Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai Review
Guest Blogger Vishal Patel and his fiancée (RJ) present: Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai review…..
With RJ’s conference being at this hotel, for convenience, we decided that it would be best to stay here too. The Kempinski brand has a strong European heritage, with hotels in over 30 countries. Our hotel was located in the Pudong region, which is the main financial/business district of Shanghai.
It was an easy taxi ride from the airport, which cost 150RMB (Approx $30AUD), there were lots of taxi touts at PVG looking for business, but having been pre-warned of this we ensured that we went to the official taxi stands.
I had previously advised the hotel of our early arrival into Shanghai and they advised that they would try and ensure that our room was ready on arrival – this was not to be the case.
The staff on check in advised that we had been upgraded to a river view room which would be ready in an hour and we were accompanied to the executive lounge on the 28th floor whilst we were waiting for our room.
The executive lounge is an impressive space, and boasts superb views of Shanghai. There are several meeting rooms, a lounge area and a dining area.
We both opted to have breakfast in the lounge and within 10 minutes a member of staff came to inform us that our room was ready and we had been upgraded to a suite on the 9th floor.
The suite was certainly impressive, with all luxuries, including a rainfall shower and our own personal sauna! However, the views were not so impressive, with part our room overlooking a construction site. With it being RJ’s birthday, the hotel arranged a cake, which I find is always a nice touch.
After 2 nights, RJ requested that we be moved back into what was supposed to be our original room with the river views. The suite was fantastic, but the space was wasted on us.
The hotel staff were very accommodating of this request and moved us very promptly into another suite on the 18th floor, boasting river views. This particular suite was a little smaller and had no sauna, but a bath tub instead. Throughout our stay, housekeeping was always excellent, with the room being serviced daily and a turndown service also provided. Beds were comfortable and like most hotels there was also an in-room comfort menu. RJ and I are both picky when it comes to pillows, I was happy with the ones provided in the room, but when RJ requested pillows from the menu, we were told that they weren’t available.
Dining
We chose to eat breakfast in the executive lounge on all but 1 of the days. Breakfast consisted of a variety of buffet items and a small range of made to order items. Whilst the quality of food was good, the variety did not change during our stay and by the 3rd or 4th day, we both were a little bored of the options provided.
We did have breakfast on the ground floor café one morning, but found this to be very crowded and although there was a wide range of options, we both preferred the peace and quiet of the executive lounge and it’s impressive views.
Executive Lounge
Besides breakfast, the executive lounge also provided:
-Afternoon tea from 14:30-17:30, which included snacks and tea, coffee and soft drinks.
-Happy hour from 17:30-20:00 included alcoholic beverages, hot and cold snacks.
Although there was a wide variety of savoury and sweet options available, this did not change on a daily basis. Some of the options are placed out for Afternoon tea and left through to the evening and do go stale, the croissants in particular. RJ doesn’t eat pork and beef, the lounge staff were accommodating and ensured that vegetarian options were made available.
Final Thoughts
Overall, a very pleasant stay at the Grand Kempinski. The staff are very welcoming and accommodating, the rooms very comfortable. Some more variety of food options for breakfast and in the executive lounge would be nice, but that’s just the foodie in me being particular. Anyway, we didn’t come to Shanghai to eat in hotels!!
Brisbane to Singapore Flight Review
