Review of Shanghai ZhongFu Youth Garden Service Apartment by Scott

Booked a two bedroom unit (duplex) in June 2007. My expectations are not too high at any apartment so I was not put off by the lack of cold water (it turned out that we merely had to open a door to a cabinet in the kitchen and turn the hot water heater on - kindly shown to us by the desk personnel). The apartment was actually quite nice and service was excellent. The supermarket downstairs in the same complex was really convenient and I did not find (nor did my family) the location away from subways to be inconvenient. Cabs in Shanghai are really cheap and it was easy to find a cab. The desk personnel were always helpful in writing the location we wished to reach on a card for us in Chinese so we could give that to a cab driver. From reviews, this was the one apartment I was concerned about during my trip to China - it was an unnecessary concern. The apartment was quite nice - roomy and well-maintained. My only problem was at check out. I had requested an extra bed (we were a party of four) upon arrival per my in- structions from ChinaTour. It was provided and I paid the price that ChinaTour had listed. But, when I went to check out, management attempted to claim that I had only paid for one night of the extra bed and it took over an hour to straighten out. The result was a missed plane and a need for the airline to reschedule all of my connecting flights from the airport (which they did very well). A nice experience with the hotel was ruined by incompetence (I hesitate to suggest dishonesty) at the time of checkout. If you can avoid asking for an extra bed (which made checkout difficult), I would highly recommend this hotel. Though the desk staff do not all speak much English, they call someone who does on the phone and they are anxious to be helpful in all matters of a visit to Shanghai.