Sheraton Grand Shanghai Pudong Hotel & Residences — Hotel in Shanghai

Let me preface this review by saying that I stay at a lot of SPG properties throughout North America and Asia. Hotel Quality is awesome. Beautiful, modern, warm and inviting. The rooms are spacious and very comfortable. Per the other reviews, there is only Internet in the Lobby and in the Executive lounge. The connection is spotty but usable but they definitely need to get Wireless in the room! Gym is very nice and extremely sufficient as well as the long/large lap pool. We attended a tradeshow here and the hotel's location is convenient for business as it's located in Pu Dong and around the business centre of the city. Very convenient access to the Subway line 4 Tan Qiao. If you want to be in the middle of the action of restaurants and fun, Pu Xi is the way to go. I'm a platinum and had breakfast and cocktail/happy hour everyday during my stay. The food was very good. Selection was pretty good, quality was way above my expectations and the staff in the Executive lounge, perfect. I hope the hotel commends their Executive Lounge staff, because their service and attention made the bad stuff I mention below tolerable. The happy hour food is substantial enough that you could get away with just eating there for dinner if you didn't want a full meal. It probably has something to do with the fact that it's "hotel and residences" so the lounge and staff are associated with both sides. Either way, you will not be disappointed with their executive lounge here. Check in was quick but the staff member helping, although courteous, screwed up my account (or the system was messed up) because I was listed at Gold and not platinum which I've been for years. I had to show my platinum card. Things happen but I really don't think that it's OK for the hotel to make a mistake like this, only because it does effect the amenities that I receive. Another staff member noticed that they were having problems so asked me just just go up to the room first while they rectify the issue; which they did. It's just odd to me how something so simple can be messed up. Another thing the hotel messed up was the room I booked came with a 90 minute massage. When I went to use it at the SPA, the SPA said they needed a coupon from the front desk. During check in, the staff member didn't give me a coupon nor did he confirm that I had the massage. Long story short I spent about 20 minutes waiting for them to confirm and the front desk almost had to have me pull up my reservation confirmation. They, again, had me just go in and get the service while they sorted it out. The last negative thing is that after 60 minutes, some lady kept coming in and out of the room and telling me its 60 minutes and I explained again the situation so they kept going; but the massage was interrupted 2 more times in the last 30 minutes; which wasted it. My point, is that the hotel really needs to try to have their records straight and do a better job of managing the situation. I expected more out of the hotel in terms of execution, operationally. Overall I recommend this hotel in general and I hope they button up little things operationally because if they want my business on-going I do expect some of the above to run...

I stayed at the Sheraton for 7 days in September to attend a large conference at the Shanghai Expo Center. This was also my first trip to China. Upon check-in the hotel upgraded me to one of the residences in the other tower (not the main hotel tower). The room was nice and large with a separate kitchen, combo washer/dryer, living room area and large bathroom.

The room was very comfortable and the air conditioner worked really well (it was in the 90s when I was there). As a Platinum Member I was able to access the Sheraton Lounge for free (in the main hotel tower). It was a wonderful lounge that served breakfast in the morning with cocktails and reception bites in the evening. It was large, open and a wonderful place to work or relax. I spend many hours there during the day just because it was such an open space it was much nicer to work there than in my room. There is a small private meeting room located in the lounge as well as a private small computer center with printer, scanner and fax for lounge members (fees extra for printing, faxing, etc). Internet is free in the lounge. There is also a "residence lounge" in the other tower but it's only a seating area and not the Sheraton Club lounge with amenities that is offered in the other main hotel tower.

I didn't try the room service but I did go to the China Court restaurant in the hotel that was very good. They have a nice selection of Dim Sum and dinner entrees. Staff at the front desk, bellman and lounge staff spoke enough English for us to communicate effectively. Everyone was friendly and helpful and I enjoyed my stay at the hotel.

For those traveling by Shanghai Metro, the hotel is practically at a metro stop. It's literally across the street (also a stop right outside the hotel on the same side of the street). There are some ATMs in the lobby area between the hotel and residences tower which is also convenient and they will take US ATM/Debit cards. The hotel did provide at least 4 bottles of water per day free of charge. Unfortunately, the hotel Internet is not stable and several of us who were trying to connect to our offices via VPN were not successful. The connection would drop after 30 seconds. I tethered to my Blackberry when I needed to but that can...

Flight Crew Report-

Sheraton Pudong Room 2852

My crew checked into the hotel around 0530L on 09MAR13. Another First Officer and myself were to commercial out in less than ten hours. We requested ground transport for 1500L at check in and watched it being written. Due to our very short stay, I had asked the travel department to fax the outbound immigration paperwork to the hotel to be delivered to us on arrival. The fax was received but, the woman who checked us in refused to give us the paperwork. She stated that she needed it to make copies. I kindly asked her to place the fax under the room door when she was finished and explained we could not leave without it.

An hour before checkout, the paperwork was nowhere to be found. I called down to the front desk and my call was transferred twice before the paperwork was finally located and agreed to be sent up to my room. The other First Officer and I went to check out just prior to 1500L expecting to have our limo waiting. We discovered that it was not arranged as promised ten hours before. The two of us managed to make our flight but, the delay caused us uncertainty and grief.

Our brief visit to Shanghai was on a day that was unseasonably warm. The temperature reached 29C (84F). The air conditioning was intentionally switched off by the hotel. The thermostat on the wall showed an average room temperature of 26C (79F). I obtained a maximum of three hours sleep during my stay. The hotel exterior is heavily glassed, much like a greenhouse and the room felt like an incubator. In forty minute intervals, I awoke soaked in sweat and found it difficult to return to sleep. My colleague mentioned having the same experience. I would have been obliged to call in fatigued if I had been operating a flight. This was the second time in the past six days that rest was not achieved before a deadhead and find it surprising that operating crew members had been able to rest.

This Flight Crew Report is similar to my most recent FCR of a few days ago. Both reports express a gross lack of leadership of the hotel GMs in what seems to be ill placed “cost saving measures.” In reading past FCRs for this particular hotel, air conditioning issues had been...