Howard Johnson Caida Plaza Shanghai — Hotel in Shanghai

I am rarely motivated to write reviews. But after my experience this evening, I feel compelled to do so. ||I went to the spa at this hotel to have a massage as I have a bad back. It was the most terrible massage I have ever had. I have a Chinese massage at home every week, and I have had massages all over the world, so I do know what I am talking about here.. This one ranks in the bottom two I have ever had. ||Why? First, the masseuse cheated me by five minutes, which is always annoying (although it was so bad I was sort of glad for it to stop).. Second, the massage itself was weak and basically consisted of the women patting my muscles with little effort or attention, and certainly no care or interest. Third, the woman laughed repeatedly during the massage and kept saying "big big", I presume alluding to my body (I am five feet ten). Fourth, when I went to pay, she and her buddy tried to charge me too much, then - when I corrected them - insisted I pay with credit card and did not allow me to charge the fee to my room. Fortunately I had cash as I would not have trusted this person with my credit card for one second. All up, awful experience.||Oh, and this reminds me, we checked in to this hotel on a Thursday night. The next day - without using our card anywhere else in China - we had multiple fraudulent charges on our credit card. We had to cancel our card immediately. Ok, it could have been a coincidence, and we can't be sure it was the hotel. Maybe someone else in Australia fraudulently used out card just at the very same time... But after the SPA experience I am now even more suspicious. ||The only thing going for this hotel is the location as its near the universities. Like other people have said, the service is not very good. I can forgive poor English, but the staff are also quite rude. Next time I intend to stay in the centre and catch a taxi to the university each day instead of staying in...

I am rarely motivated to write reviews. But after my experience this evening, I feel compelled to do so. ||I went to the spa at this hotel to have a massage as I have a bad back. It was the most terrible massage I have ever had. I have a Chinese massage at home every week, and I have had massages all over the world, so I do know what I am talking about here.. This one ranks in the bottom two I have ever had. ||Why? First, the masseuse cheated me by five minutes, which is always annoying (although it was so bad I was sort of glad for it to stop).. Second, the massage itself was weak and basically consisted of the women patting my muscles with little effort or attention, and certainly no care or interest. Third, the woman laughed repeatedly during the massage and kept saying "big big", I presume alluding to my body (I am five feet ten). Fourth, when I went to pay, she and her buddy tried to charge me too much, then - when I corrected them - insisted I pay with credit card and did not allow me to charge the fee to my room. Fortunately I had cash as I would not have trusted this person with my credit card for one second. All up, awful experience.||Oh, and this reminds me, we checked in to this hotel on a Thursday night. The next day - without using our card anywhere else in China - we had multiple fraudulent charges on our credit card. We had to cancel our card immediately. Ok, it could have been a coincidence, and we can't be sure it was the hotel. Maybe someone else in Australia fraudulently used out card just at the very same time... But after the SPA experience I am now even more suspicious. ||The only thing going for this hotel is the location as its near the universities. Like other people have said, the service is not very good. I can forgive poor English, but the staff are also quite rude. Next time I intend to stay in the centre and catch a taxi to the university each day instead of staying in...

Stayed here as a part of an Exoticca tour, sourced via Nimbus Travel. Not a luxury hotel as advertised.||Room was very tired and the hotel as a whole needs refurbishment. Curtains were old and did not fit the windows. The shower leaked badly and we had to plug it each time with a towel. Toilet also did not work properly. Reported to Reception but nothing happened, not sure they understood as English was only spoken by one or two. In saying that the staff were friendly.||The normal complimentary water was provided and two tea bags and although we managed to get more tea bags it was a bit of a struggle.||Breakfast was mixed, hot food left out to go cold. You can ask for an omelette to be cooked but the cook refused to do this twice until I called a manager to resolve. She gave me such a filthy look and tried to get me to take cold fried eggs cooked earlier. In saying that there was a range of food and lots of fresh melon.||Hotel is almost 15 minutes from the metro, not ideally located with a number of restaurants close by but this was hit and miss. There is a Burger King just to one side, which I had to rely on once as the Chinese food was not good!||There is an exchange facility in the shop there which offered a reasonable rate fir the...