I hear you on that one, but by definition, it is supposed to be.

 

Not really. There are reasons it's no longer a StR, although less than a decade ago, it was a favorite of longterm business travelers in Shanghai. The downfall is sad. It even seemed like staff spoke more English then.

 

So what's the definition to Luxury Collection if not top of the line? This is a Luxury Collection hotel w butler service throughout the whole hotel, no less. One would think it was top notch. Not even sure of the difference between expectations for this vs a SR in China. Should be similar. I will say that I thought this was a disappointing and staid SR back in the day.

 

It's been a while, but here's what I recall from the SR to Hongta transformation:
-Dog property or not, Starwood didn't want to lose the management contract, but also didn't want to continue to damage its established and uniform St. Regis brand
-So, they pitched "Luxury Collection" (a luxurious but much lesser defined brand) to the owners and they bit

 

I wasn't being impolite but wow, where's the hate coming from?

Now that you got me annoyed, please explain to me what sophisticated Chinese hardware and engineer are we talking about? Like you brought a Cisco switch with modified Chinese
firmware with the atmost sophistication?

A faster connection doesn't necessarily mean faster web portal access. It's like saying the Google frontpage will load faster on a 100Mbps network than a 10Mbps network. Of course your intranet will be slower connected externally than say at your HQ. If your company have employees in China, buy more bandwidth or use a CDN in China.

Your server may not be totally blocked but have you tried pinging your server to see if there's significant packet lost? Maybe also try to work with your IT staff? The hotel can only communicate with their ISP, and if the ISP doesn't see a problem, there's not much the hotel can do, it doesn't matter if it's an Aloft or StR. The reason why it works 100% fine at some hotels, is because they route their entire internet service through HK (eg Pacnet).

If everyone said they wanted more bandwidth, properties will need countless fiber plans. I'm not saying I'm happy with what hotels are offering at the moment but at the same time, I'd expect an IT professional (or sophisticated engineer) to know better and have alternate/backup plans. Buying a 4G sim from HK and data roam in China is a very common practice.

Some hotels offer premium plans with more bandwidth, if your company is hosting a meeting/event there, I would say it's fair for you to pay for it.