Marriott Aloft Shanghai Hongqiao review

This is the hotel to stay at if you're attending an event at the NECC (National Exhibition Convention Center) Shanghai. Gym is amazing. 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 an Aloft, perhaps you may also find this helpful.

Read on to find out what I think of other things:

Location

The hotel is west of the NECC (National Exhibition Convention Center) Shanghai, which is in turn west of Hongqiao airport. There's pretty much no reason for you to be that far out west of downtown Shanghai. While they are building some outlets there, the reason you'd want to be there is probably for an event at the NECC. It will take you 75 mins from the hotel to downtown Shanghai. The closest subway station is exit 16 of the NECC station on subway line 17, which is about 600m away.

Pro tip: there are 2 subway lines/stations for the NECC; line 17 and line 2. Line 17 is closer to the hotel than line 2.

Subway line 2's NECC exit 6 is about 1.1km away from the hotel, so I wouldn't recommend that long a walk in the summer as most of the walk will be unshaded.

There's a Courtyard by Marriott Shanghai Hongqiao about 350m further west of Aloft, but the prices are more expensive than Aloft and rooms smaller. Aloft is definitely a better deal if you like to use the gym. The only upside of the Courtyard if you value lounge access. That hotel is about 700m from the closest subway (line 2) station of Panxiang Road - Shanghai National Accounting Institute.

Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station is 1 station away on Line 17, and Shanghai Hongqiao Airport is 2 or 3 stations away, depending on whether Terminal 2 or 1. In other words, this is a great hotel for transit.

Hotel experience

Perhaps it was a slow day? There were no lines at the reception, and all 3 reception staff seemed thrilled and eager to check me in, so I felt a little awkward I had to choose which staff. As a Titanium Elite member I was offered the following during check-in:

• Welcome of 500 points AND breakfast.

That's right, as Titanium Elite I had both points and breakfast, not a choice between the two.

The staff were very helpful and also offered me a welcome bag of goodies in addition to upgrading me to a larger room on the 10th floor.

Welcome bag contents: toiletries, bottle of water and some crackers. Most interesting to me was the concentrated liquid coffee drops in the orange packet in the middle.

The rooms occupy 4th to 10th floors. For those not familiar with Chinese, it's somewhat surprising to see a 4th floor since "4" in Chinese sounds like die, which is not a good number. Many other hotels will omit numbers with 4, so no 4th, 14th or 24th floors for example.

I will post a picture of the room, as the Bonvoy app only had pictures for the basic/cheapest room for some reason. It was definitely a pleasant surprise how nice it looked as well as how spacious.

As the Aloft brand website suggested breakfasts were good and perhaps different from other Marriott brands, I tried the breakfast. Standouts:

• chinese noodle bar. Unlike most places that give you mostly noodle (carbs) and few pieces of meat (protein), there was plenty of protein you can add on your own instead of taking what's given to you.
• salad bar with fresh vegetables
• dragonfruit yogurt

The croissant texture was strange. It's flaky but a bit on the dense side. I've rarely experienced great croissants outside of a Park Hyatt, but it's fine.

The gym was amazing. It was about double the size of what I thought based on hotel provided pictures in the Bonvoy app. Very big, very nice equipment. The screen on the exercise bike is the biggest I have ever seen.

Unlike some hotels, there thankfully was only 1 TV and it wasn't blasting out sound. I was also very happy to see they have a pullup/dip machine, which is not that common in hotel gyms in my experience.

Electronic key cards are available at this hotel. It worked the first evening but somehow stopped working the next morning and I was unable to download another key card onto the Bonvoy app. That was the only glitch in my stay.

Power outlets

You don't need to worry about a travel adapter. There is both USB-A and USB-C at 18W, so unless your phone supports charging at a faster rate, you can leave your power adapter at home. Many older hotels support 10W charging - or less - in my experience. It's nice the socket actually says 18W total delivery.

In addition to the larger table in the room, there is a dedicated desk area for working. The chair was comfortable.

Noise level

There is nothing noisy nearby, and the thick carpet in the hallway combined with solid doors meant I heard no neighbors.

Price

The price I paid was 420 RMB inclusive of taxes and fees (~$62), which is one of the best deals this year. With a Marriott promo, total haul is 420 RMB for ~4000 points and 2 elite nights. Amazing.

The hotel does take all major credit cards, so Alipay / Wechat not required for tourists.

Conclusion

Aloft is now one of my go-to brands for Marriott, along with Autograph collection for their great designs and amazing breakfasts; better than Park Hyatt in quality/customization, but not selection.