Holiday Inn Express Shanghai on The Bund — Walk to The Bund, Budget Intact, Brand New for 2025

Most hotels that put themselves near The Bund price accordingly. The Holiday Inn Express Shanghai on The Bund, which opened in 2025, does not — and that gap between what you pay and what you get in terms of location is the central reason its score has settled so quickly at 9.5/10. The hotel sits in Huangpu District, placed between two of the city's most compelling neighbourhoods: The Bund's 52-building European waterfront to one side, and the 1559 Ming-dynasty walled garden of Yu Yuan and the Old Town streets to the other. Both are accessible on foot without touching the metro.

Reviews compiled from real guests describe rooms that are clean, modern and entirely unmarked by time — which is what you would expect from a hotel that has been open for less than a year. The IHG Select-Service format means the rooms are efficiently designed rather than expansive: well-proportioned beds, reliable Wi-Fi, a clean bathroom and everything in working order. What rounds the proposition out is the IHG Express Start breakfast, included in the room rate across all room types. In a neighbourhood where breakfast out costs real money, that inclusion has a measurable effect on the daily travel budget.

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The IHG Express Start breakfast draws consistent positive comment in real guest reviews. For a hotel priced at approximately ¥600–950 per night, having a buffet-style morning meal built into the rate removes one planning variable entirely. For guests who want to be out early — to catch The Bund before the crowds, or to be at Yu Garden when it opens — leaving the hotel already fed is a straightforward advantage. The format is practical rather than elaborate, which is exactly what it is meant to be.

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The location does a lot of the work here. The Bund — the 1.5-kilometre waterfront promenade with its illuminated arc of colonial-era buildings opposite Pudong's tower skyline — is a ten-minute walk from the hotel entrance. Yu Garden, one of the best-preserved classical Chinese gardens in the country, is around eight minutes in the other direction, with the Chenghuangmiao market, the Nine-Turn Bridge and the maze of Old Town souvenir streets in between. Yu Yuan Garden metro station (Line 10) is an eight-minute walk for days when you need to move further afield — People's Square, East Nanjing Road and connections to Pudong are all straightforward from there.

On pricing: standard rooms run from approximately ¥600 (฿3,000) on regular weeknights, rising toward ¥800–950 (฿4,000–4,750) during Shanghai's spring peak (March–May) and autumn peak (September–November). Golden Week in October will push rates higher. Booking three to four weeks ahead is sensible for high-season travel — a newly opened hotel with a 9.5 score tends not to have much room inventory sitting unsold at short notice. Against the five-star properties along The Bund, which start at ¥1,700–2,000 per night before seasonal uplift, the price differential at HIE is not subtle.

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The honest part of this review is the part about what the hotel does not have. Holiday Inn Express is a Select-Service brand — that means no large swimming pool, no spa, no Michelin-starred restaurant in the lobby. The rooms are comfortable and new, not spacious and luxurious. If those facilities matter to your trip, the right answer is a different Shanghai hotel entirely — the Fairmont Peace Hotel, the Waldorf Astoria On the Bund or the Langham Xintiandi all sit within the same part of the city at higher price points with those offerings. The IHG here is not trying to compete on that axis. It is competing on location, freshness and value for money, and on those three measures it is performing at 9.5 out of 10.

The picture that emerges from real guest reviews is consistent: a hotel that delivers exactly what it says it will — a clean, new, well-located room with breakfast and an easy walk to two of Shanghai's most iconic destinations. For first-time visitors to the city who want to spend their money on experiences rather than on a hotel room, and who do not need a pool or a spa to feel well-accommodated, HIE Shanghai on The Bund is one of the clearest value propositions in the Huangpu District in 2025.