Shanghai Hengshan Hotel — Hotel in Shanghai

This is my second stay here. Let me start out with the positives: ||1. This hotel is located in the French concession area, one of the nicer areas in Shanghai, with plenty of bars, restaurants, and shopping malls within a short walk. ||2. This is one the first few (maybe even the very first) 5 star hotels in Shanghai. The lobby is fairly mediocre but the rooms are nice and large with dark wood paneling everywhere. My room looked over the park which was quite nice and came with executive lounge privileges. ||3. The buffet is not bad. Plenary of options for both western and Chinese palettes, although nothing was particularly delicious. ||Now for the main negative: the hotel has a very old HSBC system. This means that there are only two modes: heating or cooling at a given time. When I was there on three of the days Shanghai was unseasonably cool, which meant that the hotel did not turn on the AC, and even in AC mode, the fan blasted hot air into the room. I got a fan and opened the windows but the outside air wasn’t cool enough to cool the room, and I was very uncomfortable on three of the four nights. I also spoke with the management, which resulted in the AC being turned on for only one of the nights.... ||The rooms are also a bit dated. The wood paneling is nice but it looks old. This wasn’t a big negative for me though. However, any hotel that cannot provide an environment for a basic good night’s sleep doesn’t deserve high marks, and hence the overall negative review. ||Having said that, I like my room to be on the cooler side. So, if you are fond of a hot room or don’t care, this hotel will be...

The outer appearance of the hotel is impressive. The lobby is beautiful and I thought the breakfast buffet was very good. That was the only meal I had at the hotel. But once we left the lobby I was somewhat disappointed. Some of the carpeted areas had ridges, which mean they needed to be restretched. This is the first sign of lagging maintenance. The room was not great. The air conditioning would not cool the room and nothing changed despite our calls to the front desk. We had a tub shower which I don't like, although it appears from other photos that there may be showers in other rooms. Several of the cabinet doors would not close. The TV channel reception was poor. For the price of the hotel I thought is was over rated. We moved to the Vienna around the corner and had a much better experience...

This hotel is very conveniently located close to a metro station, with a nice park aside and a shopping mall with a 10 minute walk. You are 20 minutes by metro from People Square (metro close to the bund, to the museum, etc.). For those who have to visit Shanghai Jiao Tong University downtown campus it is also very close. The hotel is at the corner of two streets with beautiful trees.||The rooms are nice and clean; the breakfast (buffet) is fine. ||My only criticism: it was difficult to feel "quiet" since another building with workers was very close (a few meters) from the room windows. We had to keep the curtain closed. ||However, I will come back to this place when I'll get back...