Review of Banyan Tree Shanghai On The Bund 5*

Great views does not necessarily correlate to great service… After reading wonderful reviews about Banyan Tree, we were very excited to stay here and end our vacation on a strong note. Unfortunately, the service (rather, lack there of) ruined this simple expectation. 1. We like our privacy in our hotel rooms and also keep it tidy and clean ourselves — therefore we do not ask for housekeeping. That was no exception during our stay here. On 3 separate occasions we explicitly asked for them to not make up our room (we turned on Do Not Disturb each time we left the room). On 3 separate occasions, our requests were ignored. In my lens, it’s the principle. Given the price tag of the hotel, If we ask for something, shouldn’t the hotel honor that? At that point, why even provide an option for housekeeping? 2. At other hotels we have stayed (Mandarin Oriental, Conrad Beijing) the greeters were ready outside each time to help open cab doors, lobby doors with warm smiles despite the frigid weather. Here, every single time we got out of our cab rides or walked back from a trip out, the “greeters” (note that the hotel calls them “security” though I would not trust these people to help me if I were in harm’s way given their nonchalant attitudes) stood right inside of the lobby doors staring at us — while wearing their down jackets. No greeting whatsoever. Just looked at us like we were unworthy of their time. 3. There is currently construction happening right outside a direct pathway leading to the hotel. It’s the most efficient way of arriving to the hotel, either by walking or driving. On our first night back from exploring, we took the route that Baidu Maps recommended only to unfortunately be led through the muddy path that also happened to be closed off due to the construction. We only realized this halfway through the walk, sadly. Upon arrival to the hotel, we inquired with concierge about this and were met with a, “Oh yeah. I take this walk every day from the subway and know there’s construction going on. Sorry that is unfortunate. ” If this staff member knew of closure, why didn’t he speak up and make sure that there was a memo out to visitors? Not everyone staying at Banyan is a local… instead we trekked wet mud not realizing that it’s closed only to receive a message that the hotel clearly doesn’t care from staff that is ill-trained. With the high cost, I expected more from the service. We brought up these concerns to the hotel “management” who, by the way, was on vacation, so they directed us to lobby management. Their answers were, “Sorry. Nothing we can do about this. ” This was a very disappointing experience and needless to say, we will never be staying here again nor will we recommend this hotel chain to any of our friends or family.