A couple of weeks ago, I made a quick trip to Shanghai. Since China had recently opened up visa-free travel for Singapore passport holders, it was an opportune time for a visit to China. The purpose of the trip was mainly to feel what Shanghai was like now that China has emerged from Covid, and also to review the recently-opened Conrad Shanghai.
Reviews I had read elsewhere indicated I was in for a rather lacklustre experience. Even with those expectations set, I still felt the Conrad Shanghai was underwhelming. I was left wondering why I had even bothered to check out the hotel. (Of course, it was content for this blog.) Hotels in China aren’t generally known for great service, and I’ve seen my fair share of that from several work trips pre-Covid. Even so, the Conrad Shanghai greatly disappointed. The hard product also failed to make up for the poor soft product. Despite undergoing a renovation during the rebranding, there were already signs of wear and tear and poor maintenance in the room.
The main positive of the hotel is the great location (if you prefer to be in Puxi rather than Pudong.) Besides that, I’m hard-pressed to think of any other reason to stay at the Conrad Shanghai. It’s not bad enough that I would totally rule it out for future stays, but I’m tempted to give the Waldorf Astoria a try next time instead.
Read on to see why I felt the hotel disappointed even with low expectations.
The hotel
The Conrad Shanghai opened in Jan 2022 as a rebrand of the Le Royal Meridien Shanghai. The hotel consists of 728 rooms including 60 suites, making it a pretty big hotel, though maybe not in China terms. It’s located in the mix-use Shanghai Shimao Plaza. The lower floors of the building are retail, with the Conrad Shanghai taking up the higher floors.
Normally I would post a Google map of the hotel’s location, unfortunately when it comes to China, Google Maps is useless. The Le Royal Meridien is still listed, and if you search for “Conrad Shanghai” the resulting location is far off. Suffice to say, the Conrad Shanghai is conveniently located. It’s a couple of minutes walk from People’s Park metro station, though unfortunately not directly connected.
The hotel is situated at the western end of the Nanjing Road East pedestrian sheet, a major shopping area in Shanghai. This means the area is crowded, but if you’re 40 or 50 floors up there’s no noise or light to worry about. Overall, it’s a convenient location that I don’t mind, and the strongest argument in favour of the hotel.
Booking
I booked my stay around a month in advance. I opted for a Bund View Room, paying CNY1,890 all-in (SGD350). For my dates, the entry-level rates were around CNY1,200 plus service charge. That’s about average for a luxury foreign brand in a tier 1 city I felt.
Arrival and check-in
I arrived in Shanghai early on an overnight Singapore Airlines flight. My plan was to spend the day in Disneyland, and it made sense to go direct from Pudong airport, leaving my luggage in lockers at the park. However, I was through immigration in no time at all, so I opted to head into town to dump the bags at the hotel and try my luck for an early check-in. No such luck, and quite frankly the morning visit to the hotel were early signs of the poor service levels.
I got to the hotel via Maglev and metro line 2, getting lost in the maze that is People’s Park station. Eventually I found my way to the hotel.
Perhaps it was because I entered through a side entrance, but I have not encountered any luxury hotel with so many staff standing around the lobby, yet none of them offered any sort of greeting or assistance. All just stood around like statues as I fumbled my way through trying to find the right set of lifts to get to the upper lobby where reception was located. At least the lower lobby was bright and quite nicely done up.
I made my way to the lobby floor and the reception area. The hotel doesn’t have a traditional long reception desk. Instead, there’s a series of small terminals. I did like the overall look of the public spaces. Modern, bright and airy mostly.
There was no queue when I initially arrived, it was before 9am after all. There was a queue when I returned in the evening to get my keycard, and the next day when I checked out around 2pm.
The staff who handled the check-in procedures was rather unwelcoming and cold. No greeting or appreciation of my Diamond status, with the only form of recognition being a comment that I could access the Executive lounge on the 44th floor as a Diamond. No mention even of the lounge offerings or opening hours. This was despite the entire conversation being conducted in Mandarin. It was definitely not the most pleasant first impression, and it seems I’ve finally found a Conrad front desk that’s worse than the Conrad Centennial Singapore.
Since Mandarin didn’t work in the morning, I returned to English when I returned in the evening. The gentleman who handled the keycard process this time was a little better, quickly agreeing to my request for an “upgrade” and late checkout. I say “upgrade” because it was just an Executive Bund View room, essentially the same room type but higher floor. The “Executive” part of the room category being redundant to me since I get lounge access by default. I was tired after the short overnight flight and a day in the heat at Disneyland, so I didn’t bother pushing for a proper upgrade.
Executive Bund View Room
My Executive Bund View Room was located on the 42nd floor. There’s 3 sets of lifts that serve various levels of guest rooms. Thankfully 2 sets served the 42nd floor, and one set serves both the 42nd and 44th floors for convenient access to the lounge.
The room
The standard room size at the Conrad Shanghai is 40sqm, with the exception of suites and premium corner rooms. This Executive Bund View room was the typical 40sqm. The room layout is standard hotel room, the bathroom and wardrobe on either side upon entering the room.
The Bund view was honestly a waste of money. Give how built up Shanghai is, I couldn’t actually the see the Bund at all. The view is fine though if you want to look at the skyscrapers in Pudong, including Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center and the Pearl Tower. If I ever return, I’ll book the cheapest room and take whatever upgrade I get.
To my mild irritation, the Conrad Shanghai has adopted an open wardrobe, like many newer or recently renovated Hilton properties. I’ve probably mentioned it in many review, but I don’t like this at all. They clearly ran out of space for the ironing board too.
Below the luggage rack were the usual stuff found in hotel wardrobes: slippers, room safe etc. The cabinet door that hid the safe had a massive scratch where it had obviously been whacked by the safe door many times. Unsurprising, but the extent of the damage was surprising for a hotel that opened just over 18 months ago.
The minibar next to the wardrobe had the usual fixtures – Nespresso machine, kettle and ice bucket. The coffee was Nespresso and the tea was from a brand I’ve never heard of.
Maybe it was the fatigue, but the highlight of the room for me was the bed. I slept really well, and for once I didn’t encounter the ‘one pillow is too low but two pillows is too high problem’. I’m not saying the bedding is fantastic, but it worked well for me and I had a very comfortable sleep.
The sofa was a slightly odd shape I felt, very wide but short in length. The small coffee table wasn’t very useful too in my opinion. The TV was a pretty standard 55in Samsung.
Another plus point of the room was the proper rectangular desk. Too many hotels lack a real desk nowadays, or they opt for a round one which I dislike.
The desk was either old or cheap. It showed plenty of signs of wear and tear. Some of the furniture in the room really looked like they don’t age well.
There was a pillow menu on the desk, but this time I didn’t give any of the pillows a try. I didn’t want to attempt asking for buckwheat in Mandarin, and I had low confidence in the English skills of whomever would be on the other end of the line.
The space between bedside and window was filled by a bookshelf with some decorative pieces.
I have a couple of gripes about the switches and plugs in the room. I didn’t find the labels on the switches easy to read, and the power sockets were all Type A, C or I, which are the local Chinese ones. Considering they already had sockets to fit 3 rather different plug types, why not make it a universal socket? At least there were USB-A outlets, but nowadays with most phone chargers being USB-C to USB-C, some people don’t have USB-A to USB-C cables. I certainly don’t.
Bathroom
The bathroom was off to the left of the room entry. The bathroom in this Executive Bund View room had a single, narrow vanity, and separate cubicles for the WC and the shower. There was another smaller doorway that could be opened to access the bed area directly. Convenient, but not really necessary in a standard room of this size.
The single and small vanity area is a little disappointing. If travelling as a couple, the lack of space might be a problem, considering the hair dryer takes up the shelf below the vanity top.
The WC had a washlet, always a welcome feature.
The shower stall was a combination of shower area+ separate tub. This was similar to bathrooms I’m used to seeing in hotels in Japan. Annoyingly though, the rain shower was positioned quite close to the side, meaning occasionally bumping into the wall when showering. The toiletries were the usual Conrad brand standard Byredo Mojave Ghost.
Another minor irritation with the bathroom was that after my first shower, when I returned there was an unpleasant musty smell. The problem seemed to go away and didn’t occur again after showering, but it did suggest that the plumbing might be a little questionable.
A little note about service, I requested for shavers over the phone which was enthusiastically promised, but it took so long to be delivered that in my fatigued state I actually forgot about the request until the doorbell rang over an hour later. That sort of response time was a little too long in my opinion.
Overall
The Executive Bund View room at the Conrad Shanghai was fine, if unremarkable. The amount of wear and tear was a little concerning, but didn’t really affect the stay. The bed was good and I felt sufficiently rested despite the lack of sleep the night before and a full day in Disneyland. There wasn’t much to complain about the room, and I have no qualms staying for a longer period. In future though, I probably wouldn’t bother with a Bund view room.
Executive lounge
As an Honors Diamond, I had access to the Executive lounge on the 44th floor. I duly went up for evening cocktails around 7.15pm. The digital signage outside the lounge indicates the meal timings and additional costs for guests who don’t have access by default.
The lounge itself was quite an impressive space, being bright and airy. It would have been nice to check it out during daylight, but unfortunately I had other places to be prior to checking out the next day.
Probably because it was close to end of evening cocktails by the time I went up, some of the food options were running low or totally out. The hot food was separated by which restaurant it came from, but honestly nothing tasted that great. It made for a rather weird and carb-heavy selection of dishes to be honest. There was pasta, potatoes, fried rice, couple of prawn dishes and some vegetables. Not everything had label signs as well, which was frustrating.
In the cold section, there was various salads, cold cuts and cheese, plus fruits, bread and a handful of desserts.
The drink selection was nothing to shout about as well. There was the usual soft drinks, as well as a selection of wines and spirits. I steered clear of the alcohol and stuck to the soft drinks. Oddly, I didn’t see any sparkling wine, but it’s possible I may have missed it.
Overall, the lounge itself was a nice place to unwind or kill time for a bit, but I wouldn’t necessarily bother making time to check out the evening cocktail offerings. The food and beverage quality was generally not great. The staff were prompt in clearing the tables, but otherwise weren’t really friendly and lacking warmth.
Food & Beverage
The Conrad Shanghai has 4 F&B venues, plus in-room dining. During my stay, I only ate at Asador where breakfast was served, although breakfast was probably not a reflection of the restaurant’s Mediterranean focus at all. I did try to order in-room dining, but the menu was so limited I gave up.
I went down for breakfast a little earlier than my usual, around 8.30am. Thankfully I went early, because when I left around an hour later there was a long queue outside. Despite the lack of queue when I arrived, not a single staff member offered to show me to a table and I had to flag down a passing staff member. Not exactly the kind of service I’d expect in a Conrad hotel restaurant.
Personally, I know Chinese hotel breakfasts for 2 things: greasy, terrible tasting food and hilarious translations. Thankfully, I didn’t see any of the latter, while the food quality was better than expected.
There was a wide assortment of bread and pastries, fresh fruits whole and cut, cereals and yoghurt to start with.
Being China, of course there was a wide range of Oriental choices, ranging from different types of congee, assorted steamed dumplings, and various stir-fried or fried dishes.
There’s also a noodle station, which also offers just dumpling soup.
There’s the usual western options as well, such as bacon, sausages, baked beans, breakfast potatoes and tomatoes. Funnily, what I thought was an egg station menu turned out to be a menu for Chinese hot dishes, which I’m pretty sure didn’t apply for breakfast. The chefs clearly could whip omelettes if requested, but I wasn’t about to push my poor Mandarin.
None of the wait staff offered to bring tea or coffee, so it wasn’t entirely clear to me if these were self-service or served. In any case I was planning to hit up the Starbucks Reserve Roastery after breakfast, so I was saving my caffeine intake for later. There was a juice station with coffee machines, which I did see some other guests bringing their mugs for the barista to fill.
As mentioned, the restaurant got more crowded later on, though thankfully it never felt crazy that buffets + Chinese people can combine to be. The food was average, not fantastic, but I’ve tasted worse in China hotels before, so this counted as a small win in my book. Some items were surprisingly less seasoned than I expected for China, for example the fried eggs were so bland I actually had to sprinkle a dash of salt.
Plates were cleared reasonably promptly, but otherwise there was virtually no service to speak of. Overall, breakfast at the Conrad Shanghai was perfectly serviceable, but not worth spending too much time or calories on.
Amenities and facilities
As as expected for a hotel this size, there’s all the usual facilities such as spa, gym and swimming pool. These were all located one level down from the main lobby, accessible by lift or stairs. On that note, there’s so many lifts around the hotel it’s easy to get confused.
Gym
The gym was quite large, fittingly so for a hotel with over 1,000 rooms. It was well-equipped to my eye, and everything looks new.
Swimming pool
The pool was beside the gym, and could be seen from the gym. It was surprisingly quite crowded when I popped by just before 8pm.
Service
I’ve mentioned service at various points during this review already. Like I stated at the start of this review, I don’t expect much when in China. Still, you’d expect the Conrad to at least make an effort. Yet, in general the service was certainly a notch lower than most other Conrads in Asia. The only positive interaction I had with a member of staff was the one of the concierge, who was knowledgeable and patient enough to advise the nearest locations of the various shops I wanted to visit. Needless to say, Diamond recognition was also poor to nonexistent, similar to that in the USA.
Conclusion
I don’t normally have very high expectations of hotels in China, so in that sense the Conrad Shanghai was sort of…within expectations, if not underwhelming? I liked the location, and the breakfast quality was actually decent. The Executive lounge was spacious and one of the grander Conrad lounges I’ve seen. I did like that the room retained a proper rectangle desk though.
Those positives aside however, there wasn’t much else to be impressed about. Service was expectedly poor and not anywhere near Conrad level, while the recently-renovated hard product in the room already showed shocking signs of wear and tear. The shower was also awkward. The offerings in the lounge while plentiful, weren’t great quality. Even the location, while good for sightseeing, may not suit business visitors who might prefer the Liujiazui business district instead.
Overall, the Conrad Shanghai is another reminder that hotel standards in China still aren’t quite up to the level of some other Asian countries. It’s objectively an OK hotel, but falls a little short of the Conrad levels I’m used to in other parts of Asia. It definitely isn’t comparable to its siblings in Hong Kong or Tokyo. For the right price, I’ll definitely still consider the Conrad Shanghai, but it’s not a hotel I’m longing to return to.