Ramada Plaza Pudong — Hotel in Shanghai

I've just come back from a recent trip to Shanghai and I was based in the Ramada Plaza Pudong hotel for the best part of a month.||I was originally booked into the Marriott directly opposite the Ramada on Xinjinqiao Road, but word got back to me from the powers that be that this was far too expensive for the likes of me, so I rebooked into the Ramada which was, on average half the price or more when compared to the Marriott. This was for good reason...||I arrived at the hotel to an okay looking reception, plenty of space, but after some hoo-hah at the front desk, with a borderline rude receptionist I was checked in and I went to my room.||The room was, well, it was dated, very dated, obscenely dated. This is not a modern looking hotel, it is straight out the 90's.||The room itself was a decent size, big enough for a king sized (I think) bed, a weak (in stability) table and office chair, a box chair, and wired phones (I've not seen these in about a decade).||The bathroom was also a nice size with sliding door, and a nice rain shower overhead, erm, shower head... However, this too was very dated, even though the toilet was full of buttons and tech it was old tech. Think QVC level of tech and you're pretty much there.||There are some USB-A ports built into sockets, I wish I knew this, as everything I took with me was USB-C, but luckily I managed to get an USB-A to C adapter from work. This is how dated this hotel is - USB-A???||However, I did manage to get some decent night's sleep there. The bed was comfortable with different firmness of pillows, and blackout(ish) curtains. The room was also fairly clean, apart from the net curtains which were frankly filthy, as were the windows. I did not want to touch anything that side!||As for location of the hotel, DO NOT stay here if you are a tourist. For me it was near perfect, only 10 minutes from work via foot, and it is just round the corner from several restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, etc. ||It is also about 15/20 minutes away from Lantian Road metro station or Taierzhuang Road metro station, and also maybe 20/25 minutes away from the LaLaport Shopping Mall.||It's a decent business hotel with zero frills.||It has an in-house swimming pool (never opened during my near month long stay), a couple of restaurants (the Innovations western restaurant was always empty, but staff were nice. and food pretty good), a gym (never saw it thanks to long hours at work and tiredness - excuses I know), and there is a little shop selling noodles, pop, and snacks. A dude in the shop was extremely rude and was absolutely besides himself when I dared to pay for my drinks with cash! Well excuse me for wanting to buy things with what is still currently legal tender.||Check out was a breeze, and I didn't find any erroneous charges on my bill.||This is a business hotel through and through. Do not expect to have fun in this hotel or to enjoy your stay immensely. It will suffice if you're in the...

This stay started off ok and then went downhill incredibly quick.Stayed over Thanksgiving time. Check in on Thursday and upgraded to suite. Decor inside was ok, but room does look outdated. Woke up in the late morning to construction noise on the floor above me. No notice was given anywhere in the room or upon check in to expect construction. Front desk offers to change me rooms to one floor below. Comparable room but it was still very dirty. Back down to the front desk who said to give them 30 minutes for housekeeping to clean and then come back. Came back in 30 minutes and it looked (smelled) as though the housekeeper did minimal to clean except spray some room deodorizer. Several long hairs stuck to various parts of the bathroom wall - in very obvious places. New room in worse condition than the previous one. Peeling and water stained wallpaper. Highly stained sofa (see attached photo). Managed to stay one more evening then on night 3 (Saturday night) started to hear banging outside the window area of this room. Looked and saw it was a heavy gauge rope banging against the side of the building with the wind. No way I was going to sleep with that so I went back down to the front desk. Heard one of the desk staff say in Chinese “The angry laowai is back” to her colleague. Explained the situation this time and she brought out the manager. Manager went up to the room to video this situation so he could record it. Offered to get a car for me (hotel paying) to head back to my company on Sunday. Told him I would take him up on that tomorrow and would check in at the front desk when checking out.Checked with the front desk on Sunday when checking out and no one knew what I was referencing from the previous night’s manager. My standards are NOT high when staying in a hotel. But it is realistic to expect my stay to be quiet and room visibly clean. I would not pay to stay here again and cannot recommend anyone this hotel. Hope I could get a personalised response versus some English language form...

A mixed feeling after a six-week stay in a total of four rooms:

Positive; +Friendly staff +Criticism is taken seriously and they are well encouraged to optimize +Good breakfast +Laundry service is excellent, but comes with a matching price tag +Staff is very reliable, you can leave anything in your room without worrying about it to disappear +European power adapter and USB charging ports available in every room +The location is quite nice, you may take relaxing walks or a good dinner just around the corner +The gym was not crowded when I went there each morning, machines were working fine +The beds were very comfortable +Good daily room service

Negative: -price level for dinner is way above any sourrounding restaurant, but lacks the dedicated service you would expect to make it worth -some rooms need attention to outfitting, such as mould in shower or working condition of aircon (mine tended to make noise only, regardless of settings - I chose the open the window instead) -in general noise insulation of rooms is not the best, you may hear a lot from your neighbours -when large crowds book the hotel at weekends (such as sports teams) there is no proper organization of breakfast times. Those masses empty the buffet in no time, leaving anyone who did not arrive ten minutes before opening with an empty stomach and very long faces -the pool is still not usable -the money exchange machine did not always work

For a business stay I would choose it without hesitation. For a pleasure stay I would look for...