ShangHai is a great place to visit, nice food, friendly people. Special thanks to MO ShangHai, warmest welcome, their staffs are exceptional, specially their front office manager Sophie, Manger Ryan, and Cocierge.
I was a long-term residence and recently checked out. I have seen the MO Shanghai's up and down and I do agree the review in 2021 saying that it's not a true MO, at least not anymore. The funny part is the executive apartment now even has several rooms for "postpartum care center“ and shows it on the map. This has told us something about the vision of how they run the place. I would still recommend expat newly to the town for a one-month stay and leave before the experience turns sour. It is certainly not a place for expat's long time lease.
Lily is the most caring, respectful and lovely hotel staff we have since to have met in our travel history. She is eager to help, always available when being called and hard at working. She didn’t complain when we left our kid alone at the changing room for an extended period of time but instead had always kept an eye on her and looked after her willingly. We felt very thankful for her excellent service and we regard her as a friend.
"You are the son of the chairman. Therefore, to convince others that you have scored 100, you need to get 200" – this is a quote from a Hong Kong television series many years ago and it quite aptly sums up the situation facing the Mandarin Oriental, Shanghai. Conclusion first: as a luxurious hotel, this Mandarin Oriental was fine; but as a Forbes five-star hotel bearing the legendary title of Mandarin Oriental, this property was not yet on that level, at least during my stay. Part of the reason I love the MO brand so much is that its hotels often have a refined interior design that gently but beautifully celebrates the oriental culture. Also, one thing I respect MO hotels a lot is that they tend to pay great attention to taking care of their hardware. It is to the extent that it is not an exaggeration to state that every corner of a MO hotel would radiate a strong sense of delicate elegance. This elegance cannot just be built but also needs to be carefully maintained, like how a royal gardener takes care of a royal garden. Need not to say, MO Guangzhou designed by Tony Chi is a good example of that. It can always wow its guests when they first step into the hotel and the room. More than that, it is never those super luxurious but vulgar properties like the Wynn hotels that one typically would become increasingly annoyed if they stay in the room there for longer despite the enormous wow effect at first sight. MO Guangzhou is a place where, the longer we stay inside, the more we can appreciate it – just like a piece of fine sandalwood. I am sure MO Guangzhou is not an exception in the MO family since its neighboring sister property in Macau is more or less so. They are not like St. Regis, in which one can find the same luxuriousness no matter which city we are in. Each MO hotel is sharply distinguishable, but they all ultimately end with endearing elegance. These are why I love the MO brand so much; for its characters, refinement, and attentiveness, not to mention its hostmanship for which MO should be really proud of itself. Unfortunately, MO Shanghai does not seem very relevant to the above description. Its public area is conventional: you walk in, and you see the check-in desk on your right and multiple sets of sofas on your left. One of my favorite hotel Youtubers once said that a characteristic of MO hotels is that they always abundantly but softly fill themselves with art pieces and careful craving. Art pieces are unfortunately quite absent in the public area of this MO. Nonetheless, I could still see that the hotel did pay some attention to the crafting of its lobby; at least I did not see a large blank golden wall behind the check-in desk hanged with some clocks titled Paris, New York City, or Tokyo. Therefore, to be fair, despite being a little bit surprised that this MO merely used the very conventional interior layout and lacked the artistic element of a typical MO hotel, I could still recognize it as a member of the MO family. In terms of artistic decorations and careful crafting, the room was far more recognizable than the lobby as something MO. For instance, I can see that the hotel did pay quite a lot of attention to the details of the rooms during construction, since many parts of the room, even they were just small corners like the desk that other hotels would easily ignore, were crafted with some brief but adorable cravings. However, even though I appreciate the effort the hotel spent when building its rooms, I cannot do the same when coming to the maintenance of the room: the beautiful room was obviously undermaintained, to the extent that I could already feel the age of the hotel. A sense of history is not necessarily bad; see Peace Hotel across the river as an example. However, the sense of age in MO Shanghai was not the elegant type. It was the run-down type, the vibe one would find when entering those once glamorous but now decayed hotels (like Lisboa Hotel in Macau). The problem of under-maintenance was not only with the big furniture and the physical setting of the room, but also appeared in some small details. For instance, I was pretty surprised to find out that the papers on the office desk had already wrinkled. It is, of course, not a big problem, and I would have happily let it go if I had been in a hotel like Sofitel. However, the thing is that the hotel I was staying in was Mandarin Oriental! What do the wrinkled papers represent? It represents a housekeeping team that is not attentive enough, or, at least, not attentive according to the MO standard. Unfortunately, this MO spirit of pursuing exquisiteness is precisely the soul of a MO hotel. Without this insistence, no matter how well-built and well-designed a hotel is, it is merely an empty physical construction. At least for me, it is the most significant difference between those KOL hotels and the truly great hotels like MO and the Peninsula. Unfortunately, MO Shanghai does not seem to be close to having this pursuit of exquisiteness. Without this spirit, even a Mandarin Oriental would seem like a Sheraton. Another key reason why I struggled to feel that this property was a MO hotel was about the check-in experience. I always believe that, like the custom control at an international airport is the face of a nation, the reception desk is the face of a hotel. What a guest experiences within the short three minutes of check-in has an enormous influence on how the guest thinks about the service of that hotel. If the check-in process is a mess, no matter how excellent other departments perform, it would be hard for the guest not to have a bad impression of the hotel. Things are sometimes not that terrible; maybe what a guest experiences is not a mess but just a highly mechanized administrative process without any temperature. In that case, as a guest, I would easily come up with an impression that the hotel is not a bad one but not an exceptional one either; something like a Sheraton (I hope Sheraton would not mind me keep on quoting it in this review). Usually, MO hotels would not fall into these traps. They can often effectively make use of the magic three minutes of check-in to convince its guests that they are in one of the finest hotel brands in the world. Unfortunately, at least during my stay, the reception desk at the MO Shanghai did not seem to treasure these magic three minutes. The lady who helped me with my check-in was polite and efficient. However, I am afraid that I need to say that the whole process is more or less mechanical without much temperature. The only feeling I had after getting the room key was that the reception desk was super busy that they tried to finish everything as quickly as possible, without much regard for guests' experience. I understand that this was not necessarily a mistake of the lady who helped me with my check-in. The hotel might have been super busy that day, so she had a lot of work and needed to be quick. However, if that was the case, I hope the hotel would seriously evaluate the problem of manning. Ultimately, from a guest's perspective, all one could see was a cold, dry, and unpassionate check-in process, which I believe is not something that MO strives to achieve. I did encounter some highly respectable personnel during my stay. For instance, the lady at the spa passionately showed me the MO Shanghai fan, while Joy from the concierge desk was super helpful when I needed to print my VISA documents (thanks for even helping me to print two copies in case I lose one of them, Joy!). Also, it remains very clear in my memory the two ladies who withstood the strong winter wind of Shanghai to arrange the outdoor tables at 10 PM – a heartwarming and touching work ethic! Unfortunately, despite the fantastic works of these people, when I recall my stay at MO Shanghai, it is still difficult for me to not first pop up with an impression that it is a hotel without much temperature – I suppose it is the consequence of the loss of the magic three minutes. Overall, I would say it is tricky to comment on this Mandarin Oriental: I cannot say it is bad since it does not have any significant problems, while the MO heritage is still evident in some aspects of it. However, I cannot say that it is exceptional either since it clearly lacks some core elements of being a MO hotel. Therefore, I am afraid I need to conclude that Mandarin Oriental Shanghai is, at best, a mixed kid of MO and Sheraton instead of a pure blueblooded MO. It is a regret since Shanghai and Mandarin Oriental have such similar DNA: both are a lovely mixture of east and west. Shanghai deserves to have a true MO, like how New York City needs a St. Regis. I sincerely hope Mandarin Oriental Shanghai can fill this gap.…
I have been staying at the Mandarin Oriental Pudong for a month now. It has been a challenging time for the staffs and management at the hotel during this unusual time of city-wide lockdown. However, all of them have remained very upbeat and professional, and they have been striking to deliver the signature high-standard ‘MO-service’ to guests. Special thanks to manager Elaine. She is very meticulous, cheerful, and caring. Everyone at the hotel likes her, and her presence has made this hotel very special! My lockdown experience could have been a lot worse if I wasn’t stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Pudong, and once again thanks so much for the hospitality!
This splendid restaurant which is owned by Mandrin-Oriental Hotel has left the best impressions! My first time in MO restaurant and YOU have to go! definitely a marvelous journey in this restaurant as they provide an elegant presentation, charming ambiance, amazing wine which go perfectly with our food, Staff are extremely knowledgeable and make great recommendations! We had a 4-course meal, every dish is tunning, oyster starter in high-quality, fig with ham&cheese just fantastic, fancy lobster soup a lot, they were all exquisite. Ideal for those who want a romantic night out! for their prices it’s 100% WORTH IT !! Thanks to the lovely service team that chef came out served those beautiful dishes and did a very detailed presentation, staffs are all warm and thoughtful, a restaurant manager has come around to check on our experience and is pretty authentically engaged< I spent my birthday dinner with my boyfriend there, we both enjoyed it pretty much and highly recommend this restaurant. Food & Beverage are amazing, service & atmosphere is brilliant. Would like to come back indeed.…
We stayed at MO over the weekend. Overall great experience. Room was very clean and the view was excellent. The staff were all very helpful and we especially appreciated the attention we received from duty manager Peter who made our stay memorable and special. Will definitely stay here again for our next getaway!
MO Shanghai is very cosy, professional and refined. Full scale of service and entertainment. MO Club lounge is great! Special thanks to Demi and Cheechi! Also very nice and relaxing spa center and delicious restaurants.
It is a very nice experience, the staffs are quite welcoming, I feel at home. They satisfy almost all my requests, special thanks to Kidd who helped me a lot. I will recommend the hotel to others to experience.
Had a very smooth check in process upon arrival. Kidd has been very attentive with great amount of help! Can’t really ask for a better experience! The hotel is well located with spectacular river view. Well decored with nice touch on finishing. Would highly recommend anyone to stay here!
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