W Shanghai - The Bund

Really enjoyed my stay at W Shanghai – The Bund. The view was absolutely amazing, especially overlooking the Shanghai skyline and the Bund. The facilities were excellent, modern, and well maintained. Overall, a very enjoyable experience and definitely a great place to stay in Shanghai.

I paid a premium to stay at the W Shanghai specifically for the brand's signature luxury, high-energy, social pool lifestyle. What I actually received was an incredibly frustrating, poorly managed experience that felt more like a chaotic family resort than a 5-star international hotel.While the room itself is nice enough, it absolutely does not compensate for missing out on the iconic social pool bar experience that W Hotels promise globally. The W brand needs to do a significantly better job of explicitly marketing that this specific hotel is NOT like other W Hotels. The fact that you cannot experience a true poolside bar here feels completely hidden from guests during booking—tucked away as a tiny, obscure line on their website, which is deeply misleading.The check-in process was an absolute nightmare. The lobby was entirely overrun, and I had children literally running all over me while the front desk struggled to manage the chaos. The family-hotel atmosphere completely ruins the chic vibe the brand falsely advertises. To make matters worse, the staff’s English proficiency is shockingly poor for an international property of this tier. Throughout my stay, staff members inexplicably and repeatedly called me by my middle name for no reason.This communication barrier turned basic room requests into an exhausting ordeal. This morning, it took three separate calls over the course of an entire hour just to get a simple hair straightener delivered to my room. When front desk staff became confused by basic English requests, they simply gave up and started speaking Mandarin to me—despite me making it explicitly clear that I do not speak the language.The absolute breaking point, however, is the pool layout and its ridiculous restrictions. You cannot enjoy a cocktail or a light meal by the water because of strict food and beverage bans. The outdoor pool is physically cut off from the adjacent WET Bar by a massive glass wall. To even access the deck, you are forced through an internal obstacle course that funnels you under a motion-activated overhead shower, forcing you to get your hair wet just to step outside to lounge or take photos. The staff cannot even explain these absurd, unadvertised rules to international guests in English.I was actively planning to book a luxury stay at the W Sydney later this year specifically to experience their WET Deck pool. However, this disastrous, low-tier experience in Shanghai has left such a terrible taste in my mouth that I am now heavily reconsidering whether I will ever spend my money with the W brand again. Management severely needs to retrain their staff, address their chaotic check-in environment, and stop misleading international travelers with false brand expectations.

Wonderful stay. Room was wonderful as expected. Great friendly service. Staffs were readily available everywhere to help you, even when languange was an issue, they quickly found someone else to help.

The bed in the room was defective and very dirty. I got skin problems after sleeping on it.