The Sukhothai Shanghai

This hotel is phenomenal. The design aspect of the hotel is incredible, with chic concrete finishes that make you want to fall back in love with Brutalism (if you ever were in love with it, that is). The rooms are fantastic, free soft drinks in the minibar and Nespresso machine, and wonderful roll-top bath and monsoon shower. The gym is excellently furnished and modern, and the service is beyond reproach. The only aspect which was slightly beneath perfect, was the breakfast, which was a fairly small spread.

All the hotel services were very good. Enjoyed staying there. But I found that a bit too expensive with $375 AUD per night. I could not get a lot of value out of this as I was in the work training for most of the day. But if you have enough time to enjoy the amenities, it is a good hotel, and the location is very central and close to public transport (metro)

Overall it was a pleasant stay ( we stayed in this hotel last year ). Location was very good as well as facility.  Front desk staff, some excellent, like Franck who was doing night shift the day  we checked in late at night, the door man was absent at the moment, Franck helped us with everything by himself, carrying heavy luggages to our rooms, as well as sending us all the  items we requested etc. some other staff was rather difficult, like one lady with glasses ( I don't know her name)  was being rather difficult when it comes to late check out since we had a late night  flight ( even though the rooms are vacant..). she quoted me a  higher rates then the actual official website, telling me the rooms are almost all rented out while I saw there were still many rooms that day on a few websites...  I did have air conditioning problem during the stay, had to wait almost an hour for the reparation....

The room was warm even after I turned on the A/C for 3 days in a row, kept waking up in sweats. I was not informed of when or where to have breakfast, had to search the info but couldn't find it, so had to call the reception in the end. Communication in English was not easy. The location is perfect connected to the mall and close to Hongqiao airport, but comparing to the price I paid, I would expect better.

At around 1:30am on 17 September 2025, the shower head mount gave way during shower causing the shower head to fall on. In reaction, to avoid being hit by the shower head on the head, I had used my hand to secure the shower head back in place. Unbeknownst to me, the shower head’s metal casing had become frayed due to inadequate maintenance exposing a sharp metal edge. This sharp metal edge then caused a cut of no less than 2cm to one of my fingers.||I later tried contacting the duty manager via the official WeChat account to no avail and had to call front desk to get them to get the duty manager to pay attention to the WeChat. Given the late hours, I also asked them to have the manager call me around 11:30am to let me know follow-up action.||At 11:30am, their duty manager called me to do two thing: (1) ask about what happened again even though I had already sent detailed message as to what had happened together with pictures and (2) offer to have the shower fixed. I immediately informed her that there is also issue with the mount, not just the shower head. And that their fridge was in fact not working. Drinks fresh out of the fridge has no condensate even though it is over 30 degrees and humid in Shanghai. I told her I need a change of room after what had happened and after some further discussion, the manager agreed. She then pressed for a confirmation of when I will be returning to the hotel to move out of the room as they would like to “sell the room” after I move out. She had said that she will further discuss with her managers as to follow-up action and compensation.||During the day I received further messages pressing for my return time and at around 4:35 pm, I replied their message via WeChat confirming that I had just gotten back to the room and will start packing. Within 5 minutes, they had sent housekeeping up to check the cleaning. Housekeeping asked me if I had an issue with the cleaning, at which point I said I have been asked to change room so I am not going to comment on it. Housekeeping then asked if I want to change room. At that point, I can sense that there is a miscommunication and asked her to have the duty manager to come to the room to avoid further miscommunication. Within 5 minutes, instead of the duty manager coming, the porter came with a luggage cart. This was ridiculous. So I further insisted that we all wait for the duty manager to appear before proceeding further. At around 5:05 pm, the duty manager finally arrived. This was a different duty manager to the one I spoke with that morning. I confirmed with him about the room change and then asked them all to leave while I get on with packing.||It is just ridiculous. There is clearly a lack of communication and in any event, a guest who just informed you all the belongings are spread out and that the packing is starting at around 4:35pm is not going to finish packing in 10 minutes. It is also very arrogant to not turn up and send two junior staff to deal with your guest who was changing room due to injury caused by your equipment.||After the room change, I went down to front desk to leave a message to the duty manager I spoke with earlier that day to follow-up. Only to be informed that duty manager is off-duty the next day. I will check out on the day after (19 September). This is again quite ridiculous. You do not tell your guest you will follow-up when you know full well you are going to be off-duty between the end of your current shift and when the guest checks out.||On that evening and the day that follows (18 September), different duty managers messaged me offering to upgrade my next stay. This is ridiculous. How arrogant do you have to be to assume I will willingly come and stay at your hotel again? Not to mention that I am a Titanium member of GHA Discovery, which this hotel is a member of, which will entitle me to room upgrade if one is available?||It has been over 36 hours since the injury occurred and not one single manager has even approached me to even offer an apology. Not even a single note, for that matter. ||Every hotel deals with issues happening during guest’s stays differently but I have never had a hotel given me such an arrogant and insincere follow-up after a serious incident. Having a shower that falls on to your guest and causing injury is no doubt serious, especially for a hotel of this standing. Even if I am not a frequent guest I will expect more sincere and authentic treatment. Here, it is unacceptable to have this treatment when I am a frequent guest at this hotel.||This hotel used to be good, reliable and I had in fact switched from another hotel to this one for my frequent business trips. During the past couple of stays I had noticed a decline in service and aging facility. This stay highlights the problems. If there was proper inspection of equipment, the issue with the shower would have been noticed. If the cleaning crew had done their job, a swipe of a cloth on the shower head would have nagged the cloth. Either would have prevented this happening to me. And to have the gall to rush me out of the room so they can have the next lot of unsuspecting guest stay in the same room, is just unbelievable. This, to me, is a reflection of the state of management at this property. One won’t accept this level of service even from a hotel half your price. It is not a price issue, it is just not acceptable.

Rooms are excellent, clean and spacious. Hotel staffs are attentive and fast to response. Upon entering Sukhothai, you feel calm and relaxed. Location is fantastic, close to plenty of places of interest.

The hotel enjoys a strategic location, just a 5 to 10-minute walk from the train station and right next to a shopping mall with plenty of dining options. The room is spacious, and the staff are all very attentive. We also dined at the Thai restaurant in the hotel and found the food to be authentically flavored.

Stayed here twice already, this time I came with my mother and she was equally impressed. The staff was so kind and accommodating, thank you so much!! 🙏🏼 The rooms are spacious, clean and comfortable.