during the last Chritmas' and New Year's holiday, I traveled to China with my families. Booked by my Chinese friend, the Crowne Plaza Hotel offered an excellent services to us which gave us a memorable impression. The staffs are very friendly to our foreigners, in particular, some of them can speak English such fluently as they could answer my any request in English. The services are value-added in terms of its lower price.
I wish I could enjoy their services next time when I have opportunity to China again.

My recent stay in new renovated Crown Plaza Shanghai was a wonderful experience. Booked through hotel directly with a resonable rate because of the winter pomotion, efficient check-in as usual. It's not a new hotel but staff is very friendly and willing to help you wheneven you need.

Room is nice and clean, with all facility and space you expect for a crown plaza room. Only one thing I may suggest is a bigger plasma TV which is becoming standard for most new hotels in Shanghai.

The most impressed is the renovated lobby area, It really give the hotel a better image when you step in. Reception told me hotel is building new club rooms next door, hopefully I can try it next time I visist shanghai since crown plaza is my favrorit hotel in town

I have stayed at the Crowne Plaza a number of times over the last few years and have to say some of the rooms are starting to look quite tired and shabby.

I was initially put in a room (on the sixth floor) with very little furniture and quite a threadbare carpet. I had to contact reception to get international dialling on the telephone. After an hour of incessant noise which sounded like it was coming from renovation work on the floor above, I complained and was moved without a fuss to a much better room on the 18th floor.

The reception staff are all very pleasant and check-in and out is very efficient.

Eating in the hotel is not recommended as the standard of food is not brilliant. Admittedly we went for mainly western food but even so I would have expected better.

The lobby, bar and restaurant areas are due for rennovation later this month (Nov 2007). And judging by my experience some of the rooms are currently being refurbished. However with the choice and standard of similar hotels in Shanghai, the Crowne Plaza needs to improve.

This was my most unfortunate stay with an Intercontinental Hotels chain property around the world. My stays at the China Holiday Inns have been much better. And of course, the Intercontinental Hotel stays have been great to exceptional.

The check-in was ok, upgraded to a deluxe room, which was not deluxe in any sense. It was a very dated (early 1990s designed) room, nothing special or deluxe about it. I cannot fault the room for providing a quiet place to sleep on a western-style bed. However, if you are expecting more hospitality, go elsewhere.

The staff is, well, just not trained in the IC chain style. Smiles and greetings are sparse and efficiency is lacking. One of the biggest faults is the lack of taxis. As many Shanghai travelers know, a taxi is generally a cheap, easy and mostly fast way to get around. This hotel is at least one km from the closest subway station, so you cannot fall back on public transport for a quick trip.

The hotel was designed with no taxi queue! There is no place for taxis to park and wait for the lucrative fares coming from an "upscale" hotel. I talked with several taxi drivers, through an interpreter, and they said the hotel is too inconvenient for them to regularly service. Hence, the only taxis are those which are dropping off passengers. If there are no dropoffs, there are no cabs. This is a "business meeting" type of hotel, with many people lining up at once to get a taxi. One afternoon at 4 p.m., I waited for 20 minutes until I gave up and began to walk the streets. The hotel sent some bellcaps out to the street to lure in taxies, but they were passive. If you have ever seen the effort some doormen put out to find a taxi, you will laugh at this Crowne Plaza's attempt. A complaint to the front desk got indifferent shoulder shrugs and little effort to satisfy the guest for a basic hotel service. Translated loosely into English their (several front desk people) body language said, "So what's new?" For a traveler accustomed to warm Chinese hospitality, this place was cold as ice.

I suffered from sticker shock on the internet charges of 120 yuan (over US$15 a night). This is the highest charge I have seen after maybe 20 hotel stays in China in the past 18 months. (Many are free, of course.) The breakfast buffet, for those not getting a "free" breakfast, was about 175 yuan per person, over $23 at today's exchange rate. Breakfast for two at the Crowne Plaza=almost US$50. It was not a spectacular spread, and they advertised their dinner buffet at the same price. It is price gouging to charge so much to guests looking for a western breakfast. (For China, the US$50 can buy a wonderful dinner for two at a white-linen restaurant.)

Many times I pick up the "vibes" of a place, good or bad, upbeat or depressing. This property had sufficient negatives in convenience and costs that I checked out after two nights of a planned five-night stay. When checking out, no one asked why I was checking out early, if I enjoyed my stay, or gave me a comment card. Perhaps if they would solicit feedback from their customers, they would find out why it is not a hospitable place to stay.