Crowne Plaza Shanghai Xiayang Lake by IHG

This hotel is everything you expect from a Crowne Plaza, well equipped rooms, stylish architecture, helpful staff and a high level of background quality. Not wanting to be negative (perhaps informative) my only problem was that my Chinese is non-existent and many of the staff had little English. I do not expect everyone to speak English, and any questions I had were soon resolved once multi lingual staff were found; just be prepared to sometimes have to wait. As to the good things... the rooms are comfy and well equipped for sleeping, resting or working in. The bathroom in particular was excellent. The minibar had a nice selection of snacks when needed and the bed was very comfortable. Breakfast was an excellent meal with numerous selections available, the only trick was exploring all the possible options to select those few you could eat every day. The coffee was fresh and superb. As I only wanted a swift bite in the evening I dined in the international restaurant, which tended to be a quiet affair as regards guest numbers, but was often graced with live music. The selection was fairly normal for such a chain hotel and of reasonable quality. The hotel offers morning drop offs to some local destinations which I found very useful as regards visiting local businesses. It also had a robot room service which small children will love! Across the road from the hotel is a shopping and dining area with lots of choices and a Carrefour supermarket, useful for last minute gifts. I may have to return to the area and will stay here again, no questions asked.