rhu171

I haven't been in a suite, but the XL room I was in back in August looked and felt like a suite. I'd save the upgrade cert if I were you.

sard

Will be going to Shanghai for a few days and wanted to check out a Hyatt.
Don't have that many points, so will only stay for 1 night.

Was going to stay at the Park Hyatt, But saw this picture (from this thread):
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FKmP75T9Dg...hanghai+16.JPG

Wow, I love the look of that room.

couple of questions I did not see addressed here (or I missed it)
1. Is there a lounge for diamonds members?
2. if no lounge, whats the breakfast like in the restaurant?
3. as a diamond, can both me and a guest eat breakfast in the lounge
4. how likely is it that I will be able to get a room that looks like that?

Thanks

rhu171

1. There isn't a club lounge, but you're free to hang out in the lobby lounge. There are all-day free soft drinks/water/tea/coffee along with cookies, chinese breakfast buns during breakfast hours, and free wines between 5-7 pm.

2. The buffet breakfast is served at the Hai Pai restaurant, which has 2 separate buffets, Western and Chinese. You can take from both although the restaurant layout made it inconvenient to do so. The Chinese options are pretty good including Shanghainese dumplings, fried rice, fried noodles, made-to-order congee and noodle soups.

3. As long as your guest is registered with the hotel that should be fine.

4. The room in the picture is an XL room. AFAIK, this is the standard upgrade for Diamonds. I did get the XL room as a Diamond, even though I only paid for the cheapest prepaid rate on Hyatt.com.

sard

Thank you for the information.

Fly Me To The Moon

...as long as the hotel has availability. I was at the hotel during Shanghai Fashion Week, and the place was booked solid. As a Diamond, I was upgraded only to the Large room (although it was a corner room, so still felt quite roomy with windows on two walls).

Fly Me To The Moon

I used one of my Diamond Upgrade Certificates to upgrade my booking to an Andaz Suite (Diamonds are usually upgraded to the XL room, if available).

I can say that the Suite is definitely not worth the upgrade. In fact, I much prefer the XL room layout over the suite. Several points worth noting:

1. The XL room is actually bigger than the Suite (Hyatt's website indicated 87 sq. m vs. 80 sq. m). The XL room's layout also seems much roomier.
2. The "living room" of the Suite is just a long desk along the window, with one work chair. There is no other furniture in the room. There is a flat-screen TV on one wall, but I really do not see the point of this, if no one else can sit comfortably in the room to watch it, other than the person occupying the work chair.
3. There is a workout machine in the corner of the room, behind the bed.
4. The toilet is in a separate room, but this room is accessed from the bedroom and not the bathroom. Very inconvenient.
5. There is a tiny walk-in closet, accessed from the bathroom. I would say that this closet is only about 25% the size of the one found in the XL room.

My pet peeve about the XL rooms has been the lack of furniture. For example, there is more than enough space in the XL room to put a round table and a few chairs. Or, some chairs where two or more people can sit together and have a chat. In the Suite, this lack of furniture is even more noticeable. What is the point of a living room with only one work chair? How is it possible for a couple to sit together, or entertain one more guest? I have found this very annoying.

I have posted some photos of the Andaz Suite on Flickr. See here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9312877...74513545/show/

mrja08

Reporting back. Took rhu171's advice and didn't use a cert. Got diamond upgrade to the XL room, which was spacious, but definitely noticed some upkeep issues with housekeeping, as there was some dust/smudges in places, like on the paneling in the work area of the room. (i don't know if I'm being nit-picky or if it's because I arrived from Tokyo after a stay at the PHT, which is impeccably maintained) The panels to control the lighting were kind of confusing.

I would probably not return, even though i do like the location, mostly due to service issues I had. I often stay at the Andaz WS in NYC, so i'm familiar with the brand, and thought I'd try it out since it was new.

1. No porter/bellman outside, which wouldn't normally be an issue, but I had a decent amount of luggage as I was traveling through Asia for 2 weeks. (This is also something I've seen at WS location)
2. While I was seated in the lobby lounge waiting for a friend, I was offered a menu for the bar and declined. Then i was told that the area i was sitting in was reserved and would have to move..... (Can some explain how are seats in a hotel lobby are reserved? That's definitely a first for me, ANYWHERE. I'm sorry i was generating revenue for the 10 minutes that i ended up waiting for my friend)
3. Had afternoon tea at the restaurant and encountered some really rude waitstaff that flat out ignored my friend and I for really no reason whatsoever.

On the plus side, breakfast was decent.

johnep1

I checked into this hotel today. So far it's as expected - nice location (if you need / want to be near Xintiandi), diamond upgrade to XL room (great view, huge bathroom, nice office area with desk/chair), fast internet (huge for me as I need to make quite a few calls with my computer).

I'm not sure why the internet at all business hotels in Shanghai isn't as good as it is at the Andaz. I was at the Four Seasons Shanghai over the weekend and the normal internet was terrible. There was upgraded internet for ~100 RMB / day, and I didn't try that, but their normal internet was not even suitable for general web use or internet calls.

Back to the Andaz. I have two issues:

1) I can't figure out how to make the bathtub rotate colors automatically. I can only change it from red to green to blue manually, though there are two "positions" that have red, so one of those might be the rotating one. But I've left both reds on for a bit and didn't see any rotation. This is big.

2) The turndown service appears quite wasteful. I used a bar of soap once and they (presumably) tossed it and put a new one in its place.

Oh, and the welcome gift was a bowl of fruit, very nice looking box of chocolates, and a rice cake (with a note saying happy new year). What I can't figure out is that the note says the cake needs to be steamed or fried - and I'm in a hotel room with no steaming / flying capabilities. I won't be back home for a few weeks - do these things spoil quickly, or can it go 2 weeks in my suitcase?

abraxis

Am thinking of staying here during my next visit.

Most of the thread details how Diamonds are treated (well). How about if you're just a lowly mid tier Gold member?

lcpteck

You mean Platinum?

Tiers
Gold
Platinum
Diamond

abraxis

Oops, I meant Platinum. Tis' very late here and am typing under the influence of insomnia.

RTWSTARALLIANCE

Hello. Can someone please comment on most reasonable transportation from PVG to Andaz? Appreciate. Also. Can someone provide the Chinese writing for the Andaz along with address? Thank you. Any and all additional information appreciated.

mrja08

Taxi. Takes about 40 min if i remember correctly, and about 160-180 RMB. Outside of int'l arrivals in Terminal 2, there was a Hyatt desk that had an attendant and he gave me a card that had the address for the hotel in Chinese for the driver. (This was on a Sat. Afternoon)

RTWSTARALLIANCE

Thank you. If anyone has the card would be appreciated. Image please.

TRAVELSIG

Visit this website and click on the button "Taxi Directions"

http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/events/121152/