peter11

Well, I understand that the Jr. Suite does not have the Bund view, what about the higher category suites? I am not Plat member, (only Gold), so I am not counting on an upgrade and may just book the category that has the view I want.

The regular Bund view rooms are not on the club level. So since I do not have status, I can not use the club. That's why I am asking about the higher category suite.

Has anyone seen these rooms?

BonViveur

I'm sorry I don't have the answer to your question as my first stay at this property will be in 2 weeks, but my policy is that if I want to know something about a property, I call them or send them an email.

If you are not sure about the local staff understanding your needs, ask for the email of the Sales Manager or Director of Sales. They are usually westerners and in Asia, could be English or Australian and will be able to answer your questions succinctly. Just make sure you tell them exactly what you want.

Once I couldn't get a straight answer about room types from the website, phone res, or in-house res, so I sent an emil to the GM. He ended up peallocating a suite upgrde 3 months in advance and invited me to dinner with him and the F&B director. Moral - it's worth making contact.

peter11

Richard: I will be there in two weeks too.....perhaps at the Le Royal Meridien. Thanks for the advice. I wrote to the reservations department. Perhaps they can clear it up.

RdChen: I hear you saying that there are some rooms on the club level with Bund views. It's odd that I can not seem to find any listed on the website. Perhaps it is just my days of travel.

F0CUS

First of all, Welcome to Shanghai!

I have stayed over 20 stays at this hotel in 2009 and it is one of my favorite hotels in Shanghai.

I happened to be here today so I asked a few questions and combined with my own knowledge I will explain as best I can, I think there have been many questions about this so I will try to clarify...


ROOM VIEW TYPES:
1. City View Rooms: Rooms facing away from the Bund, this view is actually still very nice as you are directly overlooking the large People's Square. Depending on weather and time of year, this can actually be much nicer than Bund view. For example, Oct/Nov time it is VERY overcast and smoggy. You will have slim chance of actually enjoying the Bund view.

2. Bund View Rooms: These are rooms facing the Bund, it is quite a spectacular view of the Bund and Pudong area with Jon Mao tower, Shanghai World Financial Tower and of course of the Pearl Tower. The BIG problem is the smog in Shanghai, if the weather is not great, your view will be correspondingly not great.

CLUB LEVEL AND CLUB LEVEL ACCESS
The entire Club level (44th floor) has NO Bund View rooms except for the (amazing) Residential Sweets that are at the corner of the building which enjoy both Bund and City View.

The Club Lounge occupies the entire East facing side of the Club Floor, thus the entire lounge has Bund view and no rooms on that floor have Bund view.

As with most properties in Asia, you are able to access the Club Floor as long as you have Club Benifits, whether actually on the Club level or not doesn't matter. Just make sure you are either Platinum, or you are in a paid "Club Benifits" room. For example, if you wanted a Bund View with Club Benifits (which doesn't actually exist on the Club Floor) then the hotel may be able to give you a lower or higher level room with Bund View, and they will of course give you access to the Club Floor.

The rooms on the "Club Floor" are no different from other floors except that they have direct access to the Lounge. They also have the usual better Amenities, in this case L'Occtaine products, nicer towels, etc...

SUITES:

Royal Club Jr Suite
ALL Jr Suites have City View, let me repeat that: There are no Jr Suites with Bund View period. As I mentioned before, the city view is very nice view of People's Square and it's not affected by weather like the Bund View.
The rooms are not huge, but fair size with a single room (no separate living room), swiveling 43" TV in the center, full sofa, coffee table, glass desk facing the window and fair sized washroom with separate tub and walk in shower.

Residential Suite
Amazing corner rooms with views of BOTH Bund and City. The living room is massive with a private entrance hallway, lounge area, dining area, bathroom and kitchenette. The connecting Bedroom will only have either city view or Bund view and is similar to the standard rooms but with the extra "club" amenities.

There is also another standard room that can be connected to most Residential suits by closing and locking a door further up the hallway, I have done this before and basically creates your own private 2 bedroom apartment.


Imperial Suite
I have never stayed in one of these rooms but I hear they are impressive.


I hope that clears things up. Let me know if anyone has any further questions.

Cheers!
Simon

rdchen

I shouldn't have said "each" floor. I have never set step into those rooms, but according to hotel staff, floors 40-43 do have some bund view rooms (not sure whether they are all suites or not).

SanDiego1K

Thank you, FOCUS, for such an informative post.

F0CUS

Anytime!

peter11

Awesome post Focus! I received an email from the hotel this morning that also said that some of the Residential Suites have the Bund view. I really appreciate your thorough break down of the categories.

I will be in Shanghai in about 2 weeks. What is the smog/weather situation like there now? Should I give up on the Bund view? EDIT....Oops, I see that you already said the weather this time of year is particularly bad.

F0CUS

This is kind of what you can expect in terms of smog for bad weather times of year. Although it looks like this picture was actually taken from the Radisson which is a little further away from the Bund, you can see the Meridien in that photo, it is that large building occupying the right third of the frame.

Here's a shot of the People's Square View that I took, not a great angle of the actual square but you get the idea.

peter11

Okay, you talked me out of the Residential Suite. Seems that the Bund view is not worth it if the weather is bad. I suppose if we have great weather, we could upgrade. Thanks for all your help.

The mods might want to consider putting the info you posted about the room categories at the top of this thread. It is quite helpful.

Tax Dude

Wow - excellent post! Just to add:

We stayed in an imperial suite on the 59th floor for three nights last month, and they are indeed very nice. Very spacious with comfortable furnishings. The separate living and bedrooms have good city views and the bathroom has a fantastic Pudong/Bund view. It is best enjoyed by soaking in the tub while enjoying a nice single malt. As was mentioned before, the room comes with exec lounge privileges.

It was right at the end of the holiday period and an unexpected benefit was the lack of smog. Views were great!

We spent our initial night (of a 4 night stay) in a regular Bund-view room on a lower floor. Also very nice - our room was at the end of the hall so had both city and Bund views.

BonViveur

After many years of S.E. Asian stays, I'm spoiled by great service, so I expected less in China to start with. I had contacted the hotel prior to the stay and requested a high floor room. They responded that as a platinum guest they will do all possible to offer this.

I was met at the car and whizzed to a room on 24, which is the 5th lowest guest floor- although a junior suite, overlooked the huge exhaust systems. Before boarding the lift, I restated my request for a high floor but the girl tewrsely told me this room was much better for me as I didn't need to go via the Lobby floor to access my room and change lifts on the way. This was a lie of omission as many other lifts took guests to high floors avoiding a change of lift.

My card wallet included a list of local tips, which mentioned that generally tipping was not required, but a bellman seemd miffed and stood around for a while after I declined to be shown the room amenities and did not offer a tip for such demonstration. This has happened at other Shanghai properties so I guess it's not directed at the hotel, but does sour the stay from the beginning.

Breakfast at the buffet was good, but they only have a hand-written list list of platinum guests and both times attempted to charge for breakfast, once insistently.

Room quality is excellent with great amenities and easy to operate, and door and driveway staff excellent.

I think it's stupid to offer free internet in the lounge only and charge 1200RMB in the room. Who wants to sit in the lounge all day working when you have a nice room?

Food service is very Chinese in style, with staff reaching over me to collect things, restock sugar and generally make me feel less relaxed during dining.

Car service 680RMB to/from airport quite good but driver was monolingual and had trouble when there was a bad traffic jam, although he did call the concierge to translate for me.

Aside from the local style of service, my main issue was the ridiculous design of the lifts and the need to spend up to 15 mins to get from one place in the hotel to another. It won't put me off another stay as the location is perfect, but I will consider other properties, too.

peter11

I have been at this hotel now for the last four nights. The rooms (a junior suite) are great. The elevators are a little confusing but not a big deal. The pool is wonderful. The lobby, however, is a bit of a disaster. I have never complained about a lobby before, but the folks that designed the rooms must not have had their hand on the lobby. The layout is strange and day or night, it feels more like a night club. Fortunately we are on the Royal Club Lounge level so there is really no need to spend any time in the lobby. The lounge is great, probably the best I have ever seen. The food offerings are adequate, although designed (in my opinion) to ensure no one is too excited to eat too much. Service has been eager, though not as professional as one would find in some other hotels (perhaps outside of China).

As has been said, the location is excellent, and I would stay here again.

gabbysz

Does anyone have a contact email for the gm for this hotel?

nologic

YGM.