My friend Fay opens a five room hotel on Changle Road!

Fay is the Fay of Fay’s Room – an apartment sharing service in Shanghai. She shifted focus from apartment sharing to own a real bed & breakfast hotel at the heart of Shanghai. I visited their hotel, and feel the need to write about it. Before I talk about this special hotel, you can check out their website: http://www.quintet-shanghai.com/.

Fay

Fay is from Taiwan. We worked closely together before, and then she quitted her great Fortune 500 job, and pursut her dream. She started with sharing her aparmtent with backpackers, and then managed few friend’s property, and that is where the Fay’s Room come from.

Quintet Shanghai Hotel

I visited the hotel on a Wednesday night. The hotel is located in a lane house that was built in the old 1930s – 1940s.

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That is the area of what I called “The True Shanghai”. The areas along the Huashan Road is the heart of Shanghai, in my oppinion. It is the area I will pick my home if that is possible. The hotel is rented from a lady who own the house before the Communist China was setup. In the house, you feel what a middle-class’ life look like, before the “New China”.

The Room

When I visited the hotel, all the five rooms were booked, and there are guests living in it. One of the guest agreed to let me see the room, and that room looks like below:

Photograph provided by Fay

I didn’t take picture in courtesy of the guest, but the room looks exatly like shown on the picture.

They have a nice exclusive restroom with the room.

They have other 4 nice rooms, but I wasn’t able to see. Hope I can visit and stay in one of the rooms later.

Photograph provided by Fay. I didn’t see this room

The Closed Door Restaurant

At the first floor is a nice Italian Restaurant, called Closed Door.

Photograph provided by Fay

It is a very decent restaurant, and maybe the crowded western restaurant I have been. It is not big, just the size of two hotel rooms plus a garden, and since it is fully booked almost everyday, the tables are very tightly layed together.

The food is wonderful. I said to Wendy: it completely changed my view of western food. It is delicious…

On the cost side, not cheap, but definitely not expensive in the same range. The interesting thing is, you have to make a reservation first. The name “closed door” is not a random name. Its door is closed, and you have to press the door bell, and tell the waiter that you have a reservation to get in. From outside, no one knows it is a restaurant. Shanghaiist has a review for it also.

The Roof

They have a nice roof garden that see the Chang Le Road. Very nice place.

Photograph provided by Fay

The Hotel

Just opened two months ago, the hotel has already been rated as the top hotel in B&B category in TripAdvisor (Its TripAdvisor page), and was rated 4.5 out of 5. In the review, you can easily find Fay’s name was mentioned many times.

Having a Hote?

Having a hotel in downtown Shanghai is Wendy’s dream, and Wendy enjoys her visit to the hotel a lot. It is a very nice one and I would recommend it to my r