The Yuluxe Sheshan, Shanghai, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel — Hotel in Shanghai

I have a membership card where you pay for one year and get discounts using the card and coupons to use toward restaurants, spa, etc. So needless to say, my family and I spend quite a bit of time there.||||I waited for my family to arrive, so I had some time to kill. I waited 1.5 hours in the lobby bar (called Latitude) until someone finally came to me and asked if I'd like something to drink/eat. They were approaching other people, but not me...I'm guessing because I am a foreigner and they don't speak much English, but I speak enough Chinese to order a drink or a meal. I didn't like the options for the afternoon tea, so I decided to go to Le Cafe, the lobby restaurant.||||I didn't want to eat too much and wanted to have a beer. Their selection of beers on the menu was very nice from Belgian to local beers, but they didn't have any of them. Only Tsing Tao, Harbin, Budweiser, and Corona. I ordered a caesar salad and added prawns (notice the "s") and a bottle of Budweiser. The waiter was afraid to pour the beer (because I don't think she knew exactly how to, not sure) It took almost 30 minutes to arrive and was a little bit of salad and one overcooked prawn. ||||We went to the pool with our 16-month-old and she really does have a good time in the kids section. Being from Florida, I understand pool upkeep and how difficult it is, but the pool (especially the kids section) needs a serious cleaning. You can see where they stopped cleaning under the slide and other areas that looked like it needed more time to clean, so they just skipped over them. The build-up of algae was very noticeable.||||My wife and I wanted to go to the hotel bar to relax a little and have some drinks, but the bar was apparently closed this day because of a business meeting/event at the hotel. I didn't really understand why they needed to close the bar for this reason but was a little disappointed we couldn't have a little fun. We ended up ordering some food and a bottle of wine to our room and just stayed in the room...||||The next day I was happy to enjoy the all you can eat dim sum at the Yu Palace. I don't eat meat, but I eat seafood, fish, etc. I accept this issue whenever I go to a restaurant but I don't think it's too difficult to navigate a restaurant menu when there are seafood and vegetable options. When I mentioned this to the waiter, I was informed that all the dumplings had pork, even the shrimp and vegetable ones. So the waiter ordered all the options he could that didn't have meat. All of the dishes were bland and poorly presented, the tofu was cold, and the scallop congee had no scallops! Had to send it back and they added some scallops. The waiter apologized during the ordering process and was trying to avoid any other confrontation throughout the meal. I know this because as I left the Yu Palace, the waiter and another person were at the host stand both playing with their phones and avoiding saying goodbye, or thank you for coming.||||The first time I went to this hotel was a great experience and I always enjoyed coming back, but over the last year, the service has gone down. Even when my family and I eat the dinner buffet, the food quality is getting worse. And is usually very overcrowded because the hotel offers deals on phone apps for a discounted buffet (I believe this also cheapens the food/service). So people who aren't staying at the hotel come there for dinner. I'd like to continue going there, but not at this level of service for the...

A very large, well maintained hotel. We had a large room enough to fit 2 kids, comfy beds, and very quiet even though there were others on our floor. In off season, we didn't encounter anyone who spoke English, but they recognize our Marriot status and we got upgraded and late check-out. ||For kids there is the indoor pool...a children's pool that's about 1.5ft deep and a larger lap pool, big enough for real exercise. Even in the dead of winter it's not too cold, although the floor is freezing and the large pool room is drafty. The sauna, steam room and jacuzzi are in the locker rooms.||They also enjoyed the squirrel club which is a large room consisting of ball pits and slides. Costs 50rmb/child. I'd say if your kid is over 7 he is too old. We wandered around the outside lake area and gardens, empty and very peaceful. Outdoor pools and water areas closed in winter. ||We ate at all the restaurants because if you don't have a car, you need to Didi everywhere. Breakfast buffet is pretty much everything under the sun. Lunch at le cafe is pricey, food came very slow (they did warn me). The pizza was actually really good. We ate at the shandy one night, which is a bar/gameroom. Looked like a good bar, and you can play billiards, ktv for a price. They serve chinese bar food aka kebabs, it's a lot of food, but they don't have a kitchen so it comes from upstairs and is a little cold. The servers were very nice to our kids and gave snacks as we waited. The bar has an outdoor seating area that's probably great not in the middle of winter.||The best restaurant was yu garden on the 5th floor. Chinese menu but it has pictures, everything we ordered was fantastic and presentation beautiful. Every dish is accentuated with little baby shrimp. The servings are large too. Also, tons of families so they are very used to children. It was also the most crowded places with the families eating pretty early, so even in the middle of the week it was pretty full at 6. ||The only negative about the hotel, is you should have a good understanding (we didn't) of where you want to go and how to get there. We used didi but I think some attractions could be walked or biked or bussed more easily. On didi FYI, this place is called le...

We arrived Le Meridien around 1430 last Saturday Aug. 9th. And we were informed that no room was available during that time. It is okay to wait as the official check in hour is 1500.

But it disappointed me that when we check how long we shall wait, the reception staff told me that she had no idea. Even worse, she indicated that we arrived earlier ("3点不是还没到嘛") when I asked why no room was ready for check in. Then I asked if a room would be ready when I came back at 3pm sharp, the reception staff said no idea again. It is really annoying to hear such kind of irresponsible and unprofessional answer from a well trained (supposed to be) reception staff of reputable hotels like Le Meridien. She asked us to leave mobile number and keep waiting, and disappeared.

In the next 2 hours, my mobile phone kept quite. And we have to turn to other reception staff for help. Finally, we got our room key at 1637 with help from a boy named Paul. I'd like to show my thanks to Paul, who is well trained, polite, helpful and very proactive.

The whole check-in process took me more than 2 hours, which was never happened in the past, in particular for a late afternoon check-in.

And one weird tip I learned during waiting is that 'you should go with the standard room instead of suite, guests of suite usually asks for late check out and it takes longer time to do the house keeping.' What logic!

The room is good in general. But two more things disappointed me again Both in room phones do not work properly. We need dial up for services with our mobile phones We were asked to pay for a deposit for a wine opener - refundable when we return. Again, it never happened in a hotel like this.

Pool is good. Chinese restaurant is...