Gubei Garden Hotel — Hotel in Shanghai

Let me first start off by saying that I only chose this hotel because there weren’t very many options in that area. The biggest, and perhaps the only upside of this hotel is its convenient location. It was very close to an office building where I needed to go almost everyday for a month (5 mins walk). It was a 2 min walk to Metro Line 10, a Takashimaya Mall (awful mall for shopping, but great for food - supermarket, restaurants, dessert places, and fresh bakery - 3 mins walk), in an area with a number of restaurants (namely Korean and Japanese), which to my surprise were quite good in general with very reasonable lunch combos, and the usual convenience stores (7-11 and Lawton), and a Starbucks. For the record, Shanghai Mart, which appears on googlemaps, is not a Supermarket. It is an office building, so don’t get mislead.||||The hotel itself deserve no more than 3 stars, generously speaking. The rooms are extremely worn, and are in need of substantial and proper renovation. Perhaps, if I paid another $50-100 per room per night I’d see what might qualify as a 4-star hotel, but from what I saw, I’m highly skeptical. Furthermore, if I were to pay another $50-$100 per night, I could stay at a proper 4-5 star hotel in the area. I’m almost inclined to call it a budget hotel, but it’s hardly a budget price, unless you’re a regular at the Ritz.||||(1) Many parts of the walls were dented, scratched, stained, and marked. ||(2) The sliding closet door is so poorly constructed that it there’s no railing for the door at the top, so it wobbles and doesn’t actually slide properly (even the housekeeper was complaining about the closet door). Given my observation, whoever constructed this to install the closet light, which turned on and off when it hit a switch, did a poor job that seemed like it was done by an ten-year old child. Not to mention, it also prevented the closet from closing all the way, so there was always a 2-inch gap.||(3) The toilet seat was wobbly, chipped, peeling, and stained yellow at numerous parts.||(4) The room is poorly lit because not all the lights work, despite the light switch panel next to the bed.||(5) Smoking persists throughout non-smoking floors and non-smoking rooms. Even on a non-smoking floor, as I was later moved to, it seems people still smoked, and it traveled into my room through the vents and under my door. The strong scent most definitely permeates throughout the hallway.||(6) Housekeeping are seemingly on the lazy end of the spectrum. I don’t think I’ve actually seen or heard them vacuum the room once (fyi, I was in the room, watching them clean up the room). I’ve heard them vacuum the hallway on very rare occasions though.||(7) The housekeepers need to use gloves, and/or wash their hands between housekeeping activities because I watched them use their bare hands to grab garbage out of the garbage bin (not to replace the bag), then make the bed, and then put supposedly fresh towels in the washroom. It find it quite disturbing that the hotel condones such practices.||(8) The towels have holes, they’re stained, and “stringing” from the edges. The hotel needs to replace their worn-out towels.||(9) I have only encountered two staff members who can speak English well enough. Most cannot effectively communicate in English, or at least to a basic level. In fact, one of their male staff members at the reception, who I called down to from my room, refused to apologize, as I could hear him yelling at the lady I was speaking to over the phone to rectify the error he made. This was a communication issue. I wanted to order a bowl of noodles from room service, which he asked me to spell out for him. I did that, and he impatiently cut me off, and acknowledged my request. I get sent a fork and knife 20 mins later. Frankly, I wouldn’t have gotten angry at all had he just said he didn’t understand. Instead, he confirmed he understood what I said and made me wait an hour for my room service (food normally arrives in the room within 20-30 mins at this hotel) only to find out that the order was never placed to begin with.||(10) Charging their customers an additional 50%-55% (approx) of the total reservation + service charge for a room deposit is utterly ridiculous. (e.g. If total stay cost was 9500 RMB, which factors in tax, then they deposit charged would be a rounded-up to 15000 RMB) I have never stayed at a hotel or resort that charged something like that. I asked why the deposit was so much, and the lady gave me a ridiculous answer saying, that they factor in laundry service, bar service, etc… I didn’t use any of the things she mentioned, and laundry service is charged separately, and is naturally overpriced, as with all hotels. I was in a rush to head out, so I didn’t want to stand there to negotiate. I know the deposit is completely negotiable because I did so during my first reservation (background: I made two separate reservations) after finding the amount they wanted to charge appalling and after speaking with their assistant manager. Mind you, they still charged me significantly more than necessary.||(11) Perhaps this may not be an issue for many, but there was one day during my stay where someone put one of those "call for a massage" business cards with a promiscuous looking girl posing, sort of like the ones handed out throughout the Vegas Strip, on every room's door on the floor I was staying. Security issue? Questionable alternative business activities?||(12) One of the ladies at the reception refused to take my USD credit card saying that they cannot charge my reservation to a USD credit card. That lady was only willing to take Japanese Yen and HKD. I was, and still am, baffled by this, and quite angered by the pathetic response/reasons the person gave me. Not only that, when the receipt was printed, there was an empty check box at the bottom asking whether or not a currency choice was offered, and was what I agreed to. She clearly does not know what she is doing, like I have found with a handful of other staff there. Their "international" card payment services system is designed to and is supposed to offer the acceptance of various major currencies.||||There are more things, but these are most of the major issues I encountered. I hope this review provides some helpful and genuine insights and considerations for prospective guests, and I hope the hotel sees this review as well, so that they can start rectifying these issues. Although I remain highly doubtful there will be much, if any improvement, given the overall nature of the hotel and its employees, I hope that no other future guests experience these issues. However, should you stay at this hotel, my only word of advice is to not settle for any utterly ridiculous reasons that their staff may spew out of their mouth to bully you into believing that they are believable/correct.||||Other Tidbits of Info:||- The 24/7 fitness centre consists of two treadmills, and that's pretty much it. It's 24/7 because there are no doors to the area. This supposed fitness centre looks very sad and depressing.||- Spa/Massage: I didn't try a massage, so I can't comment as to the skill of the masseuse, but the rates are comparatively above average, and the rooms are very small||- Restaurants: The Chinese restaurant is a joke and overpriced. The Japanese restaurant looked like it could be okay, but I was not about to spend 400 RMB per person for AYCE, when there are significantly better options. in terms of price and options, not too far away.||- Wifi is free, but it can be slow throughout many...

Was here for a business trip back in September 2015 and stayed for 4 nights.||||Pros:||- Basic, spacious room, seemingly clean, large bed||- Clean lobby area||- Conveniently located next to Yili Road Metro station on Line 10 and restaurants in Takashimaya (as another review pointed out, it's better for food rather than shopping)||- Being a small hotel, wait times for the 4 lifts aren't too long||- Toilet bidet available (but not in all rooms as it wasn't in my second room, I changed rooms as a colleague was joining) - all photos are taken from the first room||- Free wifi, connection speed was sufficient during my stay||- Easy to catch taxis whether on the street or booking via the reception||- Uber can be used in Shanghai however don't expect English speaking drivers (reception will be happy to help translate)||- Hotel employees were generally ok in terms of attitude, not overly friendly but still professional.||||Cons:||- Unless you have a VPN (Virtual Private Network), not being able to use anything Google was a real pain (e.g. maps, gmail etc), one must use Baidu maps (the local equivalent to get around)||- Not that close to the city / Bund area so be prepared to take a taxi / Metro||- Metro stops running at 10:30-11pm (best to check depending on the day)||- As not all hotel staff were fluent, it seems that English speaking guests might struggle. However, I did not have any language issues as a Mandarin speaker||- Mainly Japanese and Korean restaurants in the area so don't expect much local Chinese/Shanghainese food||- My first room safe couldn't lock (to be fair, all it needed was a change of batteries)||- Lack of international channels available (e.g. no BBC / CNN from memory)||- Rooms were a bit dim in places||- Very basic ground floor cafe||||In summary, it's not part of a large international star hotel chain so best to keep expectations in check. It is definitely sufficient considering we had to attend a fair at Shanghai Mart, which was opposite the hotel. If I was to go to Shanghai again, I wouldn't mind staying at this hotel again however based on certain reviews, this hotel is sufficient for someone who is...

Stayed here during a business trip and chose this hotel due to its location. ||Arriving at night and the location is really good : riding MRT/Metro from Pudong International airport with a transfer to line 10, I arrived next to the hotel (going out from exit#3). Turning left from the exit, the hotel can be seen already, just about 50-100 meter walk. ||||The hotel is not a new one, however it is relatively well maintained. This hotel seems to be designed to welcome especially Japanese guests, and from what I observed most guests are Japanese. The surrounding seems to be doing the same with lots of Japanese food restaurants. The hotel is not an extreme luxurious hotel, but all are functioning and amenities are okay. There was a crack near the bath tub at the room I was staying, but else everything was okay. There is even a perk of having heated toilet seat with warm water washer on it as well. Room was quite spacious. ||The hotel has 13 floors for guests rooms (6-20 with 13&14 missing), but only 5 floors were dedicated for non-smokers. Need to change money to RMB? One can use the money changing ATM at the lobby. Rate is acceptable, no commission charge. Or at working hours, money changing can be done at the bank next to the hotel (walking left from the hotel lobby).||||The hotel is also nearby to Takashimaya shopping mall (next to the MRT/Metro station). So finding food can be easy as the mall has food court and supermarket at the ground floor. Food in the morning : breakfast is available with reasonable price at the hotel, with limited varieties though. If you would like to have a real local breakfast with cheap price, just walk to the left and turn left at Jinzhu Road. Lots of street vendor selling breakfast there. Only you need to be able to communicate in basic Chinese to be able to transact. If not, just walk further down Jinzhu Road, and you can find 7-11 convenient store there. Communication can be less...