and a reasonable drink and snack selection. It’s open 7 days a week and accessible to qualified guests 24 hours, although it’s not staffed during the overnight hours. The on-site restaurants are fine, although they do not measure up to the selection and quality at the JW or SL (but that’s a very high standard).
Internet connectivity at the RY is mixed. The public areas are wireless, and streaming content throughput is very fast. However, interactive web browsing and email retrieval has been very slow for me. In-room, wired connections are available, which have a similar performance profile, although both streaming and interactive content are served slower than in the public areas.
The rooms are very comfortable and quiet, with the high-quality beds I expect in a new Renaissance. The only in-room issue I’ve had is around the A/C performance, as it has been…spotty. A call to the staff rectifies it for a while, but I’ve had to make the call three times over two visits. The decorating choices in the rooms are, how should I say, interesting. Electric Blue carpet and a glass-walled bathroom with blinds. Hmmm. It is unique and for me doesn’t detract from the stay.
The JW has pretty much every hotel I have ever stayed at beat in terms of exercise facility, and its pool is very nice by Shanghai standards. The RY has a decent exercise facility and the pool is mediocre. Similarly, both the JW and SL have outstanding on-site spas, which are not matched IMO at the RY.
Service has been excellent, on a par with the JW, although both fall short of the SL in my opinion. I have had no issues whatsoever with the RY’s quality of service, the SL just seems to have more people falling over themselves to help guests.
The RY’s main selling point against the JW is price. At my rates and at this time, the RY rates are consistently between a third and a half of the JW’s rates, which is a huge difference. The SL rates usually fit in somewhere between the JW and the SL, although it kills me to stay there since I’m a points hog.
Some hints:
--If you’re not a Mandarin speaker (which I am not), by all means PRINT THE MANDARIN CHARACTER HOTEL NAME AND ADDRESS and take it with you on your flight. I have still not had a single cabdriver who can find the RY without it, either from PVG or from Pudong. Even the hotel doormen at the Hyatt/Shangrila/JW aren’t yet familiar with it, and I have heard stories of doormen sending the cabdrivers to the wrong place.
--If you’re Plat, I would recommend requesting a 17th floor room. The lounge is right down the hall, and is very handy for water, snacks, Tsing Tao, etc, at any hour.
--Bring a wireless router if you don’t like being tethered to your desk in the room for internet connectivity.
Overall, would rate this hotel somewhere around 7/10, with the JW being 9/10 and SL 8/10. But don’t take that wrong, I still have very few issues staying here and would gladly return again…as long as the JW rates are double or triple the RY. ^
Hope this helps, feel free to post other questions if you have them.