Citadines Gubei Apartment Hotel

This hotel is clean, quite and not that bad, but it could be much better with few changes. I agree with the bad points underlined by other reviewers: 1. there is a smell of old smoke in the rooms: the first one I have been was terrible, then I asked to be changed and the second one was much better, but still with bad smell. I checked and I noticed that the tents and the big black round object hanging on the bed are the one smelling of old smoke so it is highly probable that this problem is in all the rooms. If you are particularly sensitive to smell, this place is not for you. 2. It is a bit difficult to find the entrance (we entered from the Novotel, they have elevators in common) so I would recommand to book this place only if you arrive before 7:30 - 8:00pm. Honestly I already reached this conclusion reading previous reviewrs and I booked this hotel because we were supposed to arrive early enough. Then between flight delay and pick up trouble we arrived more that 4 hours later than original plan (around midnight) and indeed I encounterd all difficulties underlined by others. 3. No English communications. This has not been a problem in other hotels around China since they had a well organized weChat service. But here they do not have anything of the same (one of the guu at the reception give to me his personal contact to help). This make communications very hard for non chinese speaking people, so I do not feel to recommand this place if you are not fluent in chinese (especially since it is quite probable you will have problems here that need to be addressed). 4. Kitchen has pots and pans, but not glasses, forks, spoons nor dish sponge and soap. Of course you can ask for them, but point 3 applies (I couldn't succeed in getting the sponge and soap). Of course they washed my dishes, but the question arises: what they used to clan them if I didn't have a sponge in the room? It felt to me a bit unpleasant. On the other hand Shanghai is much more expensive than other Chinese cities, so probably this is what you het for this price away from the city center with a kitchen. So I think this could be an acceptable choice depending on your priority. Finally for the hotel. I thing this place could greatly improved with a couple of very little expensive changes: 1. change or wash deeply the tents (they stink like hell of smoke). It would be even better if you would replace them with new and 10cm longer one (so there wpuld be no light arriving from top nor bottom). 2 Remove the black round thing (see photo) in all the rooms: it stinks of years of old smoke and it is also '70 style (one of the worse years for style in Italy and, consequently, all over the world :-D ) 3. Create a weChat channel service for the guests who don't speak chinese: this would improve communication a lot thanks to the wechat translation service. 4. Add dish sponge and soap in the rooms: this would increase the hygiene of the room and the cleaning ladies could use it to clean guests dishes. Finally it would be a really good plus to remove the stinky and old carpet in the corridor!!

Very happy with the stay. Service is really good and attentive. Apartment has everything needed for a long stay. After this experience we decided to always stay at Citadines, but turned out other places was no good as this one on Gubei.

It is an excellent place to stay, especially if you are going to be in Shanghai for more than one night. The rooms are spacious and well appointed. The staff are really friendly but did not speak any English, so be prepared to use a translation app. This is an apartment hotel, so there is a washer/dryer machine in your room, which, after a week of travelling in a hot climate, is seriously handy. The food district and Shanghai Brewery is only ten minutes away by taxi, so you have a great selection of restaurants and bars to choose from. One of the best places l have stayed in Shanghai and also one of the most economical! Will definitely be staying there again..

Great and comfortable. Will stay there again in future.

The hotel location was the best. It has excellent food options nearby. Also the morning breakfast options were excellent. As a foreign traveller, the room has small kitchen which was very helpful to cook small meals.

Very nice hotel , room is very spacious and clean. It is about 50 minutes away from Shanghai Center