Check-in: Les Suites Orient

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Location: Once again, we're back on the Huangpu -- spectacular views are a given. You've got that interesting mix of historic, Bund prestige, or walk West along JinLing Lu for a beautiful art deco shopping arcade, now housing a medley of music and tailors' stores. The hotel is close to the various heritage buildings and sites for which this particular stretch of Shanghai pavement is best known, as well as being a stone's throw away from the city's Old Town and souvenir central, Yu Gardens.

Now Booking: Les Suites Orient houses 168 rooms across 23 floors offering either river or city views, including 43 suites. Studios are the most basic and hover around the 1,800rmb mark for 30sqm of comfort, whilst Deluxe tags an extra 10sqm onto that. Suites are bigger still and boast sitting rooms to entertain guests, whilst the most extravagant, the top-floor Presidential Suite, is a whopping 145sqm. All are tastefully decorated in a muted palette of greys, with beautiful quartz and marble bathrooms stocked with Gilchrist & Soames goodies. There's thoughtful touches, too: as well as the usual tea, coffee and mini-bar, you'll also find a lemon in -- design nerd alert -- a dish completely flat apart from a concave indent to stop the fruit from rolling. Nice.

The Background: Like so many businesses in Shanghai, Les Suites Orient -- or rather Les Suites International Management Consulting, the Taiwanese company behind the Shanghai property -- saw the lucrative potential of last year's Expo, seizing the opportunity to cater to the influx of visitors from both China and abroad who descended on the city for the six-month long event.

Whilst the building in which the hotel is housed may be comparatively new for this most historic stretch of Shanghai walkway -- a little over thirty years -- the site has undergone some interesting changes in the lead up to this latest incarnation. Way back in the 1860s, American investment company Russell & Co built JinLiYuan wharf -- ShiLiuPu, as it's now known -- as well as offices close by at 1 JinLing Lu. Their success was relatively short-lived, however, and when business declined in the 1870s, the office building was bought by the Qing government, becoming a ticketing outlet for the Shanghai Merchants Steamship Authority.

And so things continued well into the 20th century, until, that was, 1947 when KuoMingTang leader Chiang Kai-Shek needed a place to stay for the night. His officials hastily made up a bed, and, thus began the building's stint as a hotel for government officials. Two years after reform in 1980, the Shanghai International Port Group remodelled the building, transforming it into the Orient Hotel, famed for hosting lavish wedding banquets.

When Expo came a-knocking in 2006, local government called for a revamp of the entire Bund area shutting the hotel for a four year-long renovation. It reemerged in 2010 a more elegant, tasteful and contemporary version of its former self, and, under the direction of Les Suites group soft-opened just in time to lure the hordes of tourists – well, the design-minded ones -- who flocked to Shanghai for Expo.

Atmosphere: Polished, contemporary and stylish, Les Suites Orient is tasteful down to the tiniest details, the Taiwanese owner's carefully selected collections of knick-knacks, paraphernalia and antiques dotted around the place adding a certain warmth to proceedings. Next to the ground floor elevator that brings guests up to reception, for example, is a cabinet with old perfume bottles, razors, and pipes displayed with museum-like care. The lift doors open onto the check-in desk, lobby, and most strikingly, a beautifully ornate Austrian-made grand piano, featured in the very first world Expo in London in 1851 -- a nod to the Les Suites Orient's founding purpose in Shanghai.

The hotel's layout changed little during its four-year renovation, and as such is puzzling: after going up to check-in, visitors then need to take a candle-lit staircase down to meeting and dining rooms. Nonetheless, interiors by Taiwanese company Wu Design are elegant and tasteful: think classic parquet flooring, sumptuous leather armchairs and bold geometrically-patterned rugs. One-offs, such as the breakfast room's magnificent and weighty-looking table, hewn from one enormous length of polished wood, are nice touches, and add to the boutique feel of the place.

Nestled on the Bund, an area known for its grandeur – at least when it comes to hotels – Les Suites Orient offers a welcome change: the younger, cooler and decidedly more laid back new kid on the block. Staying in the hotel but haven't booked a meeting room? No problem – as long as it's free, the business-minded can just go right ahead. Similarly, guests can help themselves to complimentary tea, coffee and cakes throughout the day in the guest lounge, whilst most refreshing of all is the evening-time honesty bar – simply sign your name and room number and help yourself to chilled beers. Oh, and soft drinks in the mini bar are free – as, one might argue, they should be, given you're already paying for a room. Just goes to show: sometimes the smallest touches can make a big impression.

Amenities The 9th floor gym overlooks Yu Gardens and is kitted out with state-of-the-art machines, as well as an adjoining and rather lovely yoga space. Swimmers will be disappointed: there's no pool, nor are there plans for one – apparently because of the building's heritage status. There will be a spa, though, hopefully opening sometime in the next few months. In addition to the aforementioned meeting rooms, tucked to one side of the guest lounge are a row of PCs, Macs, printers, and fax machines as well as complimentary Wifi throughout the premises. Room keys, of all things, have also been carefully considered, and from the end of July will incorporate a travel card function for use on Shanghai's metro, buses and ferries.

Food & Beverage The thing about boutique hotels, even those with 168 rooms, is that they almost by definition lack some of the facilities of their established chain counterparts. And thus, as well as no pool, nor does Les Suites Orient have a restaurant -- or at least not the traditional, expected kind. Food comes courtesy of Café DongXi -- a tasty, albeit limited all-day menu featuring both Eastern and Western cuisine that can be enjoyed at that massive communal table, in an adjacent sitting room set-up, or really anywhere -- there's no one venue, per se; rather it's pretty informal, and as such, rather refreshing. Same applies to bars -- there's no dedicated destination jazz/ martini/ cigar bars here (although there is a smoking lounge), instead, guests can pick from the same menu across the hotel's various spaces.

Who's staying? Well, first off who should be staying: people who want a more informal hotel experience and like to feel trusted – rather than fleeced – by their accommodation provider of choice. The design-minded will also appreciate Les Suites Orient, and the collections of curios dotted around the place are fascinating in themselves. That demographic are there, of course, but having only declared themselves grandly opened a couple of months ago, the hotel is still pretty quiet, and hence a good choice for anyone seeking a Bund locale, boutique vibe and personalized service -- all, still, refreshingly low-key.