10 reasons not to visit Lapis Casa in Shanghai

1. I was trying to find my way to Lapis Casa from the northern end of Xintiandi on the corner of Taicang Road and Huangpi West Road. I called up and reported my location, asking for directions to the hotel. The staff on duty said, “We are located on the north of Xintiandi near 企業天地, where Bellagio (the Taiwanese restaurant) is.”

“Ok, but I am now at the corner of Xintiandi on the junction of Taicang Road and Huangpi West Road. Is your hotel located on the other corner of Xintiandi along Taicang Road?”

“Yes”. But when I walked over to the other side there was nothing but Paul’s (and what joy the sight of Paul’s brought me! I had been waiting for years for the arrival of Paul’s in HK and who would have thought that Shanghai would beat us to it in bringing this famed French bakery to the city? Favourite pickup at Paul: palmier – unfortunately, or fortunately, they don’t sell it here in Shanghai) and Starbucks. So I called again, this time giving them names of all streets enclosing Xintiandi plus my exact location. Still, they gave me the standardized answer. It was only after about 5 minutes down the conversation was I finally able to squeeze some useful information out of his confusing directions which led me to finally find the hotel.

2. The door did not open when I tried to insert my key card into the door. My mother had arrived earlier & had complained of the same problem with her keys, after which they claimed to have been caused by a mechanical failure of the locks, and which they supposedly later fixed. The same problem repeated itself after checkout. Total failures at attempts to open door – 3.

3. It was written in the hotel literature that the rooms are equipped with DVD players. However, I turned the room upside down and found no DVD player. I called reception and was told that they would bring a DVD player to the room. However, the TV was installed on a blank wall with no cabinet whatsoever underneath. The DVD player had to sit on a chair moved over from the dressing table. It took the staff half an hour to figure out how to connect the DVD player to the TV.

4. The sink was leaking water. The bathroom went wet before anyone took a shower.

5. The rainforest shower head was about 5 inches from the top of my head.

6. The temperature adjuster is super sensitive yet super slow at sending signals. The slightest movement in the adjuster turns the water super hot or super cold, about five minutes after the knob is turned. Water pressure is also low.

7. Towels are small and thin, amenities meager.

8. Breakfast is served at the adjacent River Seine French Restaurant. Food was already disappointing, but the biggest joke came when the toaster did not work. A manager came to fix the problem but burnt our toast. I asked a second member of staff to come take a look, “Your toaster is broken. Can you fix the problem?”

“Oh, it’s not broken, there’s just a little malfunction.”

9. When we complained about the various problems above to the reception during check out, our initial response was – no response at all. Zilch. Not a word of apology, not even, “Oh really?”Just an embarrassing glance. After persistent complaints they finally mumbled, “But we’ve had a lot of customers from overseas. They all like our place very much and return to us. If you return next time we will give you an upgrade.”

10. Jia just opened not far from here. Who needs Lapis when we have Jia?

Staying at Lapis Casa is like staying at a mediocre bed and breakfast in Europe, with a price tag of RMB1,700. Sure there is some “old Shanghai charm”like its predecessor, restaurant Lapis Lazuii on Dong Ping Lu. But like Lapis Lazuii Lapis Casa is a meretricious place.

Farewell Lapis Casa! Looks like will not be seeing you for a long while.

If you want to visit Tenya, my favourite all you can eat Japanese toro restaurant in Shanghai, however, the restaurant is located right inside Lapis Casa and you can find it on 68 Taicang Road, near Shun Chang Road (Tenya tel: 021-53836886, Lapis Casa tel: 021-53821600)

Comments

[shaw]

wow that was a terrible experience. the most charming "old shanghai" place i have stayed at is the music conservatory dorm on fenyang rd;-- back then only 40rmb/night. but my backpacking days are over and these days i stay at JW or westin. next time you should try No.9 on jiangguo rd

tenya is all you can eat now? i prefer the original huashan rd location near my house. rong used to have the best j-buffet in town (not to mention the best waitresses!), but the quality of both has declined over the yrs