Fairfield by Marriott Shanghai Hongqiao review
Bring your USB charging cables and you're set. The highest room is the 5th floor on a quiet mixed-use street so it is quiet from cars but there is some airplane noise you can sleep through easily. This is not a review with countless pictures to scroll through. I cover only what the hotel or many other sites don't cover, which is stuff that would be good to know before booking and packing for travel. As a Titanium Elite member staying at a Fairfield, perhaps you may also find this helpful.
Read on to find out what I think of other things:
Location
This is about 600m from the closest subway station (Longbai Xincun). The slight downside to this subway stop is that Line 10 subway actually forks one station before this, which means only every other Line 10 subway train gets to this station, so your waiting time is potentially a few mins longer potentially.
There is no direct line to downtown Xujiahui, so 1 line change is needed, but you can get there in about 45 mins by subway or 30 mins by car hailing (30 RMB or ~$4.50). A bus would take you 70 mins and costs the same as taking the subway at 4 RMB ($0.60).
Let's be super clear this is not where most tourists would stay. It is not downtown, but it is near Hong Qiao airport, Shanghai Zoo and Minhang sports park, so perhaps some may find the location being a selling point if you are transiting and need a place to stay or you do have some business nearby. The hotel is located on the corner of a mixed-use street (residential and shops).
Hotel experience
The hotel occupies the 2nd to 5th floors of the building, and the building is only 5 stories high. The lobby is on the 2nd floor.
As a Titanium Elite member I was offered 500 points during check-in, but I was not offered an upgrade to a larger room despite my status and room availability which I saw in the app. Marriott's app does say a potential room upgrade is available when I checked-in online. Well, it's not the end of the world as I'm only here for a night, but I do wish hotels honored policies better.
Breakfast is included for all guests at Fairfield, so there's no additional benefit being a Titanium Elite.
If you only need a coffee for breakfast, there's a Luckin Coffee on the ground floor of the hotel next to the entrance. Luckin is larger than Starbucks, tastes as good as Starbucks, and is only 20 RMB ($3) - or even 10 RMB with a coupon - for an Americano, as opposed to 30 RMB+ for Starbucks. A tip for you is Luckin also supports ordering by mobile app, so search for Luckin Coffee in your app store and download it onto your phone before you get there.
If you fancy something better in terms of bread, there's Paris Baguette - a Korean coffee/bakery chain - 150m walk down the road. There's also a Family Mart convenience store 100m from the hotel entrance.
Electronic key cards are available at this hotel. The rooms don't require a card to be slotted in for power.
Room supplies
There are 4 bottles of water and more for you to take at your leisure by the elevator. There's none of this Hilton or Hyatt nonsense where they offer you water only after you reach their entry-level status tier. It's a bit like offering you air to breathe after you reach entry-level status tier.
There are 2 kinds of free tea offered: green tea and black tea. Both are from TeaTones, which is quite decent tasting in my opinion.
Power outlets
You don't need to worry about a travel adapter. The power panels support international plugs and support both USB-A and USB-C. Bring your fast charger only if you want to charge as quickly as possible.
In addition to the bedside plug, there is another outlet next to the table by the mini sofa. The mini sofa was firm enough and provided decent back support with the pillow. The table height is perfect for a laptop, but I would've preferred a square table so it's easier if I need desk space for a mouse.
Noise level
It is super quiet at the hotel. The street outside also has very few cars. At 2pm, there's maybe 1 car every 30 seconds on the street. I had a 5th floor room facing the "atrium", which is the backside of the hotel so there is zero car noise. I do hear planes from nearby Hong Qiao airport every 3 minutes at 2pm, but I can probably easily sleep through the volume. If the AC was on I probably wouldn't even notice. It's nothing like the freeway noise I noted in my Moxy Xuhui review. Even if facing the street, the street has few cars.
Price
The room is indeed spacious, and I found the couch and table quite comfortable to work on. Breakfast is included at Fairfield, so I do think the 389 RMB I paid inclusive of taxes and fees (~$57) is a great deal.
I get about 1000 points ($57 x 10 points/$) + 75% bonus as Titanium Elite. Then I also get the 500 points welcome gift, plus the 2500 points/stay/brand Marriott promo that's going on right now, in addition to a bonus elite night.
Total haul is 389 RMB for 4000 points and 2 elite nights is amazing.
The hotel does take all major credit cards, so Alipay / Wechat not required for tourists. I used a Hang Seng MMpower Mastercard from Hong Kong that returns 6% on foreign currency spending. After 1.95% foreign transaction fees, I get 4.05% back so I basically paid $54.60.