Le Royal Meridien Shanghai

After our overnight train from Hong Kong, we arrived at the Shaghai main train station and took the metro the the closest stop to our hotel, the Le Meridien Shanghai. We were to spend four nights in this hotel, with mother and I spending SPG points to each cover two nights.

The first impression was good; the location of the hotel is fantastic, the rooms are pretty, and the views from the high floors spectacular. However, there were some issues which happened during our stay that led to an overall disappointing aftertaste, most of it service related.

We both have SPG Gold status. On check in we were offered no upgrades and when we asked about getting a club room we were told we could pay about $80 a day to upgrade or use 5250 points per night (on a 10,000 point per night room). I don’t expect an upgrade, but I always ask because I’ve had good luck in the past with some sort of status acknowledgement and that’s always very much appreciated. No welcome amenity was offered (even though this was supposed to happen). I’ve since learned this hotel is particularly stingy with upgrades of any kind.

The first room was on the 41st floor and had a stunning view but had several issues which I could only characterize as design flaws. In the bathroom there is a 4″ gap between the back of the sink counter and the mirror and toiletries easily fall off the back. There’s nowhere other than the counter to put toiletries, nowhere to plug in a hair dryer in the bathroom, and nowhere in the room where there is both a mirror and a plug. The room was small and awkwardly shaped and even finding space to put our luggage (small bags too) was difficult. Don’t even get me started about the lack of privacy glass in the toilet area.

The biggest problem was with the bed. My mattress was not only soft, but was broken down in the middle and listing to the right so bad I thought I might accidentally roll out of bed on the first night!

Our view was over the People’s park. When we asked about a Bund view room, we were told those were ONLY King bed rooms (we had a twin). Again, why?

After the first night we asked to have the bed fixed or move rooms. We were offered a room on a lower floor or to wait and take a room later that day on the 42nd floor. We opted to wait. When we returned, we asked to see the room and were told that they had already “changed out the beds” in the new room, replacing them with “hard” beds. This is not what we asked for. When we checked, the new beds were rock hard with no padding at all. They felt like box springs. While I wanted a bed that did not sag in the middle, I also didn’t want to sleep on a board.

In the end they replaced those with their regular soft mattresses and while it wasn’t broken it was way too soft. It’s as if there are only two options extra soft or extra hard. But the biggest issue here is that they did not listen, did not investigate the problem, they just made an assumption.

One afternoon there was a room service tray left out the hallway in the room next to ours. It was still there well into the next day. With the amount of housekeeping staff present and the supposed high level of this hotel, how is that acceptable or even possible?

The hotel is in a converted office building and one must first access the “lobby” by going up in an elevator from the ground floor. To access the rooms you take a different elevator. This is so confusing there is a full time staff member in place to point people in the right direction. Unfortunately, that person cannot answer the most basic hotel direction questions for English speaking guests (of which there were plenty).

Ultimately, the best thing about this hotel is the location. It’s very convenient to the metro and sightseeing. But there are lots of other options in Shanghai and next time I would consider staying elsewhere.

Note: As always, we don’t accept any sponsored posts and pay for all meals and accommodations ourselves.