With only 24 hours to spend in Shanghai, our hotel criteria was twofold. The first was to be in a great location and the second was to not break the bank. In doing some online research, I stumbled onto the blog Going Awesome Places. In the post about where to stay in Shanghai, the author recommended the Radisson New World (the luxury option) and the Charms Hotel Shanghai (the budget option) as good choices for those wanting to stay near the centrally located People’s Square.
The author described the Charms Hotel as no frills, which was fine because we’d be out all day and really only needed a place to sleep. So I forwarded the blog post to David to get his input. He thought the Charms Hotel would be perfect for our needs, and when we saw that rooms were $35 a night, we decided to book right away.
During booking, however, we noticed that the $35 rooms had no windows! We didn’t know anything about hotels in China—maybe this was pretty normal for Chinese hotels or it was a sign to find a new hotel. Somehow, we didn’t treat this as a sign to find a new hotel, so we booked “upgraded” rooms with windows for $70. For comparison, the Radisson New World had rooms starting at $105, so the Charms was still the cheaper option.
Dakota was a late joiner to our Shanghai trip and his mom was paying for his room. She booked him the $35 room and David and I had fun giving him crap for it. On the train ride to Shanghai, we all had a good laugh wondering what his room would be like.
Location
We arrived in Shanghai around noon on Tuesday after the 4.5 hour train ride from Beijing. We took a quick subway ride to the People’s Square stop and then walked to the hotel.
The hotel’s location really is pretty perfect. It’s situated a block from Nanjing Road East, which is Shanghai’s famous pedestrian-only shopping street. It’s close to tons of restaurants, a ten minute walk to People’s Square to the west and a 15 minute walk to the Bund to the east.
Lobby
The hotel opened in 2002 and after 17 years, it looks old and tired. The lobby looks decent in pictures, but in person you can tell it’s aged. We didn’t spend much time in the lobby outside of check-in.
Checking In
When the three of us walked in, there was only one staff member at the front desk. Completing check in took an abnormal amount of time but we never figured out why. We couldn’t really ask any questions because it was difficult to communicate with the staff in English.
David was first to check-in, while Dakota and I waited in line behind him. After a few minutes, another staff member appeared at the front desk. He seemed to be doing various tasks and didn’t look at us, so we just remained in line. Then another customer walked up to the front desk and the other staff member started checking him in. Needless to say we were a little annoyed that the staff member didn’t waive Dakota or I over to get checked-in before this new customer.
While David was getting checked in, he joked about making sure he was given “the best” room in the hotel. The staff member didn’t seem to get the joke and actually upgraded him to a bigger room on a top floor. Dakota and I weren’t so lucky.
The Room
The hallway to the room was dingy and old. You could see nicks in the doorways and wear on the carpet in many areas.
The room was a little dark but the bed and sheets were clean. While David’s “upgraded” room was larger than mine, the carpet in his room was very dirty.
When I got to my room, I wanted to see what kind of view I got with the extra $35. When I opened the window shade, all I could see out the window was an interior courtyard with paper and/or garbage on the floor. I literally laughed out loud that the extra money I paid for the window room got me this view!
After spending 10 minutes in our rooms, we all met in the lobby to begin our Shanghai adventure. On the way to find lunch, we compared notes on our hotel rooms. David showed us a picture of the view from his room—a beautiful city view. When I showed them a picture of my view, we all roared with laughter at the stark contrast. And then Dakota said that his view was exactly the same as mine, so I’m not sure what the extra money I paid was for.
If I was staying more than one night or the staff spoke better English, I might’ve complained, but it just wasn’t worth it.
The Bathroom
The bathroom really grossed me out. The tile grout was discolored and/or covered with mold. I made sure to spend as little time in here as possible and debated whether I’d even take a shower.
The shower was the size of a phone booth and also had lots of discolored grout. There was a mirror in the shower, which I guess would be helpful if you were shaving your entire upper body!?!
Dining
There’s a Chinese restaurant and a Western restaurant located at the hotel, but we chose not to eat there. Based on the overall cleanliness in the hotel, none of us trusted the food.
Bottom Line
Overall the hotel was confusing. The shape of the hotel is a circle and has the courtyard in the middle. So all the rooms on the interior side of the hotel have the terrible courtyard view.
I also questioned whether every person at the hotel was a hotel guest or if some rooms were apartments. Also, based on the elevator buttons, several upper floors looked to be for businesses, so it made for a strange vibe.
We literally used the hotel only to sleep after a long day walking around Shanghai. For that reason, it didn’t ruin the trip and actually provided lots of laughs and funny memories. However, if I ever go to Shanghai again, I would not stay at this hotel.
In the end, David, Dakota and I survived our stay, but the hotel is old, dirty and in need of renovation.
