The Peninsula Shanghai: Rooms, Rates & How to Book

When The Peninsula Shanghai opened in 2009 at the northern end of the Bund, it was the first new building permitted on that waterfront in over sixty years, and the brief was to make it disappear into the 1920s streetscape around it. The Art Deco exterior, the lobby's inlaid floors, the brass and lacquer detailing: all new, all convincingly period. Guests routinely assume it is a restoration.

The position is the argument. You are on the Huangpu waterfront at the quiet end, with the colonial-era banking houses on one side and the former British Consulate gardens on the other, looking across at Pudong's skyline. For a first visit to Shanghai, it is the address that makes the city legible.

Rooms, and Why the Bund View Wins

The hotel has roughly 235 rooms: large by any standard, with the deepest bathtubs and the fullest expression of the brand's in-room technology, including the valet box and the bedside control panels. Deco detailing runs throughout: sunburst inlays, chrome fittings, a general sense that the 1930s never ended.

Room categories split between city-facing and Bund-facing, and the premium for a Bund or Grand Deluxe river-view room is money well spent; you get the Huangpu, the ferry traffic and the Pudong towers lighting up at dusk. Many river-view categories carry a small private balcony, which is rarer on this waterfront than you would expect.

Sir Elly's, Yi Long Court and the Terrace

Sir Elly's occupies the top floors (named for Sir Elly Kadoorie, of the family that has owned the company since the beginning), and its terrace is the best rooftop on the Bund, angled straight at Pudong. Book the terrace for a drink before dinner rather than after; the light between 6 and 7pm does the work.

Yi Long Court is the serious meal: Cantonese cooking that has held Michelin recognition since the guide arrived in Shanghai, in a room that feels like a private club. Downstairs, the Peninsula Arcade runs the luxury retail the brand builds into most of its hotels, and the spa and pool sit on the upper floors with river light coming in.

The Peninsula Shanghai by Our Numbers

On 1 October 2026 we priced The Peninsula Shanghai through our own booking engine (the one behind hotels.biirdee.com) on four test stays and on a two-night midweek stay in every month to September 2027, and we scored its 100 most recent verified guest reviews ourselves. Rates are the lowest per night the engine charged at booking; taxes the hotel collects at checkout are extra. Live rates change daily, so treat these as the rates on 1 October 2026. Every Peninsula is priced side by side on our Peninsula prices page.

Our Read on the Numbers

The Peninsula Shanghai scored 9.43 out of 10 with recent guests, and only 2% scored it under 7, the smallest share of unhappy guests at any Peninsula but Beijing. Couples wrote 62% of its reviews, more than at any other Peninsula with recent reviews. The Bund view earns its keep: it came up in 18% of written reviews, and those averaged 9.83. In Shanghai it placed second of the four luxury hotels we scored, behind The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong (9.65).

It costs more than its local rivals. It was the dearest of the four we scored in Shanghai on three of our four stays (the Ritz-Carlton in Pudong edged it in July, $512 to $471), and Mandarin Oriental, Shanghai ran $246–336 a night against the Peninsula's $471–975. Our monthly checks barely moved, from $471 to $601, but watch November: on our 10–13 Nov stay every standard room was gone and the cheapest option was a $975 suite, while our check later that month found rooms from $534. Breakfast for two added $49–54 a night on the same room.

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