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Shanghai Westin Hotel Review: A Unique Experience of Old Money Luxury Hotel

As the second stop in the university student hotel check-in plan, I was fortunate to join a friend with a prestigious Titanium Card to start the Marriott Q1 event and stay at the Shanghai Westin Hotel, the famous lotus-shaped building on the Bund. The overall experience had highlights as well as shortcomings.

💰 Average Cost

The standard room price is consistently over 1k, placing it in the mid-to-high-end range. Considering the hotel's location, supporting services, and facilities, it offers good value for guests seeking quality accommodation and Bund views; however, for budget-conscious consumers, the price is relatively high.

🏘️ Room Type/Layout

The hotel is divided into the Executive Tower and the Crown Tower, with a total of 567 rooms spread across floors 9 to 26. This time, I used an upgrade voucher to stay in a 19th-floor Executive Suite, with a room size of 72 square meters, spacious. The layout is a standard one-bedroom, one-living room, two-bathroom setup, with the main bathroom equipped with double sinks. The view includes the Oriental Pearl Tower, the "Three-piece set," Customs House, and North Bund, offering an excellent panorama. However, due to the hotel's long operation since 2002, the style leans towards old money luxury, which may not suit the younger generation's aesthetic.

🛌 Amenities/Facilities

The room is well maintained, with carpets and sofas showing no signs of aging. Drinking water is provided by Bichun, and there is a coffee machine, but the tea bags, coffee capsules, and coffee powder are nothing special. The welcome fruit is a standard set of three, somewhat ordinary. The mini bar is chargeable, and next to the TV are higher-priced Fiji water and alcohol. Turndown service included laying out a floor towel and slippers, providing a breakfast room service menu and laundry price list, and offering a bottle of lavender body lotion. However, the bedding arrangement was not very reasonable, making it difficult to pull out the covered part when getting into bed, and no weather information for the next day was provided. The hotel has a lounge on the 5th floor, open from 06:30 to 22:00, offering lounge breakfast and all-day happy hour with cookies, tea, coffee, and soft drinks. The food is abundant but some dishes need improvement, with a wide selection of alcoholic beverages. The computer area is equipped with two computers capable of black-and-white printing. The gym and swimming pool were not experienced this time.

🧹 Soundproofing/Hygiene

Soundproofing is good, with almost no outside noise heard inside the room. Hygiene is excellent, with both rooms and public areas cleaned thoroughly, especially the room maintenance, which is rare for an older hotel.

💗 Other Tips

1. Hotel Location and Parking: The hotel is excellently located on the Bund. It offers free underground parking, very convenient for guests driving themselves.
2. Service Experience: Some guests reported service shortcomings, such as no one attending when getting off the car, slow check-in, and doormen paying more attention to foreign guests while neglecting others during check-out. However, some feel the overall service meets basic needs, and in some details, like turndown service, although flawed, thoughtful gestures like providing body lotion are appreciated.
3. Dining Experience: The lounge happy hour features special steamed dim sum and four flavors of ice cream. The Western pastries are good and vary regularly. The Chinese soup’s beef brisket is delicious, but the main dish fried noodles lack flavor, and the handmade spring rolls have a good texture. Before closing, more steamed dim sum is replenished. Breakfast downstairs will be shared in the next article. It is a kind of