Does Writing "High Floor, Oriental Pearl Tower View" in Your Booking Request Work?
After reading this, you can tell hotels where you can rely on requests from hotels where you need to book a view room.
When you search for Shanghai night-view hotels, you often hear "I wrote it in my requests and they gave me a room with an Oriental Pearl Tower view."
But at the same hotel, sometimes you get a 2nd-floor room.
A request is a favor you ask, not a booking.
So let's look separately at which hotels you can count on and how to write it.
Check the room name first
More certain than a request is booking a room with the view in its name.
If the room name includes Pearl Tower View, Oriental Pearl View, or River View, it's a room where the hotel has promised the window direction.
At hotels that have such rooms, book that room and only write the floor in your requests.
How to read room names is summarized in Room names that see the Oriental Pearl Tower.
Requests are useful in two cases.
One is a hotel with no rooms with a fixed view at all.
The other is when, even within view rooms, you want a higher floor or a wing that faces more head-on.
Hotels where requests work
Golden Tulip Bund New Asia has no rooms with a fixed Oriental Pearl Tower view.
If you write "high floor, room with an Oriental Pearl Tower view" when booking, they often assign one.
But sometimes you get a 2nd-floor room.
It's right to go thinking it's nice if it works, and nothing to be done if it doesn't.
This hotel is in the old New Asia Hotel building.
It's 830 meters to East Nanjing Road Station and 1.1 km to the Bund.
The rooms are long and narrow, with a separate dressing room at the back.
Delivery food is left on a table on the 1st floor, so you go down and pick it up yourself.
Even if the view request doesn't work, it's a location where you can walk out to the Bund, so you don't lose much at this hotel.
At Conrad and Regent Pudong too, writing the same line sometimes gets you an upgrade.
Hyatt On The Bund has two buildings, the East Tower and the West Tower.
The West Tower faces the Oriental Pearl Tower head-on, while the East Tower sees it from the side.
So at this hotel, it's good to write in your requests that you'd like the West Tower.
Sometimes the hotel calls you before arrival and assigns a high-floor room with a good view.
Sometimes they also help with early check-in at no extra cost.
The West Tower story is written separately in the Hyatt On The Bund West Tower article.
At Grand Hyatt Shanghai, the front desk tends to do its best to meet requests.
Sometimes you get an 80th-floor club-floor river-view room that sees the Bund.
At Radisson Collection Hyland, if you're assigned a high floor, you see the Oriental Pearl Tower head-on.
If you're lucky, you get a room with an Oriental Pearl Tower view.
As "if you're lucky" suggests, this hotel doesn't always give you a high floor.
The rooms are worn, but the high-floor view from the 20th floor is good.
There was also a case where, when payment was blocked, the front-desk manager connected via WeChat and sorted it out.
That means it's a hotel where it's easy to ask the front desk for things.
Hotels where a request alone isn't enough
At The Ritz-Carlton Pudong, to get a room facing the Oriental Pearl Tower head-on, you have to contact the rooms division separately and ask before they assign it.
Sometimes you wait at check-in to get that room.
It means there are hotels where just writing it in the box when booking isn't the end of it.
The Ritz-Carlton is in the building next door, 410 meters from the Oriental Pearl Tower, so from a head-on room you look up at the tower.
If you choose this hotel, it's easier on your mind to send the hotel a separate email after booking.
Write it like this
Write your request short and specific.
One line saying what you want gets across more easily than a long explanation.
- Floor: The single word "high floor" is enough.
- Direction: Put in the tower's name, "room with an Oriental Pearl Tower view." "Room with a good view" may be taken as a high-floor city view.
- Wing: If the building has two wings, write the name of the one you want.
- Language: If you also write it in English or Chinese, hotel staff recognize it right away.
In English, write it like this.
High floor, room with Oriental Pearl Tower view, please.
In Chinese, write it like this.
高楼层，能看到东方明珠的房间，谢谢。
The English name of the tower is Oriental Pearl Tower, so in English use that name as is.
It's good to always include the Chinese line too.
Some hotels, like The Eton Hotel, get by with basic English.
But at Puyan Hotel Shanghai The Bund, English doesn't work well, so you need a translator.
A request written in Chinese is read by staff right away, so it gets across even if you can't talk to each other.
For a hotel where you write the wing, like Hyatt On The Bund, add this.
West wing, please.
西楼，谢谢。
When to write it and when to say it again
In order, it goes like this.
- When booking: Write the line above in the request box, in both English and Chinese.
- Before arrival: If the hotel contacts you, mention it once more then. Hyatt On The Bund sometimes calls ahead.
- At check-in: Confirm at the front desk that they saw your request.
- When you enter the room: Look out the window first. If it's not the side you wanted, tell the front desk before unpacking.
It's also good to know the check-in times.
Hyatt On The Bund and Grand Hyatt are after 15h.
Radisson Hyland and The Eton are after 14h.
Shanghai Marriott Marquis City Centre and Puyan Hotel are after 16h.
At hotels with late check-in, if you arrive early you can just leave your bags and walk the Bund first.
Hyatt On The Bund also offers contactless check-in and check-out.
Check the weather too
Even if you get a view room, the tower is hard to see when it's cloudy.
On rainy days the tower looks hazy.
How to deal with cloudy days continues in Night views on cloudy or rainy days.
If you're staying 2 nights or more, another option is to keep a clear night free for the night view.
Choose like this
- If the trip requires seeing the Oriental Pearl Tower, book a room with the view in its name and only write the floor and wing in your requests.
- If it's a reasonably priced hotel without view rooms, write a request, but only choose it if a city view would also be fine.
- If it's a once-only day like an anniversary, don't rely on a request; book a view room.
- If you're staying only 1 night, there's little time to change rooms. In that case a view room is less stressful than a request.
Weigh the area too.
North Bund hotels with guaranteed view rooms are far from East Nanjing Road Station.
Hyatt On The Bund is 1.4 km from East Nanjing Road Station.
East Nanjing Road hotels near the station mean relying on a high-floor request, while North Bund hotels with a guaranteed view mean walking a bit more.
Which to put first, decide after reading West bank or Pudong?.
Other questions
What should I also write if I'm going with kids?
Write the beds and number of people before the view.
At Hyatt On The Bund, Grand Hyatt, Radisson Hyland, The Eton, and Puyan Hotel, children 12 and under stay free when sharing existing beds.
At Marriott Marquis, up to 17 and under are free when sharing existing beds.
If you also write your children's ages in your requests, the front desk takes them into account when choosing a room.
At Hyatt On The Bund, staff sometimes take thoughtful care when they see you have kids.
Puyan Hotel's kids' rooms with a slide have to be booked separately as a room type, not by request.
Are requests useless if I arrive late at night?
The later you arrive, the fewer rooms may be left.
So it's good to also write your arrival time in your requests.
All the hotels above keep the front desk open 24 hours.
At Grand Hyatt, when calling a taxi, it's easy to enter Jin Mao Tower Gate 3 as the destination.
The route from the airport is in From Pudong Airport to a Bund hotel.
What if my request isn't met?
Even without a room view, if you go out to the Bund riverside you see the same night view.
The lighting times are summarized in When do the Bund lights turn on?.
From which floor the river opens up differs by hotel.
That's summarized in Floors that see the Bund and the Oriental Pearl Tower.
View rooms tend to cost more than standard rooms.
Prices change by date, so check them for your own dates.
