City View Xuhui Hotel, Shanghai

We were not expecting much from the hotel. It was very inexpensive for Shang Hai so we had lowered our expectations. But we were pleasantly surprised. The hotel was down a small lane off a main road. Very quiet, yet just a couple of minutes walking and we were on a main road with restaurants, taxi's and buses to anywhere we wanted to go. The building was quaint and made a very positive first impression. A gentleman was seated in the lobby and I gestured and he quickly jumped up and helped us get our bags out of the taxi. When we tried to tip him he refused. By the time we got inside someone was at the front desk. This woman spoke no English but she was friendly, helpful and efficient and we were ready to go to our room in a short time. We took the lift to the 3rd floor, yeah for an elevator and were really happy thus far. Everything worked and was clean. Our room was the biggest surprise. Large, airy, clean and plenty of storage plus many well placed receptacles for plugging in all of our equipment plus good lighting. The bathroom was spacious, modern and CLEAN. We had a fridge, lots of goodies if you wanted to buy them but there is a Tesco Lotus just next door so you can stock up there. We had a window that opened but with heavy drapes so that we could sleep in if we wanted too. The bed was a king, a bit on the hard side, but we prefer that to soft. We slept just fine. Nice pillows and a duvet, central air and heat, a work desk with ADSL and a large television (but only a couple of channels in English). Again, no problem for us, but a movie would have been nice. I have nothing but good things to say about this hotel with the exception of breakfast which was edible but not very fresh or tasty. The room was extremely good value for the money and I would most definitely stay there again and recommend it to others.