J Hotel, Shanghai Tower

I booked J to experience the best hotel in Shanghai and potentially China, it's priced and marketed at that level. What I got was half an experience. J delivers a high end property in a unique location, everything is well maintained and the facilities are really spacious and good, I wouldn't expect anything else from a property at this level. What differentiate these high end ultra luxury hotels though are service and here, they miserably fail. The staff to guest ratio is great but the general competence and understanding of guest experience of the staff is incredibly low, English is spoken but at a functional, not conversational level and there's clearly a lack of in-house training and international experience. There were some exceptions - a special mention to Arch and Chris who really tried and the breakfast team that was a service exception. The hotel is very clearly catered to the Chinese market and managed by a Chinese team, I wouldn't recommend it for any western travelers expecting luxury service or hospitality.