Hotel Indigo Shanghai Jing'An — Hotel in Shanghai

My first room didn't have air conditioning. I've had this experience in China before at 3* hotels where each room can only adjust the level of heat after October, and has no option to cool the air. The hallway smelled like industrial glue, which the manager told us was because they had just glued the carpets down that day. He didn't seem to mind the smell. After an hour or so of playing stupid and pretending to fix my AC, they finally moved me to a room where I could open a window. This room didn't have hot water, so after a 20 hour flight, I was unable to shower or shave before a dinner meeting. At the front desk I told them about the hot water, and how it was critical I be able to shower when I got back. We asked them to call us a taxi the doorman said it was on its way. 20 minutes later we asked about the cab, and the doorman said it wasn't coming, no further explanation. I had a Chinese friend help to call a taxi.

That night I found out the TV didn't work, nor did the hot water. The next morning I asked about the hot water and they told me it was working, and I was mistaken. I asked to use the gym to shower and they said the gym, pool, business center, spa, all weren't open yet. I walked over to the intercontinental and asked if I could shower there, as I was now late for another meeting and hadn't showered in 48 hours. A manager named Sally came over from Indigo to tell me that engineers had checked and my hot water was fine. I walked sally to the room, turned on the taps in the sink, shower, and tub, and had her put her hand in the water. At this point, she admitted the water was not hot, and told me they would find another room for us to shower in.

She found a room down the hall but her key card wasn't working. She asked the housekeeper to let her in, but suddenly the housekeeper's personal mobile phone rang. The housekeeper answered the phone and we stood in the hallway waiting as she continued a loud personal conversation and told the manager to go get a key from the front desk. Because the new room faced a large, loud construction site, we were resolved to shower in one room and sleep in another. The next morning we found out our coffee machine wasn't working because the staff had cut the power cord because it didn't fit through the hole drilled into the shelf. They offered to bring us free coffee, and explained that the power was cut on all the coffee machines in all the rooms for this reason. This is about where I gave up.

The appearance of the property is fine from a distance, but there is glue, paint, and concrete drippings on most tile and metal surfaces. I was offered a discount, but even after refusing to pay for the first night I was charged for the next 2, despite the coffee machine, TV, gym, pool, and service not functioning. Nobody I know will ever...

This 2 days stay was the most dissatisfied and disappointing experience! I don’t even know where to start!

I booked this hotel as it’s introduced as a brand new hotel which had just commenced all services on 28Oct2018; after I had arrived the hotel, I was told that levels 15-18 are not ready for service yet; that the swimming pool and gym are also not ready yet. If I wanted to use a swimming pool or a gym, I could go to the intercontinental hotel next door, which is around 10 mins walking distance, or I could ask hotel staff to drive me over with 10 mins notice period........ I explained to the duty manager that it would be extremely embarrassing and unconfirtable for me to put myself in such a situation knowing that I won’t be properly dressed when going to a swimming pool. Guess what the response was?! - why would you dress improperly? Said the duty manager! Excuse me? Would you expect me to fully dress up for a swim in the pool?????

Secondly, on the advertisement there was absolutely nothing mentioning in regards with the unready services, knowing that I am only getting a room to stay without all the other services, why would I want to pay 15% service fee on top of the hotel rate?! I would rather stay at the intercon next door with a much cheaper rate!!!

Thirdly, the hotel rooms are absolutely a disgrace to a 4-5 star rated hotel! There are cracks on the wall everywhere- in the bath room, in the living area. Sofa is broken underneath with its broken pieces of materials hanging on the floor; floor matt is bumpy and hollow when walking on it. Bath tab and sink are filled with stains and residues, i have never seen such poor quality of a room not even in motels or service apartments that charges 1/5 of what this hotel charges!

The door man was also lazy on my first day of arrival. There was no greetings or whatsoever, he was on his phone all the time until I had called out on him to ask if he would be so kind to help me with my luggage, it was that time that he had finally looked up and away from his phone and came over to me, emotionless.....

When the above were communicated to the duty manger whom had questioned me regarding the dressing code when going to the pool and gym next door, he looked away and dismissively asked: “so what do you want me to do?”

In fact I would ask for a full refund and go to another hotel!!! But as I arrived the hotel at almost 12am, I was too exhausted to deal with such unprofessionalism until after the stay, and typing up this formal complaint to the IHG management. Such hotel should not be rated with any stars to be honest, there was no service, no facility, no qualified...

I’ve stayed at this hotel before and this second experience was not so great.

Check in was still very easy. The staff who worked the desk spoke good English and were friendly.

The room was nice and spacious, however because the air conditioning does not run when rooms are not occupied, when trying to make the room cooler by turning it on, it actually made it very muggy and humid. By the afternoon of the next day the room was finally cooled.

One down fall was that we called ahead to see if the pool was open as we stayed in the hotel before and we were told that “yes, it is open!” However, once we decided to go to the pool it was not. If you want to use the pool you will have to go all the way to the Intercontinental. Sucks!

The next worst/unpleasant part of my stay was the hotel manager. He was mostly in the restaurant area. He was very rude to me and my friend. Upon arriving to the “star” happy hour, he didn’t ask us for our room number and immediately said the star hour was over but it was only 18:00. I went back to my room to check our hand out and it was NOT over. As we walked back in, I showed him our paper and then he asked what room we were in and wanted to prepare the “star hour” meal. He also did not inform us of the changes of the star hour drinks. As we ordered another drink, he was very rude to us. Saying you can only have one, you will need to pay for this and where on the menu does it say free flow. As we tried to explain our previous stay and what we were given, he just kept saying we’ll give you another glass on the house. We didn’t accept as we were trying to make it clear if things have changed that is perfectly fine but the changes also need to be explained to guest, and nothing was explained to us. The new manager did not seem foreign friendly at all. The worst part was the manager not believing that we were guest of a premium suit room and made it very difficult for us to enjoy what we paid for.

We will not be staying at this Indigo...