Peace Hotel Still Shines But Could Use More Stars

Oct. 23 2010 - 10:48 am | 451 views | 0 recommendations |

It’s not every day that you get to stay in a hotel as legendary as the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. So yes, my expectations were running high.
That’s why I was disappointed when I arrived by taxi to the corner of Nanjing Road and the Bund, and was not immediately whisked inside with my luggage following. Instead, a bellman stood guard over the front entrance trying to keep the prying tourists away and nearly blocking my entrance.
Once inside, things did look up. While my room was not available yet, I was awed to see how the hotel had been transformed since my first touristy visit in 1995 to the historic place. The chandeliers and the white marble floors were glistening, and the staff stood at attention, greeting guests.
I observed as a steady stream of well-dressed visitors paraded inside and took seats at the lounge to order drinks. It seems that the Peace Hotel, closed for two years while a renovation by the Fairmont was underway, was once again the place to be seen. Some parts of the hotel are still a work in progress as I discovered when I walked upstairs to a darkened second floor, and immediately followed and directed back to a lobby by staff.
My room was not one of the spacious, oversized spaces I had peaked in on during my stop here 15 years earlier, but the high ceilings and large windows overlooking the rooftops of buildings along the Bund made it appear larger. Despite the hustle below of tourists in town for the Shanghai Expo, all was quiet and comfortable in here—no surprises.
For some reason I nearly quite fully understood, I was discouraged from using the executive lounge, which was nearly always empty, and directed to one of the hotel’s many restaurants.
I remembered the Chinese restaurant on the 8th floor overlooking the Huangpu River, and was glad to see that it’s kept most of its original feel and has not gone ultra-glitzy like many restaurants and nightclubs along the Bund. One evening, I met up with some San Francisco colleagues and had drinks at the bar while a jazz band of six veteran musicians made harmony together once again. We felt as though we were in our own special club.
One of the joys of visiting Shanghai today is having options like newly refurbished and brand new hotels to stay in. There is no shortage of them now, owing to all the new hotels that opened in time for this year’s Shanghai Expo.
See China’s Five-Star Infrastructure, Underused http://blogs.forbes.com/china/2010/05/26/chinas-five-star-infrastructure-underused/
Even as the skyline fills with more and more luxury hotels – the latest being the Intercontinental, the Peninsula and the Ritz-Carlton – still more are springing up in newly developing areas of the city. One wonders who is going to fill these rooms once the expo closes at the end of the month.
See Growth in China for international hotel chains may be poised to slow: http://blogs.forbes.com/russellflannery/2010/09/23/growth-in-china-for-international-hotel-chains-may-be-poised-to-slow/
I recently stayed at the just-opened five-star Guoman Hotel in yet another up and coming district of the city. My room had a bird’s eye view of a scenic lake inside Changfeng Park. This certainly beat most of the surroundings, largely a construction zone. Indeed, my taxi driver couldn’t find the hotel entranceway among all the roadblocks.
In case you haven’t heard of Guoman, it’s a British hotel group with four landmark properties in London. This is the group’s first of many hotels in China (including Beijing next year) where hoteliers are concentrating their expansion efforts. Certainly, the British heritage meant that the staff had extra-fine training in English skills – always a plus for foreign visitors. Another treat was the iconic London cabs.
Within a year’s time, this whole area will not be recognizable. A shopping mall is going up right next door, and on the other side of the hotel will be a MGM studio and believe it or not, a Jackie Chan museum.
Who says Shanghai isn’t exciting?

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