Staying at The Shanghai EDITION - hotel stay review [March 2026]

During my trip to Shanghai in March 2026, my partner and I had the chance to stay at The Shanghai EDITION in Huangpu, Shanghai. The Shanghai EDITION is a luxury hotel located right next to The Bund! Here’s everything you need to know about booking a stay here and what it’s like!

Why we chose The Shanghai EDITION

Since my partner and I are more economical travelers, we don’t often opt for “luxurious” stays, but since we are Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers, we now have the opportunity to experience some of these stays on a bit of a discount! The Shanghai EDITION is part of the “The Edit” collection of hotels bookable through the Chase travel portal.

Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers receive a $250 USD statement credit when they book a minimum 2-night stay at one of these hotels. Guests also receive a hotel credit (~$100 USD) and free breakfast for two each morning of the stay. Even though the total cost still ends up being a bit of a splurge, it’s still a nice way to experience a nicer stay than we’re used to, and we’ve been really enjoying this perk!

Additionally, this hotel is in a great location! It’s right next to The Bund (literally just a block or two away), and it’s right on the Nanjing Pedestrian Road which is surrounded by shops. The hotel is also conveniently located right next to a subway station, so even leaving to explore other parts of the city was super easy.

Price point

For a Deluxe King room for 2 nights for our party of 2 adults, the total cost before the statement credit came out to $901.36 USD. At this price point, I would consider it quite expensive, and we probably would not have chosen to stay here if not for the hotel benefits. However, I am glad that we did get to experience it because I really did enjoy my stay!

Also as a disclaimer, I don’t even really know what a “fancy” or “luxury” hotel is - you might be reading this and thinking this is nothing! But for me, this was definitely out of my usual price range when it comes to lodging expenses (with the exception to Disney hotels, because Disney somehow always happens to be my exception).

Review

Arriving and check-in

To get to the hotel, we took a Didi, which is China’s ride-hailing app. However, because the entrance to The Shanghai EDITION is on the Nanjing Pedestrian Road, there’s actually no dedicated spot for cars to drop off passengers. I wasn’t aware of this prior to arriving, but the hotel did notify us that we needed to request to be dropped off at the “east entrance”. This drop-off point is where the vehicle roads end up against the pedestrian road, and it’s the closest point to the hotel’s entrance that’s reachable by car.

When we arrived, men wearing black puffer jackets opened our door and assisted with removing our luggage from the car. At first it was a little jarring because I wasn’t certain who these men were (their jackets were covering their name tags), but I eventually realized they worked for the hotel, and they helped guide us to the hotel lobby for check-in. As soon as we entered, I appreciated the smell of clean air. The smog and the smoke in the surrounding city was quite heavy and as someone with a sensitive nose, I was immediately grateful for the smoke-free interior of the hotel.

From there the check-in process was smooth. They had English-speaking staff which was super helpful for us, and they were very clear on the policies and helped explain everything. The service at the hotel was very attentive (perhaps too attentive for my liking…?). After they brought our bags in, they held onto them as we checked in, then walked them up to our room with us. I appreciated it for sure, but I also felt it was a little unnecessary since we each only had one bag each. But I guess this is the service to be expected from this type of hotel!

The room

This room felt so large and spacious! In addition to the bed, our room had a working desk and chair, a couch and a small loveseat, and a coffee table. The curtains were motorized which was very cool, and we had a nice view of the city!

The bathroom was also super spacious with double sinks, a bathtub, and separate compartments for the toilet and shower. (They also had a Dyson hairdryer!)

In terms of amenities, they gave us a small bowl of welcome fruit alongside some White Rabbit chocolate bars. There was also a small draw filled with different snacks that were complementary for the first round, and a mini fridge that was stocked with drinks like water, coconut water, and soda which were also complementary. There was also some alcohol provided which was an additional cost if drank. They certainly made sure we had more than enough water during our stay. Even during the nighttime turndown which was refused, they offered us even more cans of water. This was great since we didn’t need to go out to buy water, and we had more than enough to use for things like brushing our teeth and washing our face.

Room service

This was my first time ordering room service for myself literally ever, and it was great! We ended up using all of our 700 RMB hotel credits on room service throughout our stay since it was so convenient. The hotel itself did have several other restaurants and bars that we could have tried, but this was most convenient for us, and we were able to order food even after the restaurants had closed.

Room service was easy to order through the hotels WeChat app, and the food came at the expected time. The hotel staff was friendly and everything was great!

The food itself was also tasty and satisfying (always a plus). When else can you get fresh xiaolongbao and dim sum delivered to your room?

Pool

After checking in with the pool attendant, men and women are split into separate locker rooms where you can change before entering the pool. In the locker rooms they have free lockers and slippers that you can use at the pool along with showers and towels.

The back exit of the locker room is where you can enter the indoor pool area which contains one large pool and a hot tub. When we visited it was completely empty so we pretty much had the area all to ourselves. There’s a lifeguard on duty who also turns on the jets if you’re using the hot tub and provides each guest with a can of water (more water!) and a coconut water.

This was such a cool and relaxing spot, I’m glad we checked it out, but it’s a bummer I didn’t actually bring any swimming clothes to fully enjoy it!

Rooftop bar

The hotel also has a rooftop bar which you can make reservations for. Since we didn’t want to sit-in, we went up just to take a look around and the hosts were nice enough to let us do so for a little bit.

The entire bar area is enclosed in a clear tarp so you can still get a nice view of the city and even see The Bund without having to breathe in the smoke or smog.

Breakfast buffet

For the breakfast buffet, we dined at the Shanghai Tavern which is on the first floor of the hotel.

They offered pastries, fruits, and other items as a self-serve option as well as a menu of dim sum and other Chinese dishes that are available for order. You can order as much as you want during your meal, though at times the service felt a bit slow and the waiters here were a bit hard to get attention from. On the second day, we found it easier to put in all of our dim sum orders at once instead of ordering as we ate. Since we wanted to spend our day eating around Shanghai we didn’t fill up too much here, but the food was very good . I really enjoyed the wontons and the xiaolongbao here.

The Shanghai Tavern is actually the same restaurant that provides the food for room service, so including the room service meals we ate, we had quite a few meals here!

Location

This was, indeed, a great location! As soon as we walked out the door we could walk right towards The Bund for a great view and be met with so many nice shops along the way. There are coffee shops, shopping malls, food stalls, pretty much everything right there, and you don't even have to walk far. And because it’s a pedestrian road, you don’t have to cross too many streets and don’t have to deal with too many cars.

The hotel was also very close to so many subway lines. We literally just crossed the pedestrian street to one of the many subway station entrances and could go wherever we wanted, so it was so easy to travel elsewhere and back.

I would say this a great spot for anyone who’s trying to stay closer to the bustling, maybe more touristy, city area. But if you’re looking to do more quieter activities or to go further away from the main urban area, then this is a bit far and will require quite a subway ride or car ride.

Overall thoughts

This was such a fun and comfortable stay, I definitely had a great time here! Most of our days were spent wandering through the city looking for food to eat and drinks to try and being surrounded by so many people all day, so coming back to such a comfortable, clean, and spacious room was such a nice way to end the day.

Everything felt very luxurious and we were very well-attended to all throughout our stay. And because I was so sensitive to the smog and smoke outside, it cannot be overstated how much I enjoyed the fact that I could breathe easy here. (The same couldn’t be said for the other hotel we stayed at in Shanghai that reeked of smoke in the hallways).

Of course the price point was quite high for us, but it’s a splurge I’m glad we made because the experience was great! Spending more on hotel stays is actually something I would like to do as I continue to travel because experiences like these have made me realize how big a difference a comfortable bed and room can make on a trip. I'm definitely not going to be staying at fancy hotels like this all the time, but if you’re considering splurging a little for this kind of experience, I would definitely recommend it! If given the chance to stay here again, I would do it!