Has anyone stayed at The Waterhouse at South Bund in Shanghai? I am going there on a business trip, and would like to look for a place to stay. I did some quick research and found The Waterhouse's price to be reasonable and the location isn't awfully far from work (World Financial Center). First I thought about Hyatt on the Bund, but I didn't want to shock the company with a big bill (first time in Shanghai for me on the company's behalf, I have been there many times before for personal travels). I'd love to stay at the Park Hyatt, and just take the elevator down to work, but maybe that'll have to wait until I'm in the C-suite. I'm looking for something that will hopefully be under $250/night, and not too flashy. It doesn't matter if a presidential suite cost under $200, I'm not going to book it because I'm not going print out a receipt that says I stayed in a presidential suite. You know, company politics reasons. My hotel statuses to the left.

Recommendations welcome!

First, if you stay in any suite, this is not noted on a hotel receipt, it only shows your room number. Second, there are many, many great options for under $250 night. I would suggest using www.tripadvisor.com and sorting on Shanghai hotels. You can then vet the ranking of the hotels (and approx. prices) against your specific loyalty programs.

There are a bunch of hotels on the Pudong side in addition to the PH, including several SPGs, IIRC Sheraton Suites and the former StRegis which is now a LC (Hongta Hotel). Close to the PH building is a Courtyard by Marriott and some mid-level Asian chains. However, much of the leisure things to do are on the other side of the river.

You can sometimes get rates at Starwoods in Shanghai that aren't a lot over US$100 per night depending on dates and $150-200 is pretty easy to find on spg.com, although if you want the $250 limit to cover everything, don't forget about taxes and service charges that aren't included in the room rate.

Unless you are really craving stay credits or find an awesome deal at a top tier property there is no point staying in pudong imo.

Just did a random search for HOTB 2 weeks from today (8/14) and is only $143. And the GH is 208, PH 248. I think any of them will be within your budget of $250.

I want to be close to the World Financial Center for work.

I was not aware that the prices of those Hyatts fluctuate so much. I was looking to book for 2015, maybe that's why it is so expensive. What's the optimal time to book hotels?

Note that some/many of the western chain hotels often offer deals like buy two nights, get one free. IME to find these rates, you need to just experiment with the codes your chain uses for such offers. They tend NOT to appear in the online booking engine, even when you check the box for promos and offers, nor are they listed in the hotel's website under "offers." Sometimes AmEx PTS/CTS has these rates, often as a FHR rate, but sometimes agents find them as AmEx corporate or select rates. YMMV.