A friend & I were in Shanghai to watch the Tennis Masters Cup so we weren't very particular with the hotel; just somewhere clean and nice. We picked this one because it was 2 bus stops away from the shuttle bus which will take us to the tennis stadium; that's the only reason. But if you're going to Shanghai for vacation, I suggest NOT to stay at RuiTai for the following reasons:

First, this hotel is at least 30 mins from the shopping/sightseeing areas.

Second, although SOME staff may speak English, they're not very fluent and I think they didn't understand us at all. For example, we wanted to go to Ritz Carlton and asked for directions at the front desk. We were given a totally different location for the Ritz Carlton!!

Third, although breakfast is included, it was the same breakfast over and over again. Out of our 10-day stay, we only ate our breakfast at the hotel for 3 days! And the dining area was not very clean - carpet, tables, chairs looked very old.

Fourth, it was mentioned in the package that there will be an airport transfer but voila! No airport transfer at all. The hotel said they don't even have a hotel car!

For these reasons alone, don't stay at this hotel. There are better hotels which have the same price as RuiTai.

I stayed here for a week. Good points - Nice breakfast which was included in the daily rate. Good choice of western and Chinese items. The service is very courteous and by Chinese standards, there is always at least one person who speaks English at the front desk. Taxis are always available at the hotel, if not the friendly bell boys are always happy to get one for you. The view on the road side is good, the back side is just a green canal with cats roaming around. If you want privacy the back side is good. The general cleaniness in the hotel is average. Average, because even though the bathrooms were well cleaned, carpets are almost never cleaned and that is the case in most Chinese hotels. However they give free room slippers so you can avoid stepping on the not so clean floor. Would I stay there again, probably yes. It cost no more than $2 to the local subway station (or a brisk 12 minute walk). There are some OK Japanese restaurants (where no one can speak English and one can order by looking at the photographs), KFC etc. There is a chain of shops on Seu Chung road where you can get branded stuff for cheap as chips prices. Nice hair cutting saloons and lots of cheap masssage parolors (not the sleazy ones, but real massage parolors). The hotel is just barely a 4 star. I have seen more cleaner 4 star hotels. The owners seem not to replace stuff but are just milking the hotel and providing a decent friendly service. The windows in this hotel are sealed well, so there aren't mosquitoes inside the hotel as in some other hotels.

Thankfully our group stayed here for a little amount of time during our 2 wks in China, just 2 nights.

The hotel is undergoing a re-furb, so the rooms may be better then... however... my room hadn't been re-furbed (well, I assume anyway!!). The carpet was heavily stained as were the 2 armchairs, wallpaper hanging off the wall under the window, lots of black human hairs found all over the place, extremely starched scratchy noisy duvet covers.

My room was on floor 6, above the restaurant on floor 5 and it seemed to smell of food constantly and smoke, not pleasant.

View ok over the city roads, pleasure to watch people outside the block opposite doing Tai Chi in the morning - that was the highlight of the hotel.

A long way out of town, an organised tour for us - which took about an hour to get to the Shanhai Museum in the morning.

I loved Shanghai and would liked to have stayed here to explore longer in a more central hotel.

Stayed just one night at this dreadful Hotel at the end of a wonderful trip to China.
Breakfast was awful ,room was tatty and unclean though staff were pleasant .
Would not recommend anyone to stay here .