Okura Garden Hotel Shanghai

I moved my rating up to 3 stars because the team went above and beyond to arrange an airport car after we’d been delayed. They responded with a welcome sense of urgency. Before that, though, I was at 2 stars, since I expect more from a five-star hotel. We arrived as a large group and had to handle most of our luggage ourselves because there was no bellhop. We were warned about renovation noise on some floors, but when I asked to move to one without work underway, they said I couldn’t. The rooms are average in size, old and dated, and the amenities I used were poor quality. My air conditioning wasn’t cooling the room; someone came quickly and said it was working, but the temperature never changed. The Wi-Fi was similar, technically working but with poor output quality. The front desk isn’t staffed 24 hours, so I’m unsure how check-in would work for a flight arriving outside business hours. I wouldn’t choose to stay here again if I returned to Shanghai.

The impressive, beautiful lobby and friendly staff made a good first impression, but several things let the stay down. The rooms look dated, worn, and a little damaged in places, and some of the amenities feel cheap for this level. The gym is decent, but you have to pay for a swimming cap to use the pool, which feels more like something at a three-star hotel. For me, it came across as closer to three or four stars than five. I’d save the money and stay elsewhere, where you might get the same for two-thirds of the price. I wish I’d tried another five-star hotel.

The building used to be the ‘French Club’. There are two tennis courts, plus a good gym and swimming pool. The location’s excellent, with lots of boutique shops along the street.

The service was awful, like a bad « Fawlty Towers » from the 1970s. Every little interaction had to be paid for on the spot, even though I’d prepaid for six nights. One Coca Cola here, a pair of underpants washed there, and so on. There was no way to charge anything to the room.