Shangri-la Hotel in Pudong is my favorite hotel in Shanghai. As many Shangri-la hotels in the world, the strong Asia style runs across all the hotel.
The other new hotel, Four Seasons, is maybe one of the latest added new brands to Shanghai. It should be a good hotel brand. According to this Wikipedia article
Four Seasons Hotels, Inc. is a five-star Canadian-based international luxury hotel chain. It is considered among the finest luxury hotels worldwide, according to Travel + Leisure magazine and Zagat Survey
However, I have my clear preference: I like Shangri-la and don’t like Four Seasons at all. Here is the comparison.
Parking
The key difference is maybe the parking. Shangri-la offers free parking to all the guests. If you go there and have a cup of coffee at the hotel lobby, you can go to the front desk, and get a free ticket, and your parking in the underground garage is free. My favorite meeting place in Lujiazui is the Shangri-la Hotel. Only the parking saves a lot of money.
Four Seasons is at the other extreme: they charge everybody for underground parking, including hotel guests who pay 1000+ RMB per night. They charge 20 RMB per hour for parking, much higher than any places in Shanghai, even the busiest district.
Location and View
Shangri-la has much better view at the riverside than the Four Seasons.
Free vs Paid
Many things in Shangri-la is free, like the free wireless Internet. In its lobby, meeting room, and guest room, there are Internet access, for free, and Four Season doesn’t have that, as far as I know.
My Two Cents
Shangri-la showed hospitality by offering many things for free, although Shangri-la is by no means a free place to stay. However, it brings the warmth to guests (both paying and non-paying). Four Seasons, on the other side, is just a money making machine. I don’t like it. I really doubt how munch money they can earn from Internet, or parking per year.
Are you talking about the Four Seasons in Puxi? It’s been there for quite a while.
I quite agree with you about free wireless and other perks, but there is a strong public reason for charging for parking. If you don’t charge for it, you hide the true cost of driving, which is is high (air pollution, congestion, use of scare urban land, etc.) I think it’s instructive that parking is generally expensive in Puxi (the popular, human-scaled, attractive, high-land-value part of Shanghai) and free in Pudong (the less popular, automobile-centered, inconvenient and low land value part of Shanghai.)
More prosaically, parking is probably much more expensive at the 4 Seasons site near People’s Square and Nanjing Rd., even though the Shangri-La is in Lujiazui, so they have a lot more to lose.
Just my opinion…
From what I understand, Food & Beverage rarely makes money for the hotel.
I don’t think you are 4 Season’s target audience…. have you ever slept on one of their beds? It is one of the most comfortable beds in the industry… better than Ritz Carlton, Shangrila, Grand Hyatt, etc. I’ve slept at all of them in Shanghai. The target audience at most luxury hotels are the room guests, not the F&B guests.
@Shockr, maybe you are right. I just try to find out reasons why I love Renaissance, Shangri-la, and Ritz Carlton so much, but really have no idea why people think Grand Hyatt, and Four Seasons are good. I know it is purely personally preference. At least I don’t like the lobby of Four Seasons where so many people smoke.