When I was in Shanghai, I stayed at 2 different hotels, Jin Jiang Inn in Jia Ding District and Home Inn closer to Shanghai CBD, both are chain hotels.
This is is a review of the rooms at Home Inn in Shanghai City, China.
In this post I will review Home Inn hotel at Guang Zhong Road in Shanghai City, located across the road from Shanghai University Yan Chang Campus North Gate in the city. Click here (double room) and here (single room) for the video review, and read the text below for a breakdown of the hotel.
Overall: 6/10
Based on my stay at the 2 hotels, I would not recommend Home Inn. Home Inn is more expensive than Jin Jiang Inn, has poorer facilities and poorer range of food for breakfast. There are other Jin Jiang Inns nearby (within few Kms).
Location
The Home Inn I am reviewing is located in Jin An district near the city CBD, however you can find them all over China.
Address:
English: 809, Guang Zhong Rd, Jing’an District, Shanghai
Chinese: 上海市静安区广中路809号
Locality
The hotel is located along a large street lined with few other businesses, among them, a bank, some small restaurants (Chinese food as well as one cafe with western food), a Family Mart convenience store and a China Mobile store. This street is larger than the street Jin Jiang was on but there are less businesses around the area so if you are staying here for more than a few days like I did, you may quickly get sick of the food around here.
Directly across the road is Shanghai University’s Yan Chang City Campus South Gate and a bus stop.
There is a metro stop 400m away, Circus World exit 2.
There is a large shopping plaza Daning International Commercial Plaza or 大宁国际广场, 1km away towards the east (or on your right when standing in front of the hotel facing the main road/university). There are a variety of restaurants (Chinese and Western) and bars.
The hotel
This particular hotel is located in the “Shanghai University apartment area” and is specifically for visitors to the university. While I was there I met a visiting lecturer. Given this, I expected that they would have at least the same facilities as Jin Jiang Inn, but did not.
You can only access your own floor with your card, by tapping in on the elevator, however there is nothing stopping you from using the fire escape stairs to access other floors.
You get free breakfast vouchers for the duration of your stay. The breakfast room is in the large lobby. There is a small space for a few cars outside.
The lobby is large with bathroom. There is a small couch and coffee table, complimentary computer.
Hotel Facilities
Non-24 hour reception, non-English speaking.
Free wifi in all areas (lobby, room and dining room) although the wifi was very bad on the 8th and 10th floor, pretty much non-existent.
There is no laundry facility, self service or otherwise.
Not sure if there is luggage storage.
Plenty of taxis are available outside the hotel that pass by, you need to hail one or you can ask the desk to call you one.
Breakfast consists of Shanghai style stirfries, steamed buns (meat, vegetarian and custard), congee, soy milk, and seasonal fruit. The selection is quite poor, especially compared to Jin Jiang Inn. You can get breakfast vouchers as part of your booking, might be extra.
The hall ways are large inside the hotel, carpeted but very dark feeling and the area near the elevator smell of cigarette smoke because people often smoke there, despite it being banned.
The room
I shared a room with a room mate, as well ask stayed in a single room. I will review both.
The rooms don’t seem to be consistent.
The twin room I stayed in first was basic, the furniture was very basic compared to Jin Jiang Inn with basic timber tables, and a single chair. Dark linoleum flooring, has openable windows. The twin bed room that I stayed in had a small enclosed balcony. The single room I had to myself later, had better furniture but no bed side lamp at all.
Facilities:
-Writing desk with pull out tray, and a tea table connected to it
-Desk lamp
-Television with all the local Chinese channels
-Single (shared, for double room) bedside table with one reading light above it
-Enclosed balcony (in twin bed room) and openable windows
-cheap disposable slippers that is replaced everyday if you open them (slip off the paper ribbon that binds them together). I feel this is a waste and so try to keep the ribbon and put the slippers back in them so house keeping doesn’t replace it every day.
-Clothing rack in the bathroom and in the room to hang your wet clothing
-Free boiling water facilities and cup (boil the water before drinking, tap water in China is not directly drinkable), no tea
-Waste baskets
-Wifi internet (included in cost of room but very bad ie non existent apart from the lobby) and ethernet cable internet
-Power plugs located along top of table, easily accessible
-Free bottled water daily (ask for more from room service)
-Air conditioning
-Phone
-Wall mounted Hair dryer
Bathroom
Standing shower. As I mentioned previously, the room styles aren’t consistent, one single room I saw had an actual door and wall shower, with separate toilet. Mine had only a curtain.
Basic toiletries supplied including toothbrush, toothpaste, comb and soap. The toothbrush wasn’t so good, the bristles actually came apart and fell off in my mouth.
Price
The price per night here was ￥271 and breakfast was an extra ￥18 per person per day.
Note:
One thing I encountered at this hotel and Jin Jiang inn was that strangers were distributing unwanted escort ads under the doors of all the guests’ rooms. The front reception staff at Jin Jiang inn told me there is nothing they can do as even if they ban the person, the ad company just sends another person, who books a room and uses the card to access the hotel lift to distribute the cards. You can just bin the cards.
Verdict:
I give this place 6/10 for it’s convenience but lack of better facilities while being more expensive. It is located close to the metro stop and there are some restaurants and cafes, a bank and a convenience store outside next to the hotel. It is located across the road from Shanghai University and the only bus stop nearby is across the road in front of the university (it goes only 1 way). The staff were okay, I deactivated my hotel card by putting it with my phone, and was later fixed however, I mistakenly thought it was still malfunctioning when it won’t take me to my level. Turns out I was pressing the button for the wrong level. Never had a chance to appologise to the staff. Breakfast had a poor variety. Wifi was not good, basically not usable in the rooms and only accessible in the lobby despite that they are supposed to be accessible in the rooms. Lobby had 1 small couch and coffee table, which was quite few for such a large lobby. More could be done about the unwanted ads being distributed.
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