SarahWhen you book a hotel in Shanghai you should first decide where you want to stay: most popular is either in Pudong near the Pearl Power, on the Bund or near People Square.
When we went to Shanghai on our 144h transit visa, we decided to stay near the Bund as this made visiting both the Bund and Nanjing Road with People Square accessible by foot and had a nice selection of bars and restaurants closeby. During our research we came across the Hotel Pravo All Suites in North Bund area. It is not exactly on the Bund but it was significantly cheaper and all rooms where modern looking suites with city view. It also had a decent rating on booking.com and Agoda (I highly value crowd opinion!), so we decided to give it a go and booked the room category “Amazing suites” for five nights for 605€ in total.
Check-In
We had requested a room on a higher floor (Amazing suites are floor 5-8) and when we checked in, we got a room on the 8th floor – nothing to complain about! The Check-in process was quick and friendly and their level of English was okay. They blocked a deposit of around 150€ on our credit card, which is completely normal with hotels in that category.
I really like the design of the lobby – elegant and classic but yet modern!
The rooms
But the real gem of this hotel is definitely the rooms/suites! They are super big, with a living room part and a half separated bedroom (yeah, that’s the definition of a suite – but even though I already stayed in large two-story suites I am still amazed by having a separated living room!)
The bathroom is in the middle of the room and comes with both shower and bathtub. The toilet is in a separate room and has a self-flushing toilet.
What I really liked, is the beautiful view you have from the window on the skyline of Pudong – no problem to see the Pearl Tower! (well, if Shanghai’s smog situation allows it – but that’s hardly to blame on the hotel 🙂 )
At daytime the room is really light and the bed is super, super comfortable! I definitely already slept in world-renowned 5*hotels with worse beds/cushions!
Otherwise the room is equipped with everything you could ask for:
- Kettle and coffee/tea making equipement (restocked daily)
- Fridge
- Bathroom amenties and hairdryer
- Free water every day (you can’t drink the tap water in Shanghai!)
- Safe
- Bathrobe and slippers (I LOVE hotel bathrobes! 😍)
- Big TV that can be seen from both the bed or the living room (you can move it! 😊)
One other thing that is worth mentioning because it really stands out, is that there are plenty of international power plugs (the ones where you can use literally every plug from every country) everywhere in the room – also next to the bed there are three on each side! (I don’t get it why some of the very best hotels fail on this!). And then they have a sophisticated lighting concept (pretty!!!) that also includes master switches at both sides of the bed (who wants to stand up when you’re tired just to switch out that one light that’s still on???😉).
Breakfast
The breakfast was included in our room rate and is served in the restaurant at the third floor from 7:00-10:00. While I like the design of the restaurant, the food selection is rather unspectacular and almost all dishes are cold (including the ones that should be warm – like sausages or fried noodles). It’s a mixture or continental European with Asian breakfast. There is also no service (staff is around but doesn’t really do anything) and you have to search to find the coffee machine (self-service and unfortunately only in chinese). I really think the hotel has to improve on this, as it is far below the standard of the rooms and the Lobby/Check-in experience.
The location
As mentioned, the hotel isn’t directly at the waterfront of the Bund but you can reach the waterfront within a five minute walk. There is some well priced restaurants around (check my review of Haidilao Hotpot!) and a coffee shop across the street (if you opt for a room rate without breakfast). Otherwise it is a rather quiet, residential area – no problem with noises. The next subway station is unfortunately a far walk – but taxis are cheap in China. If you don’t need to be in the absolute center, this is definitely a recommended location in Shanghai.
The Checkout process
Checkout was also pretty quick, but we were a little disappointed that no one of the staff offered help with the luggage. Markus was carrying three backpacks as I fell sick the day before and was feeling dizzy just by walking around. Also, they charged us for the bath bomb we used. It’s a tiny amount, but it was just lying next to the s1hampoo and conditioner and was in no way marked as non-included – not cool! Just mark it as you did with snacks etc!
Overall
Would I recommend you to stay there while in Shanghai? Yes, definitely, as long as you can find it for a rate similar to ours. There are plenty of really good international hotels around Shanghai for quite a low rate given the standard of the chain and the room sizes, so it is worth looking for offers. But I felt like the Hotel Pravo was cheaper and nevertheless larger/more modern than the average – if you can live with not being at the very edge of the water!
This article contains affiliate links – I will always only recommend places that I personally think are awesome!
