Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong

We booked our reservation via The Edit/Chase Travel, and we were upgraded to a harbour view room on their newly renovated floor. I genuinely think that this hotel room was one of the best hotel rooms we’ve ever stayed in! The view was absolutely incredible and the room was beautifully designed. What really impressed us was how intuitive the room was: control panels were very conveniently located by the bedside with all the controls you need; it was very easy to hang towels in the shower, etc. The outlets were smartly placed inside the bedside drawer (other than a very small qualm I’ll discuss below). The blackout curtains are truly blackout. The shower pressure was top notch and the shower itself was so spacious with a seat. The smallest “complaints” we had about the room: the shower knob could be slightly bigger so it’s easier to rotate. And if you use the universal adapter to charge your devices, it is slightly too tall to fully close the bedroom drawer. But these are the mildest and most negligible of inconveniences. The location is really hard to beat. Admiralty MTR is easily walkable from the hotel (although you’ll have to walk through the malls for a bit). There are always taxis ready to go, and there’s a dedicated taxi queue for hotel guests, since the hotel does get busy with conferences and events. The gym was very nice, and there were two saunas — a normal one and an infrared one. I wish there were other options like a steam room or jacuzzi. The service at the hotel was amazing, and I was struck by how much the staff took initiative. When we checked out, the front desk manager (I can’t remember her name but I hope the hotel can reward her) came up and checked in on our stay and made sure our departure was smooth. She even walked us out to the taxi and checked on everything. We left the hotel with such a positive feeling. Not necessarily a complaint but good to know: the restaurants in the hotel are expensive! We decided to use our $100 credit at Petrus, a French restaurant with 1 Michelin star. The meal was quite good (with some small qualms—-the caviar wasn’t the freshest), but the bill was definitely brutal. We checked out the menu at the seafood restaurant and were also surprised at how expensive it was.

We loved everything about this hotel. We loved the family theme room specially the slides in the room. My daughter keep on talking about how happy she was during our stay. I would like to thank Ms. maryjoy (manager) for being so accomodating and very friendly. Everyone was so nice. We will be back for sure.

We stayed in a club room and had access to the Horizon Club which was amazing with plenty of excellent food and drinks available throughout the day. The staff there were fantastic and made us feel like royalty, really looked after us with special mention to Dave, Reiner and Leah who went the extra mile. I don’t often write reviews but had to after this stay which was just the best.

We encountered extremely friendly staff providing great service, from advising where to get a late nite supper to how to use up our hotel credit. The room was very spacious with a great view of the harbor. The negatives were stains on the bedskirt, worned and stained carpeting and the inability to charge phones by the bed. The selections at breakfast buffet were numerous. It was a good thing we had multiple days to be able to sample everything. The hotel is a short walk to a few shopping centers as well as to the MTR.

I booked the Shangri-la Island Hong Kong location months in advance (Oct 27) for planning for a family reunion travel. Due to the Shangri-la's website booking restrictions, my family of 4 -- that is 2 adults and 2 children under the age of 6 is required to book a connecting room, a 3 bed layout setup that is one of Shangrila's most costly room offerings. I was shocked. But the website did not allow me to book a king room. Even when my baby sleeps with me and we travel with an inflatable bed for my preschooler, Shangrila insisted I book the most expensive setup! My relatives also booked the hotel. Later they told me they booked a king room on the family floor and asked if I can call the hotel and move my booking so that our kids can play together. What a nice idea I thought. I proceeded to call Shangrila on 12Nov to arrange the booking only to be disgusted by their policy. Because I booked nonrefundable - there is nothing they can do. Despite my booking is in the most expensive room in the hotel they cannot downgrade me to a king room or even move my room to the nearest applicable room on the family floor. There was another room equivalent to the connecting room that I had booked, the Safari room, that the Shangri-la associate offered to me but would require an additional $55k HKD per night to stay. I looked at the photos and the setup and it was worse than what I had already in my reservation. In addition, they could not grant me access to the amenities on the family floor despite that I was traveling with a baby and small child, but would have to pay extra for daily access to these amenities. 90 mins of calling and explaining the situation later, I hung up livid. I was appalled and disgusted. I told the associate I cannot understand how Shangri-la touts themselves to be such a family friendly accommodations only to show it to me that I've booked the most expensive room, and because its nonrefundable they refuse to do anything to help me make the most of this family reunion trip. I told the associate blankly that I cannot wait to come to the hotel and rave online and review how poorly they treated me and that this is simply taking advantage of traveling families. Needless to say I was not looking forward to this trip. Fast forward a couple months, my trip has come up and I have arrived with my family. Upon check in, Miss Gigi of the Guest Relations Team helped with my booking. Her attentiveness and eager to help us make the most of our first time stay at the Shangri-la exceeded my expectations. She observed that it was my baby's birthday coming up and offered to send a small cake to the room to share with the family. Her associate greeted my kids with stuffed teddy bears ("Sam the Chef" and "Tony the Bell Captain" both who are cherished friends in my children's bed now back at home). She observed we were only 2 adults and 2 childen and stated that the room size with a connecting room might be too much for our setup and offered to downgrade our booking to a king room, especially that the in-room seating can be converted to a child's bed. While the family floor did not have any openings to accommodate us, GiGi still offered to mark the paid difference as pre-paid credit to the room and any incidentals can be taken from the credit. And any remaining at checkout could be refunded. What a welcomed relief. I couldn't believe it. It was exactly what I hoped for. But wait. There was more. After getting to my room, I was surprised by another visit with staff members delivering a bed change service of the in-room seating to a children's daybed. They gave us toiletries for the children, fruity soap and shampoo that brightens their energy and thrills the senses over the soothing tranquil musk that comes from the adult alternatives. Maybe an hour later, I someone else delivered a set of macarons and a handwritten card, wishing my daughter a happy birthday. This was above and beyond what I could have imagined. I hadn't yet planned a birthday celebration for my baby and here's the hotel staff treating her with such recognition. I was honored. And humbled. With the extra money relieved in our travel budget we gladly did pastries and coffee at Island Gourmet - the 5th floor cafe the first morning. The staff initially rang my kids rant of pastry orders as a la carte orders -- but then later another older staff member, who I don't remember her name but recall her story of her children Gerald and Geraldine -- kindly recalculated our bill to be breakfast sets instead of a la carte selections; effectively saving us $150 HKD. This was something we didn't ask for or even know about, but it was the kindness and attentiveness of the staff to willingly do this on her own. In addition, we felt so welcomed as she addressed my kids, spoke to them as young adults, and treated everyone with respect. The next morning we did breakfast at Cafe TOO the buffet on the 7th floor. The dining area has children's dining ware and utensils, the food is wonderful and has many child-appropriate selections, and the staff was so attentive! One staff member, Umi So, even found the time in her busy responsibilities to twist balloon animals for my kids. I mean, who does that?! Cafe TOO was wonderfully attentive. At midmeal, the staff came out with individually plated dimsum on a push cart - really giving guests the legitimate HK dim sum experience! My baby got a pig designed steamed bun - which she held and played and really enjoyed. By the end of the meal my son had popped his green dinosaur. He had wanted to ask the staff member for another balloon and I could see the dining rush had started to arrive. I told my son, one balloon is enough, but he's young and decided independently to walk up to the staff member and ask if she can make another one. I saw the guests coming in but here she was making a lion balloon just for him, treating him as if he's the primary guest of honor. We were treated sooo well. Too well. We dined at Summer Palace one lunch and were met with equally attentive service. Due to having to attend the children, one of our steamed chicken soups went cold and by asking, the staff member was able to resteam it for us. We were welcomed and sent off, each day by very kind and attentive staff, as we traveled mostly by taxi for our large family. Each ride in, they helped ensure we unloaded with ease and care -- so important and hardly mentioned as traveling with young ones can be often be rushed or clumsy. On our last night, we had finished a long day at Disneyland and our feet was tired. The kids fell asleep on the ride back and the wife and I hadn't eaten yet. I was able to order Foodpanda delivery -- and I spoke with the Bell Desk staff to hold the food for me, so that they did not call and wake up the kids in the room. In addition, they kindly pointed me to the Lobster Bar & Grill venue where I could comfortably order a whisky and bring it back upstairs to the room to enjoy with takeout dinner. Overall, I'm thoroughly impressed by Island Shangri-la's attentiveness, thoughtfulness and well-meaning. I came ready to observe and report every flaw, defect and mistake as vengeance against my phone call early in November but I have now returned home and cannot help but rave, shout, and praise what an amazing experience Island Shangri-la offered. And it was not solely by 1 staff member, but evident in the organizational culture, the hospitality and by management design. Thank you for an extraordinary stay and I look forward to coming back again soon.