Perfect location, impressive facility, but it's half a disappointment. Review JW Marriott Tomorrow Square Shanghai

As is well known, when I return to a city, I (almost) never go to the same hotel. The reason is simple, to try to review more hotels and give TFC readers more chances to know before they book. And so when planning this stay in Shanghai, I opted for a different hotel from last time.

This time I opted for a facility in the Marriott family., the best in price/category. Of course I could have also aimed higher with Bvlgari, Edition and St Regis, but I preferred to take the best as location, price and sign And this JW had all the required characteristics.

Location

We are in the heart of Shanghai, of course it is difficult to define the center of such a megalopolis, but being overlooking People Square just a short walk from Nanjin Road and a 10-minute walk from the Bund makes it the ideal location for those who want to sightsee without having to get lost in eternal commutes.

Reservation

I could have booked with points, But having recently made many award stays, my Bonvoy account was almost in the red, in any case the cash price was very low and It was absolutely not worth using 86k bonvoy per night against the 143€ required with traditional reservation.

As usual then I booked the basic room, hoping for some kind of upgrade and also rejecting the offers that the hotel emailed me in the days before and hoping that my Titanium Elite status Would play his game.

Check-in

I arrived mid-morning, disembarking from Lufthansa First Class, but since LH does not offer chauffeurs I booked a Didi and arrived at the hotel.

The lobby is on the 38th floor. The hotel is a 59-story tower (+ 1) and rooms are distributed in the upper part, while the lower floors contain a commercial center, offices, and private residences.

The location is beautiful, the view of the city is 180 degrees, really panoramic also due to the fact that the city is not like Manhattan, but except for the bund area different architectural styles coexist and not just skyscrapers. Paperwork expedited in a short time and with my room card I headed to the 59th floor.

Suite

My basic room had become, at no extra cost, a junior suite.

5901 is a corner room in the apex of the tower, for good it means you are at the top of the world, for bad it is that your windows are sacrificed to the architecture of the top of the tower.

A single room where dividing the two spaces was the rotating TV cabinet.

A sitting area with a sofa in front of the window, a work corner, and on the opposite side the bedroom proper.

King mattress, comfortable topper, and all the buttons to turn off the lights near the bed, as should be required by law.

The bathroom, large, with tub and shower. Nothing to remember.

In general in this room, as in the rest of the hotel, you can see that we are talking about a structure that would need a refresh, almost total.

At the level of service, however, nothing to complain about. Evening room review and welcome gift.

The structure

As mentioned, it is imposing. It is a 60-story skyscraper. My room was on the top one that could be reached by elevator.

Higher up is, accessible from the executive lounge, what is self-described as the world's highest library.

It is reached only by a staircase and is a room, with no view hidden inside the structure. A great idea to make use of the otherwise unusable attic.

There are 3 restaurants, one Chinese one and the main one where breakfast is served There is a pastry bar on floor 38, the one in the lobby. There is also a panoramic staircase here that leads to the two floors that house the hotel's restaurants.

The gym, SPA is shared with the public and is located on floor 6.

The lounge

There is also an executive lounge on the 59th floor, one of the options that for me is worth at least 20/30 euros per night stayed. The reason is simple. You can have breakfast here, but I don't recommend it, and you can snack, dine and drink whenever you want.

In addition to this, the lounge is a perfect space to work without being in the room. Last but not least if you are traveling with children, the savings double.

The one wow thing about the lounge at the JW Marriott Shanghai is definitely the view, too bad only that it is not oriented toward the noble side of the city, which was rightly reserved for the rooms.

80s furniture, 70s design, 90s buffet (or worse) the Afternoon Tea offerings were really meager, a few snacks, some treats and little more. Definitely better happy hour. A variety and choice that can make dinner without great sacrifice, even in terms of alcohol. The offerings, however, are significantly less than the Conrad who is just across the square.

Breakfast

The breakfast room occupies the remaining part of floor 38, the only one in the entire tower that is practically a 360-degree window usable by hotel guests.

For the size of the hotel is not very large, but fortunately I did not find it crowded, on the contrary.  Service is the classic buffet, and even here for a JW I expect that little something extra that I absolutely did not find. There are several points with express cooking, but the sensation and palate returned to me a feeling of a product that was not very refined. There is no bartender and hot drinks are only from automatic machines, juices not fresh, no extra buffet offerings.

Really the most negative note of the whole hotel, if I then compare it with the Waldorf Astoria seem like two categories light years apart, but they are for all intents and purposes top tiers in their respective chains.

In conclusion

If we consider that JW is a luxury sign of the Marriott family pwe can be partially satisfied. Certainly the upgrade to junior suites and the proximity to the lounge was a considerable plus, but I might prefer to spend the same money and stay in a cooler facility.

• bonovy