Shangri-La Hotel Hangzhou

What People are saying

Good service (in the end) but.....

Jonathan Don 31/08/2017 05:36

I'll let you know about or experience and then tell you about the hotel. I also have to start by saying I've never had to complain about a room before.

We booked a deluxe garden view room and our guide telephoned the hotel in advance to guarantee a West Wing room. (The east wing is a buggy ride away from the main reception). When we checked in, in the evening we were given a lake view room in the east wing being told this was an 'upgrade'. The room stank of cigarette smoke and we immediately had to ask to move. The bell boy rang the manager who confirmed they would move is to a better room also in the east wing. This was a suite, but also a smoking room. The bell boy left us and we had to telephone the manager ourselves. We told him it wasn't good enough to be put in another smoking room and we would be happy with the original room booked. He told us that this was better and the west wing was fully booked. The east wing was apparently all smoking rooms. After being told at least 5 times the west wing was fully booked and there were no more rooms available and that our original booking was no longer available he amazingly found a room in the west wing and we moved again. It was such a struggle to explain to him why we weren't happy and being on our honeymoon was not a pleasant way to start our stay. We asked why our original room had been given away with no answer. Being lied to quite blatantly that the west wing was fully booked was aggravating. The duty manager came to collect us personally and told us again how the west wing was fully booked - apart from the room we were being taken too I had to point out.

The room we ended up in was a car park view (so still not the garden view we originally booked) but we just wanted to unpack and get to sleep. The air con didn't work very well but I did not want to complain again

In the heat of the moment, however, I lodged a complaint through the hotel website. It was only following this that good service came out. The following day our guide got a call from the hotel to apologise. We were offered another upgrade to another suite, but which we turned down as we were checking out early and didn't see the point in having to pack up and move again, especially as we were on a full day tour. Instead they offered us dinner and a bottle of wine to make up for the issues the previous evening. This we thought was good service and we were met in the evening by the manager and taken to dinner.

If it wasn't for this the review would be a 1.

All this aside the hotel itself though, as other reviewers have pointed out, is very dated and quite disappointing. It reminded me of a Bournemouth hotel I stayed at in the 1980s. Considering it is a 5* hotel you expect more. Even our guides admitted it's very old but it has a very good location on the lake. G20 leaders stayed there a few years ago and it feels like the hotel is hanging onto this to maintain its high end status.

Breakfast is fine with a decent selection but the food isn't anything special.

Overall you want more from a 5* hotel. There may be other hotels round the edge of the lake that might be worth a look though.

Shangri la hotel, Hangzhou

Somnathwaghon 29/08/2017 18:28

Amazing hotel to stay in. Amazing look.rooms are very auspicious too. There is lake right in front of hotel.few rooms gives amazing view of Lake.simply awesome. The hotel has distinction of hosting few guest like Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin etc.

Very dated hotel; requires significant upgrade

Vivian Ton 23/08/2017 10:47

Hotel has two wings and it's quite confusing. Car service took me to the east wing,and I then realized my room was in west wing. Signage not clear and it took 15 mins for my driver to figure it out. Hotel staff was not very helpful either.

The room must have not been renovated at least the last 20 years. Bathroom fixtures requires significant upgrade.

Having said that, location of this hotel is excellent, as the famous "West Lake" is right in front of the hotel. I had a glimpse of it in the morning.

Front desk staff is below Shangri La's high standard. Post check out, my invoice was stuffed into a small envelop with half of it sticking out of the envelop.

I am a huge fan of Shangri-La and have stayed in many of their hotels in China. Have to say this one ranks bottom of all the Shangri La hotels that I've visited.

Great stay

汉民 郭on 05/08/2017 23:41

I stayed at the West Wing of the Shangri La hotel which could be the old wing, it used to be called Hangzhou Hotel. The location is just within walking distance to the West Lake and the famed LouwaiLou restaurant is also close by. The room was large and cozy. Bed was soft and although I just arrived from San Francisco, had no problems sleeping through the night. There was no traffic noise at all.
The only drawback was the heat outside. Will definitely stay here again.

a bit disapointing

jerry68bison 23/07/2017 13:08

This hotel was a luxury hotel but it needs to be refreshed.
The restaurant room looks more like a cafeteria than a five star hotel restaurant. The food was good but not exceptoonal. You could see that at its prime time, the hotel was fantastic. For example the furnishing in the room is made of heavy wood... not cheap things.