We toured China for one month and we chose this hotel and paid a premium. We could not wait to check in as we had just spent 48 hours on a train from Lhasa, Tibet and were ready for a bit of luxury. The hotel certainly has the feel of a converted mansion with narrow corridors and one small elevator.

The room was absolutely sumptuous with antique Chinese style furniture. It was fairly large with a king size bed, an armoire and a heavy, oversized writing desk. The bathroom was equally luxurious with a large, glass enclosed shower and jacuzzi. The toilet was very modern although I could never figure out what the various buttons were for. One major problem with the hotel was the water supply. The shower water smelled so bad one shower was all I could muster and that was with my mouth closed tightly. Even my husband with his impaired sense of smell agreed.

The included breakfast was also not very good. It was served in the room on a tray with choices made by the hotel. The tray was always covered with spilled coffee and much of the food we did not eat. It seemed very wasteful.

The service in the hotel was nonexistent. There was a group of local Chinese bureaucrats coming in for a meeting and this was the entire focus of the staff of the hotel. In addition, every day, just around the corner from our room on the way to the elevator, there was a bin of dirty linens. This place has an incredibly beautiful facility without any management that knows how to run a luxury hotel.

If you are coming to Shanghai, stay on the Bund, in a room with a great view of the water. I wish I had.

We used TA for booking this hotel and were not sure what to expect as there were some mixed reviews. Overall, it was a satisfactory stay for us, but of all the hotels we stayed at in a one month stay in South East Asia, it would rank near the bottom. Here are both the pros and cons as we saw them.

Yes, the hotel is a lovely old mansion with beautiful architecture. The rooms, while small, have beautiful, lush carpet and lovely period furniture. The sleeping room was tight, with little in the way of space to store clothes (almost none) and little in the way of space to put things. The best feature of the room was the large bathroom, which had a nice shower and a full size jacuzzi tub (an excellent feature save for the jacuzzi jets did not work). The bed was comfortable and the linens were nice.

The hotel is well located, a short distance (500m) from a metro stop on the excellent and cheap Shanghai metro that we used every day. It is down a quiet street and there are lots of restaurants and bars nearby. It has lovely gardens out front (but no where to sit to enjoy them) and is quiet once you are inside the walls.

So, that is the good, here is what we didnt like. Breakfast is served only in the room, even though they have plenty of dining facilities. Normally, room service would be nice but the room was so small that you essentially have to eat on your bed. That would be tolerable if the breakfast were great, but it was awful, the worst we had in a month of breakfasts included with hotels in Asia. We tried both the Chinese and English style breakfasts and they were terrible. First we started with the Chinese breakfast and were happy to see it included won ton soup. But the soup was bland, with only a few wontons, no greens and it was complelely cold. It was inedible. Also served was a terrible tasting juice, cold coffee and they forgot cream and sugar. The next day we opted for the english breakfast hoping that that might be better, and again we got cold coffee, dry toast and uncooked bacon and sausage. It was so uncooked that it was not edible. We are not fussy eaters - we eat street food with locals when we travel, and are game to try anything. This was simply bland food served cold two days in a row. The last morning we mentioned, politely, these things and especially asked that they please try and cood the bacon and sausages. Same result, uncooked food served cold. We gave up and went out for wonton and dumplings on the street.

The other complaint I would have was actually mentioned by several other reviews. And that is that they do not seem interested in their guests. Each day we were there, there was some important function going on - one day it took up the whole lobby and it was awkward coming in and out of the hotel as you felt you were intruding and in the way. There were tons of staff running around and catering to all of the attendees at these functions (who could not have been guests as the hotel is very small and there were so many there) and again it seemed we were in the way. I have no problem if their business model is to cater to local businessmen for business events that are more important to them then travellers and tourists, but if that is the case, then don't take in travellers and tourists. Otherwise, accomodate them and make them feel welcome. We never felt like the staff were there to provide services, and the few times we asked for information we got little in the way of assistance.

Another small point. We arrived early in Shanghai (6:00am) and I called about an early check in since we travelled over night. They accomodated us but only after we agreed to pay a half day room rate (and were politely told that that did not include breakfast that day - we didn't realize that that was actually a blessing). Over the course of our month in Asia (which included Vietnam, Laos and Camboida), we often had early check ins and late check outs, and were never charged and were always accomodated. Yes, the hotel did allow us a later check out (1:30om) for free, which we appreciated, but if the room had been available when we checked in, they could have offered it up for free. This compared to a hotel we stayed at in Hue, Vietnam which gave us a free room upgrade for three nights, and one in Hanoi that offered a free room upgrade for one night.

Lastly, and this to me was inexcusable, the hotel does not have any public computers to use in the lobby or elsewhere. We were travelling only with an iPhone (to keep our luggage size down) and had been using hotel computers everywhere to check flights, do research on what to do in the town, make reservations etc. They did offer us a laptop for one hour to use in the room (they wanted to charge $30 to use longer than an hour!) so we tried that, but it was old, would not load properly and was essentially unusable. We asked about an internet cafe - an annoyance to have to go to every time we wanted to go online - but they could not tell us where to find one. Come on Pei Mansion! Buy a couple of computers and put them in the lobby for your guests. It is inexcusable in this day and age, and at the price charged for the rooms, not to have computers available.

This could be a very, very nice hotel. It is a beautiful building and money has been spent on furnishings, but as one earlier reviewer noted, they havent seem to have figured out that they are running a hotel`and that service matters. Nice furniture and architecture does not make a nice hotel. It is only a start. As it stands now, we would not go back to this hotel and would not recommend it.

I agree with everything written in the excellent and complete review by "love2travelsydney".
My husband and I stayed for 6 nights having traveled through China for a month. This was the highlight of all the hotels we stayed at! We only chose boutique hotels throughout our China stay.
The staff was most helpful and went out of their way to book tickets, write in BIG Chinese letters the places we wanted to go. Perfectly located near the Portman Ritz Carlton that housed some terrific redtsurants and stores. The bathroom was truly amazing!

This is a wonderful, historical old home (build in the 1930s) which has recently been renovated into a boutique hotel with a luxurious and elegant feel to it. It is a combination of Colonial, with its lovely design and architecture and ancient Chinese with its traditional style Chinese furniture. The foyer is grand and stylish with deep pile carpet, lounges, tall ceilings which opens to a large, walled front garden in traditional Chinese style with gold fish ponds, wondering paths and little bridges. To one room off the foyer/reception is another room which houses an amazing spiral staircase, which gives testimony to the building’s grand “hey-day”.

The room we had (which wasn’t top of the line) was certainly big enough for us. It had lush carpets, a big and reasonably comfortable bed, TV, a large traditional writing desk, good air conditioning, a safe and cupboard space. The interesting thing was the safe wasn’t secured down within the cupboard. The furniture is period, dark wood, Chinese style with light fittings, bedroom and bathroom doors to match the style. The wardrobe had see-through doors with complementary robes and slippers. There was tea/coffee making facilities and complementary chocolates – a nice touch. Breakfast is served in the room and it was nice enough.

The bathroom was magnificent with the biggest and deepest bathtub I’ve ever seen in a hotel room. So big it had a step to be able to get in and out. The tiles were marble inlay and the bathroom had gold trim on a clear and frosted glass divider and a mirror the length of the bathtub. The shower fittings are up-market and complementary products were the lovely “L’Occitane en Provence” brand. The towels were thick and large. The toilet was both a toilet and bidet in one and has to be seen to be believed. Everything was clean and spotless. This room certainly made for a rich and lush feel to our stay.

The location is reasonably good and close to the city centre. If you’re after name-brand shopping then this is the area for you with just a short walk to the very up-market shopping area of Shanghai. We only stayed for 2 nights and therefore didn’t really get a feel for the area. We walked a long way to the train station but think we could have walked to one much closer. Travelling by train in Shanghai is easy and convenient. We mainly used taxis, particularly at the end of a long day of walking. The area is safe and in walking distance to Jing’an Temple.

We got our room for a very good price on-line so it was great value for money. I would certainly recommend this hotel. It is beautiful, elegant and takes you a step back in time to the early 1930s of Shanghai. It’s an amazing city and well worth the visit if you’re in China.