Crowne Plaza Lake Malaren

staying there during a full 5 days course, this is an old fashion big hotel facing beautiful golf course with pools, gym and spa. the room was spacious and the buffeet breakfast menu was good. the two down sides were only very few staffs speaks english and the location that far from everywhere. It needs about an hour to go shanghai downtown. first, we took taxi to the nearest metro station (line 7) and get in metro train. there was supermarket and grocery in the station area to buy snacks and drinks. Overall, this is good place if you want to escape from a busy shanghai either for relaxing vacation or intensive course/meetings, but not for travellers who likes to explore shanghai.

If you like to get away from the busy city center, this is the place to relax. Nice view over large golf course and little lake with actually some bird watching opportunities early in the morning. Excellent western and Chinese breakfast. Espresso machine with Dutch Douwe Egberts coffee!!!! Disadvantage is the rather out of the way location. Metro to city center is cheap but will take about an hour each way. Avoid rush hour, trains packed like sardines. Best deal for the Metro: buy the day pass! Free shuttle from hotel to Metro and back, but check times as the frequency is not that great. Hotel shows signs of lack of maintenance, but overall is acceptable. Pool was closed for renovations. Playing golf was not available. Do not even venture to adjacent golf resort as you will be literally chased away!

The hotel is situated far away from restaurants and shops and it is difficult to eat anywhere else without grabbing a taxi. The surrounding area also does not have any western restaurants. There are very few staff who speak English and for non Chinese speakers, communication becomes a problem. I did find one or two very helpful staff but most others struggled with the communication. The buffet restaurant is closed on most nights unless there is an event and thus dinner becomes a limited experience. The price is good and the room is all right. The gym certainly is not as it is very very basic. The hotel seems to be used mainly by tour companies with large groups. The concierge does not start until 9am

We recently were on a 20 day tour of China and so had quite a few different hotels. This was our first and last stop and found it to be quite comfortable with three different types of restaurants. This is a big deal when you have eaten Chinese food (somewhat westernized) for 26 meals in a row...lunch and dinner every night! The bed and pillows were comfortable and amenities in the room had everything you might need. The linens were a bit yellowed but the room was clean. The downside to this property is that it is not near anything except the private golf course it sits on that they will happily escort you off if you happen to go have a look. It was quiet and the breakfast was good. Good coffee and quite a few western things to choose from. Overall quite good.

This hotel is out of town in quiet area, so if relaxation is your goal then it's the right place to be. The front desk staff were very friendly and helped with organizing taxis and recommending places to eat away from the hotel, there is shopping mall (small) approx 3km away so a good place to visit for alternate food or shopping essentials. The hotel is next to golf course, and staff will arrange pick up if you want to play, some of my colleagues played 2x and commented the course to be difficult. I ate at breakfast buffet and the food was fine, reasonable selections and enough to suit all tastes. I also had dinner in Japanese restaurant, all you can eat at 288RMB, this is not self service, but order from menu. The food quality was quite good, tasty tempura, sashimi, sushi, pork cutlet etc, and the head waiter very friendly and keen to ensure we were well looked after. As you expect from Crowne Plaza, the room and bed quality was impeccable, with a bright well lit bathroom. My room had balcony with views over golf course, very relaxing on the eye. My gripe about the hotel was Wifi, it kept dropping out and sometimes would simply refuse to connect. I had to reset my iPad at least 3x to try and fix problems. Several of my colleagues had same wifi issues, so it's a problem at hotel not with personal devices. When I'm away from home I expect reliable wifi, speed is not my biggest concern, I just need reliable connections. Hope this issue can be resolved. I would certainly return to hotel for 2-3 day golf break, and chill out, so maybe giving 3 star sounds harsh but that's how highly I consider wifi connectivity.

For starters, it is a long ways from the center city. So if it is your plan to see sights downtown, you will have a long commute regardless of mode of transportation. That is also the case for airports. The room was spacious and clean, but wall covering by the desk was significantly banged up and the desktop had been broken and repaired as opposed to replacing it. I went to the front desk early in the morning and the person at the desk had her head down sleeping and I had to wake her up. When she could not understand my English she called for another guy who came out of a room behind the desk. He clearly had been sleeping and was not at all enthusiastic about helping me. The breakfast buffet was very good.

the hotel is nice. the burger and sandwich from the room service menu were quite good ( served in the lounge) free WiFi only in the lobby. the shower in the room was the best very powerful. next to a golf course so it is very quiet. its take an hour by subway to get downtown. there is a free shuttle to take you to the subway station nearest to the hotel. 830AM and 915AM. this is a small van , about 8 people. so if you want to get on it, be at the door shortly before departure time. fill up quickly . the pool was closed, unfortunate because that's about the only thing you can do so far out.

Stayed 2 nights. This hotel has two restaurants Japanese and Chinese both very good. Breakfast buffet is good with everything you would expect. When we arrived I put the aircon on and it didn't work so I rang reception and apparently 29 degrees is not hot the they disable the air con for the cooler season not good for us though. Big rooms and nice hotel, but it 80k out of the city Centre and it's an hour by road of subway

The rooms were very nice and clean. The breakfast buffet was large with lots of variety. They have a shuttle to the subway. Their driver wouldn't take a tip. You have to change lines a couple of times to get into downtown. They only exchanged $100 Canadian per guest.