Dazhong Hotel Shanghai — Hotel in Shanghai

I booked a non-moking room at the Da Zhong South Tower in July for last night. The hotel was well-advised that I would be arriving at 11 p.m. I had ordered a "Standard Room" - 458 RMB per night. A room was allocated. I knew things would not be good as I approached the second floor on which the room was situated. The mustiness of the floor hit me as I exited the lift. The room itself reeked of cigarette smoke. Back to the desk demanding a non-smoking room. Furrowed brows and eventually another room was allocated - on the second floor again. This one reeked even more of cigarette smoke (and was nicely equipped with cigarette tray and matches). A a room attendant arrived with a bottle of pink stuff which she planned to spray around to mask the cigarette smoke for a while to keep me temporarily happy. Back to the desk to demand yet another attempt at the ordered non-smoking room. The receptionists explained that, as I had arrived quite late, they had few rooms available. That I had pre-booked the room months ahead and had pre-paid to guarantee arrival seemed not sufficient to cause them actually to allocate me a room regardless of my arrival time. More furrowed brows. A more senior receptionist arrived and a third room was allocated, this one being on the fifth floor, that floor being very clearly marked 'Non-smoking floor". It seems that the hotel was up to the old Chinese trick of attempting to see just what level of service is the minimum that the guest will tolerate. The third room was fine. However, 458 RMB for what is little better than an ordinary 3-star hotel room is a bit much I think. Yes, there was a circular bed - sexy to some perhaps but it seems the bed is circular simply to disguise the fact that the room is badly designed and wouldn't fit a rectangular bed all that well. The round bed is no more than a quick fix for bad room design. The shower contained no lotions of any kind. Showering had to be done with a small round cake of soap such as can be found in any Chinese country two- and three-star hotel. Beside the w.c. was the usual plastic-lined bin for the receipt of used w.c. paper. There was a tatty TV stand of curious art-deco design whose door did not close all that well. ||||To my cost, in the middle of the night, I discovered that there was a slightly greenish clear-glass door giving entry to the bathroom. Naturally, the door and I came into very close contact about 4 a.m. Fortunately neither us was broken although I think I got the greater fright.||||All in all, I think the place is pretty shabby in terms of its set-up and its management. I shall for the future, if arriving on a late flight, book at one of the nearby hotels that run shuttle services.||||I frequently stay at the Ambassador Transit Hotel in Terminal 3 of Singapore Changi Airport. By comparison with the Changi hotel, the Da Zhong (Ease) Hotel is definitely third world, the China of many years gone by. The place seems to me to be desperately in need of new management - management that knows something more about hotels than country-town central...

We stayed at Shanghaii Dazhong Hotel for the first five nights of our first trip to China to be near a conference to which my wife had been invited to speak (thus prompting the trip which included eight days of post-conference touring; I was along as companion and opportunist). It was a nice enough hotel with a pretty good buffet breakfast included, but the lobby was unusually drab, and, the biggest gripe our entire group of seven had was that all the rooms smelled of smoke. One of many incorrect assumptions I had about the Chinese was that many of them still smoke, and certainly those who still do are happy to be allowed to do so in this hotel, BUT, as I wandered around the streets and visited several attractions while my wife was working, it didn't seem that a greater number of people smoke in China than in the States; that they consume many more cigarettes might simply be due to the fact that China's population is about 1.4 billion. Another possibly helpful hint we learned during our first few days eating at the Dazhong and nearby restaurants is that the Chinese do not like cold beverages - pop, beer, water are all served warm unless||you ask if they have them cold (nowadays, for tourists, many restaurants, hotels and convenience stores do; and just in case it doesn't go without saying - don't chill your drink with ice, not even in better hotels where they themselves alert you to the fact that the tap water isn't potable). Two more relevant observations: It seemed that the lower floors of this hotel are not the hotel per se, as the elevator doors would open facing reception desks for offices and possibly a school. Also, they don't have salt or pepper on the restaurant tables, but will bring you a salt pinch...

Very conveniently located between the two airport Terminals and right by the maglev station. You do have to go through immigration to access the hotel so make sure you either have a visa or qualify for the TWOV option. We had a 10 hour layover and they were not going to let us through until I showed our booking and payment confirmation and explained we just needed a few hours sleep, so make sure you have a long enough layover and bear in mind you may well be refused entry if you don't! |The hotel was fine for the price. Follow the maglev signs from the airport and you will eventually reach the hotel, it took about 5-10 mins of walking so not long. We were in the north tower and the room was clean and comfortable. There was no smell of smoke as reported in other reviews in the section we were staying, it is a big hotel though so I don't know what it is like in other areas. Managed to get a couple of hours sleep and also took a quick maglev ride into Shanghai to see the bund as we had another 2-3 hours to kill before boarding our next flight (we and our luggage were already...