Holiday Inn Express Shanghai Putuo — Hotel in Shanghai

I had a total of 2 stays at this property during the last 2 weeks of December and had 2 consistently negative experiences. During the first stay, I had asked for a king bed but was given an incredibly small room with 2 rather compact doubles. There was also a somewhat unpronounced but definitely noticeable cigarette odor in the supposedly non-smoking room. Although Platinum treatment at IHG is typically somewhat inconsistent and not recognized as among the best, this stay was the first time I've experienced a total lack of any recognition during this particular stay. The breakfast next morning was also rather below expectations as it had no western breakfast items other than bread that one can put through a toaster. The Chinese items are also lacking variety and all extremely greasy. Although the breakfast is not due to conclude until 10, at 9:40 they already had no fruit juice of any sort and the staff seemed utterly uninterested in refilling it for the 30 or so guests eating breakfast.

Not to be outdone by the various issues during the first stay, the second stay actually managed to turn out worse. While waiting in line to check in, a man walked directly into the personal space I was allocating for the guest checking in front of me. He then proceeds to hand the staff his Chinese identification card. Instead of telling him to wait in line, the front desk staff actually opened another check in register that was previously not in use in order to what I can only assume reward this person for his behavior. While waiting for the front desk to check in the person who cut me in line, the manager on duty loudly and callously yelled threats at a girl for coming in through the front door, who in turn blatantly ignored the verbal incursion. I can only assume that she is an employee of the hotel coming on shift and was suppose to take a different route, but regardless of the circumstance I believe this should have been handled in private. I found the behavior of both the presumed employee, but especially the manager on duty during this particular instance very unpleasant and unacceptable for an IHG affiliated hotel. Upon checking in I was recognized as a Platinum member and was given a larger room with a better view in comparison to the first stay. However there was an area of the shower in this room was covered with some sort of liquid (?) that was incredibly slippery and what I would perceive as dangerous. I nearly slipped twice in the shower before I decided it was too risky to continue and gave up. Also, despite of being the larger room, it had a significantly stronger cigarette odor than the room from the first stay. The air quality of the room was so poor that as a non-smoker I woke up the next morning with a sandy throat that not only lingered but actually worsened to a sore throat throughout the long day as I made my 18 and half hour flight back to the U.S. Despite of all the negatives I will say that the hotel offers fair value and is at a quiet location, but that does not compensate for the fact that the room cleanliness, amenities, and staff training level are all exceedingly...

I'll say 2 1/2 stars. Wish we could use 1/2 stars.

Good- Beautiful location. 10 minute walk to a shopping mall with excellent Chinese restaurants and a Dairy Queen! Enjoy the courtyard in front of the mall where the locals gather every night. Only 10 minutes walk to subway station that connects to line 2 at next stop that goes right through the center of Shanghai. Quiet area. Beautiful stroll at night along the river.

Room had air-conditioning that I could control and worked great!

Bad- Hotel is showing age. Walls in my room had many stains throughout. Seems all HIE in China now have the same hard bed. Luckily there are pillow choices.

Safe in my room worked but older one in my mother's did not.

Breakfast is all Chinese but came with great tasting watermelon everyday. The WORST fake (sugar# juices I've ever tasted and the milk is watered down.

If taking a taxi, some know this hotel and some do not. Bring the Hotel's address in Chinese AND the phone number for the driver to call. Not easy to get a taxi around the area when leaving.

Very Bad- Service. Only a few at the desk can speak English. I asked a woman if the shuttle goes to the Metro #Subway# at noon. #It was raining#. She said yes, but seemed hesitant. I later asked a supervisor who spoke English and she said it stopped at 9:30 am.

No recognition of my Platinum status at check-in.

Reserved 2 rooms and they were not connected. They never even asked if we wanted them. #To be honest, my mother wanted them and I didn't. So I didn't push it.#

Worse was that as a Platinum member I'm supposed to get a free upgrade. I expected river view rooms and we got the ones looking out the back at a warehouse. I didn't feel like changing rooms after unpacking.

But the worst part was the bill. I wanted to pre-pay as my credit card was expiring before the end of the trip. #Forgot the new one.# I checked the box to pay in RMB as my Chase card has no international fees and has a good rate. I saw my online statement and the pending charge was at the Dollar rate.#The hotel marks up the dollar rate at 4%) About $13 more. They showed me their internal receipt that showed RMB and told me 2 days later the bank was charging me in RMB. Today I saw the charge online and it's at the Dollar rate.

As of today they are crediting my CC $13.00. The e-mailed: "We already contact with the bank of China . They said something wrong with the exchange machine." That makes no since to me at all! But they followed up only after I contacted IHG customer service.

Would I stay here again? Probably. I loved the area and the restaurants and the close Metro ride to the heart...

We stayed for 10 days with our 9 months old baby.|It waa FREEZING cold!|Turning the Air conditioning in the room to full, didn't help, as it was blowing cold (i check it by measuring with the baby infrared thermometer) |We tried to resolve the issue, by talking to the reception, but the only solution, but we was told that the air-conditioning in the rooms is "Natural" whatever that means...|Meanwhile in the hallway was hot, so the issue waa with the room.|Anyhow, the solution they had, was giving us extra blankets (which doesn't fix the problem, as 9 months old babies want to play and explore, and not just hide under heavy load of blankets).|We receive 1 blanket the same day, then after contacting Booking, for assistance, we get got woken up at 2 AM by a member of the hotel staff, who was bringing us another blanket (we couldn't use the blanket, as our sleep for the night was over, since our baby woke up from this, and wouldn't fall asleep any more)|The next day, we came back to the hotel, only to find another 4 blankets on the bed (by then we already have 6 extra blankets).|When booking contacted the hotel, their answer was that there is no problem, the air-condition is working fine, and guests should simply adjust the temperature...|By that time half of our time there was gone, and we had no extra money to spend on another hotel, so we just stayed heavily dressed up, whenever we needed to stay in the room.|Im super disappointed as my 9 months old baby is with terrible cold now. |Flying back home with him having cold was really bad for him(and for All the passengers on the plane, as he was crying in pain) , as the block nose unable him to adjust to the air pressure, so he was in constant ear pain ( our flight was 14 hours) and i fully blame the hotel for that!|Thats absolutely unacceptable...