The Wanda Reign in Shanghai has an ambition that cannot be even more obvious: it aims for grandness beyond grandness – tolerating not even an inch that is not lavish to the maximum extent. Such a characteristic, indeed, brought to me great astonishment. However, I need to admit that accompanying this astonishment is, for me, not much enjoyment. The showcase of grandness is omnipresent in Wanda Reign Shanghai that, by the time one stepped out from the taxi, that already begins. First facing the guests is an enormous hall laid with lustrous white marbles, whose spaciousness is sufficient to elicit in the mind of everyone the image of an majestic Soviet-style state building. In the middle of it stands a Christmas tree tall to the extent that even a 1.9-tall guy needs to raise his head to quite some extent to glance its top. Nonetheless, even a Christmas tree of such a scale cannot reach the ceiling. Such an expansive space, however, is still not the lobby – it is just a simple arrival hall. Only after passing a long, (still) marble-laid, and lofty corridor one can reach the lobby, where grandness is taken to another level. The walls there are never merely walls. Instead, Wanda Reign hangs on all of them enormous oil paintings, whose contents also very much match with the theme of the hotel, capturing large-scale scenes such as the entire bristling Bund overflowed by people. Furniture in such a space, of course, cannot be simple. Sitting there are multiple excessively broad and extended tables made of woods that even an average people outside the timber industry can immediately recognize as widly expensive, each equipped with a few American-size sofas. However, even after having these sets of giant furniture the lobby still seems more than ample – reflecting how insane the entire space is. One would have absolutely no difficulty recognizing the rooms of Wanda Reign Shanghai – hardly any hotel in the region can have rooms as Babylonian as those in Wanda Reign, which very much share the same characteristics of the lobby downstairs. Need not to say, the rooms, even the most basic one, are overwhelmingly roomy – enough already to host a small yoga class, I would say. Wanda Reign also leaves no space for further perfection with regard to making everything in the room Chinesely plush. For example, its rug is simply not a rug – it is a piece of giant embroidery! Hardly any lamp, except for the emerald banker desk lamp, are free from being installed with countless pieces of crystals, which makes the room exceptionally sparkling at night. One will not be freed from being astonished even when stepping into the bathroom, with its floor laid with jade- and gold-like materials as well as white marble – all carefully arranged in a flowery pattern that is already sufficient to constitute an artwork. Even in the bathroom one can find three crystal lamps and a chandelier! The same, if not greater, sophistication exists even inside the smallest details. For instance, when drawing tissues from tissue box, I was astonished by the material it was made of – “oh my goodness, what kind of gem is it?” I could not control myself but asked. The view from the rooms is equally dazzling. I think one description can perfectly illustrate how dreamy it is: have you ever seen those Shanghai postcard depicting the city’s imposing modern skyline? The one with apparently infinite skyscrapers and lights? That completely unhindered view is precisely what one can see through the window of Wanda Reign. The level of grandioseness in Wanda Reign Shanghai is already beyond what words can describe, I would say. It just makes everything, how trivial it may be, by the most expensive materials and inserts into them the most sophisticated details and designs possible. Importantly, every bit of this lavishness is infused with a strong Chinese theme. I am sure one can find something equally if not statelier in Jumeirah’s hotels in the Middle East, but that must be different from Wanda Reign Shanghai. For instance, when embroiling their vast rug and headboard with flowers, Wanda Reign does that as if it is mimicking those on a fine traditional Chinese ink and wash painting. If I need to describe Wanda Reign in one sentence, I would say it is a puzzlement – a puzzlement made of omnipresent, indescribable, and superfluous luxuriousness. It is the kind of grandness that drives one speechless and crazy. However, I need to say that, despite this astonishment, Wanda Reign is too much for me – when everything is pushed to the most luxe extreme and become a star itself, the room seems to be too chaotic and a mere and blind showcase of outflowing wealth. The smell of money can be a theme of design, indeed. However, it is not my cup of tea as it seems to lack some sorts of refinement. In terms of service, at least for me, Wanda Reign was very fine in the first place. Everyone there were extremely gentle and polite, to the extent that they were just like the role model of etiquette that we learnt back in high schools. However, I personally found all the conservations a bit too strange as it was quite obvious to me that the ladies and gentlemen there were not so “natural”. Please pardon me for saying it so plainspokenly, but for me they were being overly careful with how they spoke and behaved that it gave me not a feeling of friends – which I truly enjoyed – but as if a subordinate worker speaking to his supervisor. The sense of inferior-superior was so strong that I did not find it to be pleasant. Nonetheless, at the very least, the ladies and gentlemen at Wanda Reign Shanghai had done their jobs to be polite and helpful – they just did it in a way different from what I typically found enjoyable. However, I must highlight that the impression mentioned above is for for the very beginning. Something happened upon and after I left the hotel that quite severely ruined my impression regarding Wanda Reign’s team. The first issue happened when I was in the lobby to check out. Quite a surprise it was, in that same spacious lobby there was only one desk operating at the check-out hour that was supposedly to be busy. However, what even more surprising was that the manner by which the staff there treated their guests were so different from that on the day before that I would not be surprised if someone told me they belonged to two completely different teams. At that time, the lady at the only desk that was staffed seemed to be busying with something, so I stood quietly near to the desk to wait for her. Suddenly, she looked up and said, “what are you doing here?” I am translating it into English here; her exact expression in Mandarin actually conveyed the message more clearly, something like “what do you want to bother me about?” All I can say is “my apologies for bothering you, but I should you my room key, shouldn’t I?” The second issue goes beyond the first instance. A very kind gentleman, on the day of check-in, escorted me to my room while introducing to me the hotel in a very detailed manner. Therefore, I thought I must write him a thank-you letter to tell him that I was very grateful for his hospitality. Unfortunately, the gentleman was not at the concierge desk by the time I checked out so I could only give the letter to his colleague. Everything was fine, until I sat down on the sofa waiting for the taxi to arrive. The gentleman who I handed the letter to held up my letter, looked at me, and, opened my letter in front of me! He did not stop even after that: he read the letter as if it was his and took a picture on it – all done in front of me and knowing that I was there. Such a series of action caused no material harm but are truly a disrespect. It is just like giving a Christmas gift to a person, asking him to transfer that to my friend but then that person open the Christmas gift without even bothering to ask me if I would mind. Or, in the Chinese context, it is like giving a red pocket to one (not even for him!) and that person opened the red pocket to see how much is inside right of the way. It is such a basic etiquette for one not to open the gift one asks him to transfer to another person – even if he had been the receiver himself, he should have respected the gift giver by asking if the giver would mind him opening the gift straight away. Unfortunately, the team at Wanda Reign seemed to be unaware of this very basic act of respect. The last instance that vanished my last bit of good comments on Wanda Reign came after I checked out. One day after I left the hotel, I received a message from the lady who helped me with check-in, thanking me for choosing Wanda Reign and asking me if I had any feedback. I had already left her a thank-you letter when I left the hotel, but, out of basic propriety, I texted her a thank-you again. However, to my surprise, I have never received any message from her since then; not even until now! I do not know what caused Wanda Reign not to reply to a thank-you text, but as a visitor, all I can feel is that the hotel simply does not appreciate the appreciation from its guests, which is fine but brings such a heart-wrenching effect. It used to be fashion among the top-tier hotels in China to pursue luxuriousness out of luxuriousness. However, with the taste of the nation’s upper class rapidly shifting, that fashion has already lost its popularity these days. Thus, it becomes rarer and rarer to encounter a hotel like Wanda Reign Shanghai, which continues to be loyal to this taste and tries to combine with it the new level of wealth and techniques that China can now afford. Therefore, staying at Wanda Reign Shanghai is indeed an experience. Unfortunately, the hotel’s software seems to be unable to catch up with the degree of hospitality expected for such a tier of hotels. Or, more precisely speaking, the team, at least part of it, seems to be completely unaware of some of the most fundamental etiquette. This, again, causes no material harm but make the Wanda Reign less like a hotel in one of the finest cities in the world but more like a property in a savage rural village.…
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.