[Hotel Review] St Regis On The Bund Shanghai

On By Satu KosongIn Marriott Bonvoy, Shanghai, St Regis
Grabbed from official site

Cathay Crusade 2025

This was an easy choice as it recently re-opened from its former life as a Wanda property. It is indeed rare that I actively pick a property with no club lounge but being new (though online reviews seemed to show that minimal reno has been done?), I can’t pass up the chance to try this property for 2nights.

Address – 538 Zhongshan Dong Er Rd, Huangpu District, Shanghai, China, 200010. Website.

Contact – Tel: +86 21-5368 8888. Email: sr.shaxb.reservation@stregis.com.

Location – along The Bund, walking distance to Shanghai Old Street and opposite the Bund Financial Centre which I later realized is the most random mix of shops – pets stores, beauty shops, and no supermarket. But it holds a handful of local restaurants to try if that’s a KPI.

Price – RMB1,950 per night booked for a Deluxe Room via Hotelux’s Stars Exclusive Rate which 100USD credit and other stuff which I was already eligible for as a Titanium eg early check in/later check out, room upgrade subject to availability.

Pre-arrival – I reached out proactively to the property for a few things including recommendations for eating and shopping and interestingly enough they sent me an excel worksheet of 14 tabs, each labelled a different cuisine type. Never seen this before but I can’t decide if I was impressed or amused.

I also received a generic welcome email about 5days prior

4 days out, I received another welcome email from the Chief Butler:

Getting There – One of my questions to the hotel’s concierge was to ask about airport transfer and the rates they quoted were a little crazy so I booked a simpler pick up on Viator for SGD36.

The arrival driveway was rather impressive and a staff came to help me with my luggage and wheeled it over while escorting me to the check-in desks.

Check In – I arrived to an empty lobby around 2:00pm and invited to a sit-down check in. I was told the hotel was sold out (which checked out on the app) hence no upgrades were available but they will keep a look out if any better rooms will open up. While they processed the formalities, I wandered a little and really liked how marbly the whole lobby is.

I also got a generic welcome letter listing the STARS booking benefit but that copy was strangely enough not for me to keep, but rather I was invited to take a picture of it before the staff took it away. Really weird for a luxury hotel.

As a Titanium, I was also told that I had a choice of welcome amenity which was not published on print:

  • Daily breakfast
  • 1,000 points
  • Sparkling wine (my choice)

Room – My Deluxe Room (45SqM), 1606, was very spacious indeed and had a generous corridor from the door, which should be plentiful enough even for 2pax.

The bathroom is a welcome sight of marbly classiness, with double sinks, separate toilet and shower spaces, as well as a bathtub. Amenities were apparently the StR standard now – and my pictures don’t show the brand itself, opps.

The bedroom I thought was really nice, very clean, and the fully carpeted floors made it feel super luxurious. Even as one pax, I appreciated the spacious bedside tables.

The mini bar area is alongside the work desk, complete with a huge TV with enough international channels to entertain guests.

The half wall feature in the room though was a first for me – wonder what the designer was thinking of? I joked with my friends that I had booked St Regis On The Bund but got a room with a Bum view instead.

An elite welcome amenity of snacks and sparkling water was later delivered to the room, as well as my choice of sparkling wine, which turned out to be a bottle of bubbles (not my favorite but free so yay).

I also rather enjoyed the Butler service of having coffee/tea sent to my room at no extra costs, along with sending clothing for pressing which were delivered within 2 hours.

Breakfast – served at St Regis Brasserie from 6:30am-10:30am, the space was equally marbly and classy with sufficient stuff to manage the crowd. It got crowded from the 9:00am mark onwards but it was not chaotic still.

The spread was huge although nothing tasted mad good – it did what it did for my 2 mornings and I think even for a week that spread would have been enough to not bore.

The cold stuff and carb sections were very varied too.

The fruit section also looked really nice and cheerful.

I liked that there was visuals scattered at some of the main stations explaining their specialities, which will help ease the curiosity of non-Mandarin guests.

Champagne Sabering – this St Regis ritual happens at 6:00pm at the Lobby daily and it was my first time attending one – quite fun to witness but probably not worth especially coming back to the hotel for.

Other Food & Beverage

For my USD100 hotel credit, I tried ala carte salads from the Brasserie as well as some snacks and drinks at the St Regis Bar. The taste perfunctory at best.

Facilities – The staff at this property was quite a hawk so while I popped by to take a look, there was no opportunity to take pictures of the on-site properties – and the official site also strangely enough do not contain any images as well. They were as expected though: St Regis Spa (11:00am-11:00pm), Fitness Centre (24hr), and indoor Swimming Pool (6:00am-11:00pm).

Service – it was a mixed bag so here goes.

The best service of the property was actually from the Brasserie where the staff offered me to take some desserts and fruits from the buffet as they saw I only ordered an ala carte salad. On the second occasion, the manager proactively brought me a phone stand when he saw I was chilling on my phone.

Two services snags happened with the front desk:

Room Change Issue

Remember the front desk who offered to look out for a better room? They called about 2hours later to say they found me a room with a better view and offered to help with my luggage for the change. So I repacked everything and was escorted to my new room which was the same room type which was smaller and configured slightly different …

And my view was this. This was better?!

So while in the new room, I called to ask to be moved back to 1606 as that although comes with a half wall, at least looks out to something? At this point, it was probably about 10mins since I left 1606 so figured no issue right? The lady on the phone said someone will call me back but I waited another 10mins and no one did. So I called again and was this time denied by the same staff, claiming that the hotel is full. But I’m just asking to move back to my original room?

So she said she will convey my request again and hung up. I didn’t want to wait for nothing again so I went down to front desk in person and communicated my request. I was then told yes its possible but housekeeping is already cleaning the room and it’ll take another hour to be able to move back. This wouldn’t have happened if they had didn’t keep me waiting but anyways I said I’ll wait, went out to walk abit, and came back to collect my keys. From the point of arrival to finally settling back in 1606, it took 4 hours. GAH.

Random Security Incident

I had a scare on my first morning when my doorbell rang at close to 2am. I was startled awake but didn’t go to the door as I was unsure what was happening. I later heard a guy calling another pax to check if ‘his’ room number was indeed mine (NOT). It was such a spook for a solo lady traveller so I told the front desk the next morning and was told they’d check the cameras and update me. No one did. On my check out day, I asked the front desk again what’s happening to that update they promised me – I was told to add the property’s Guest Service Manager on Wechat and they’d reach out. 3 days later, no one did.

So I reached out Marriott on X and they quickly responded to open a case for me. Immediately the day after, my Wechat rang and it was the Duty Manager who explained that they’d checked the cameras and can confirm that it was a hotel staff who was at the door trying to deliver water but got the wrong room. The service recovery offered was an upgrade to a Suite on my next stay but I requested for points instead as Shanghai is not in my plans in the near future. I was offered 8,000 points as well as the Suite on my next stay which I accepted.

I think I wasn’t going to get a response if I hadn’t reached out to Marriott on X huh.

Check Out – painlessly done at the front desk and completed in 10mins.

In Summary,

A rather disappointing stay experience – I actually loved the hardware but the service issues was unexpected from a St Regis. In the context of paying RMB1,000 less for JW Marriott or the same price for a Ritz Club Room, both of which would have covered all meals / drinks, I find it hard to recommend this property to anyone right now.

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