Villas 1931 Hotel Shanghai

I was here just for one night and everything was quite fine except for the basket of condoms for sale on the room desk, female hostesses "business cards" that were put under my door every hour of the night and no Wi-Fi or any sort of connection in all the building. But the location was really convenient so I decided to come back the next weekend. I made a reservation through a famous hotel booking site and got my confirmation. Everything was going fine till I got to the hotel. They told me that I didn't have any reservation and there was no place for me as it was fully booked....so I kindly showed them my confirmation explaining the fact that I already paid for the room...so I wanted the service I paid for. Their answer was their fingers pointed at the main door telling me to leave immediately. My advice is: for that price and even less you can find better places to stay with better service and equally convenient location.

My preference is for historic, 'characteristic' hotels, so when my firm organised a conference at the Westin across the road my husband and I decided to try the Villas 1931. I hate standardised hotels that look the same anywhere in the world! However, if a future conference were organised at the Westin I'd stay somewhere else nearby, not Villas 1931. The view from our room on the 4th floor, overlooking the old buildings next door, was certainly really interesting. However, the hotel is 'old and tired' not 'old and loved'. The carpet in particular should have been replaced about 10 years ago; it's stained and yukky. Cleanliness was OK apart from that. Staff were OK but when the deposit I'd paid online wasn't recognised on the bill, and no amount of arguing would get them to recognise it, I was less than impressed. Their English isn't up to scratch for anything more than the basics - not surprising given the call in Shanghai for very good hospitality workers - anyone worth their salt would not be working here, I'm afraid. Oh, and after the first morning we forgot about breakfast - it was very very ordinary. Much much better food is available on the street or in 'hole in the wall' noodle shops. I'm not usually negative about hotels, I enjoy almost every experience; but I wouldn't stay here again. There are better places. It lacks love - and without that an old hotel doesn't work.

1) Cleaniness: room was clean. 2) Location: centralised location with Nanjing Road is a short walk away, not too bad for the price and in comparison with the prices of hotels in the surrounding area. 3) Rooms: for a local hotel the room was a bit small, but adequately equipped. There is no satellite TV, so we only had chinese channels. The bed was really hard though. 4) Service: I would have had little complaints about this hotel if not for the service. We'd asked for a late check-out (for 2 pm) the night before and the next morning the reception called to ask abt our check-out. We told the lady that we arranged with her colleague the night before tht we were checking out late, and then she told us to make sure we were out of the room before 2pm. We turned up at the reception counter 15 mins late. And the lady then rudely and unnecessarily informed us "It's past 2pm" before proceeding with check-out. 5) Value: Overall not bad value for the location, but do not expect any good service.