SUMMARY: I recently stayed at Capella Shanghai (hereafter abbreviated as "CS" in this review) for 3 nights with my family. CS is an excellent property, and I would stay at CS again. There were just a few minor hiccups, none of which were serious enough to be deal-breakers. As is typical with the reviews I write on TripAdvisor, I provide below a detailed list of "pros" and "cons" (the "cons" were, again, all minor). PROS: 1. BEAUTIFUL PROPERTY & GROUNDS -- CS is located in its own walled, private area in Shanghai's French Concession. It consists of various buildings, including the check-in and library building, a tower, a French-inspired bakery ("La Boulangerie"), a Michelin-starred French-inspired restaurant ("Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire"), a parking garage, garden pathways, and 55 private villas where guests stay. Put simply, the grounds are beautiful and well-maintained. It was immensely pleasant to be able to walk around the private grounds and garden pathways. It never felt crowded. 2. BEAUTIFUL VILLAS -- CS is unique because guests do not stay in typical hotel rooms. Instead, you stay in one of 55 villas (i.e., in American lingo, "townhouses"), each consisting of a small private courtyard at the entrance and a private terrace area at the very top. We stayed in a garden view villa. Let me describe it briefly. Two tall, black doors serve as the entrance. You swipe your room key to enter; the doors lock automatically when they close. Then you are greeted with your small private courtyard. Then, a set of red doors (which can be locked from the inside for added security) open into the first floor (or, in UK lingo, the "ground floor") living room, which consists of chairs, a sofa, a small dining table, and a guest bathroom (with toilet and sink). Go up the stairs to the second floor, which consists of the entertainment room (i.e., the "living room"), which has a TV, mini-bar area with mini-fridge, and a sofa (which can be converted to a sofa bed). I should point out here that certain items in the mini-bar area are complimentary and replenished daily -- namely, everything in the mini-fridge (selections during our stay were Evian mineral water, Perrier, Coca-cola, Sprite, orange soda, coconut water, milk, beer, tonic water) and some snacks (potato crisps, dried seaweed, mixed nuts, Snickers). There are also some bottles of wine and spirits, but those are not complimentary. The third floor consists of the bedroom with very tall ceilings, a TV, a sofa, and a walk-in closet with vanity area. The fourth floor consists of the second bathroom, which is a full bathroom with bathtub, sink, toilet, and a shower. Note, given Shanghai municipal regulations, that if you want disposable toiletries (like disposable toothbrushes and toothpaste), you need to proactively ask CS to provide them. The fifth floor is the outdoor terrace. Each floor (with the exception of the outdoor terrace) had its own temperature control, although to change between air conditioning and heat modes, you had to use the temperature control on the first floor. The villa was beautifully and tastefully designed -- the designer showed restraint when necessary, too -- the designs did not come across as tacky. All the rooms in the villa were clean. 3. EXCELLENT, PERSONALIZED SERVICE -- in its various marketing materials, CS says it prides itself on the ability to provide ultra luxury, personalized service to its guests, given that there are only 55 villas (in contrast to some other big hotels in Shanghai, which may have upwards of hundreds of rooms). In my experience, CS definitely lived up to its claims in terms of service. Each villa is assigned what CS calls a "Capella Culturist" -- essentially, almost a "personal assistant" of sorts, who can assist with any request you may have. Our Capella Culturists reached out to us by e-mail even before our stay to ask if we needed anything. In particular, I must compliment and recognize Andrei for his excellent service. To give an example, as we were traveling with a young toddler, we needed different child amenities and child items set-up in the villa. Andrei and his team replied to e-mails professionally and quickly and helped us with all our requests, such as providing a bottles sterilizer, extra bottled water, and helping accept some deliveries of toddler items even before our stay and putting them in our villa. When we arrived at check-in, Andrei greeted us, gave us a tour of the villa, and made us feel very welcome. He also gave my child a complimentary stuffed animal as a welcome gift, which was much appreciated. Andrei also proactively gave us a delicious fruit tart in recognition of my birthday. We also met the general manager, Ronan Henaff, who greeted us as well. 4. WONDERFUL COMPLIMENTARY AFTERNOON TEA & HAPPY HOUR DAILY -- every guest in CS can enjoy daily complimentary afternoon tea (from around 14:00 - 17:00) and happy hour (from around 18:00 - 20:30) in the CS library room, which is attached to the check-in area. Afternoon tea consists of 2 daily cake selections and tea or coffee of your choice. The cake selections were always delicious -- during our stay, lemon tart, the mango coconut cake, and the raspberry cheesecake were on offer, and they were all scrumptious. For happy hour, CS set up a self-service station which included sparkling wine, red wine, white wine, beers, and some spirits. In addition, there were some sweet pastries, candies, and simple snacks provided in the self-service area to accompany one's drinks. CONS (again, these were all relatively minor and none are deal-breakers, in my view): 1. LESS THAN IDEAL VENTILATION IN THE MAIN, FOURTH FLOOR BATHROOM -- the main, fourth floor bathroom had rather poor ventilation. There was a temperature control switch for this bathroom for air conditioning, but it did not seem to do anything -- there were vents in the bathroom, but we put our hands up to the vents, and we never felt any air come out of those vents. Thus, after taking a shower, the bathroom would fog up and remain quite humid for many hours. There was also a mild mildew smell in the shower. We ended up opening the window in the bathroom to allow for more ventilation. 2. CAN HEAR NOISE FROM ADJACENT VILLAS -- the good news with staying at CS is you will not have to worry about noise from people living above or below you. You have your own villa, and nobody lives above or below you, as would be the case in "normal" hotels. However, because CS's villas are adjoining and sharing walls -- i.e., they are basically townhouses -- we could hear noise from adjacent villas. For example, one morning we were awakened by loud stair noises (people walking up and down the stairs) which could have only come from an adjacent villa. We could also hear some noise late at night. It was not too bad though, although if you are very light sleeper, you might want to bring some earplugs and/or ask for a villa located at a corner (which means it is only adjacent to one other villa, rather than being surrounded by two villas). Still, CS is quieter than "normal" hotels where you have to worry about noise emanating from not only rooms next to yours, but also from rooms above and below you. 3. HICCUPS AT BREAKFAST -- our reservation came with complimentary daily breakfast in the Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire, which CS proudly bills as a Michelin-starred restaurant. While I know the restaurant is known more for, and focuses on, its lunch and dinner service, I expected breakfast to be better, especially given the restaurant's reputation. My culinary comments below may sound nitpicky, but again given CS billing itself as an ultra-luxury hotel and also considering the top reputation of Le Comptoir, I will use a much higher standard to evaluate the breakfast dishes. One major issue is that none of the egg dishes seemed to be properly seasoned. The scrambled eggs and omelette, while cooked to perfect doneness (i.e., not overcooked at all), were (to be blunt) bland and lacked salt. The hollandaise on the eggs benedict was bland. The egg dishes often came with bacon or a ham on the side, which was salty, but the eggs themselves should still be seasoned. The small potato wedge which accompanied some egg dishes was also lacking salt and therefore bland. Mushrooms which accompanied the egg dishes were often undercooked in the middle. There were also other inconsistencies -- one morning, we got a small bowl with croissants (we did not order this) which the waitress said in Chinese was "breakfast breads". Another morning, we did not get this. One morning, the waiter proactively asked us if we needed a highchair and baby/toddler utensils. Another morning, we were only offered the highchair and were not offered baby/toddler utensils. Again, in the grand scheme of things, these issues were minor (hence, I refer to them as "hiccups"), but they were still palpable. 4. HICCUPS WITH ROOM SERVICE FOOD -- since it was raining heavily one day, we decided to order room service for dinner. Some of the dishes we ordered included the burger and the pork & shrimp wontons. I ordered the burger well-done (yes, for ground meat, I still order it well-done, mainly for food safety reasons). It came medium (still pinkish-red in the middle). The pork & shrimp wontons were disappointing -- they tasted and looked similar to the frozen kinds you get in the supermarket. I may be wrong, but I doubt they were homemade wontons. We were hungry and tired after a day of walking in the rain, and so we did not bother sending the dishes back. Given the price point of these dishes, these mistakes in the execution of these dishes were a bit disappointing. 5. INCONVENIENT TEMPERATURE CONTROL -- while each room in the villa has its own temperature control to choose the temperature and fan speed, you can only choose "air con mode" or "heating mode" for the entire villa. What this means is, you cannot choose "air con mode" for one room and "heating mode" for another room. And the master "air con mode" and "heating mode" can only be controlled from the first floor temperature control. Again, this was a minor inconvenience, but it was still nevertheless an inconvenience, because the temperature in the various rooms was not consistent. The entertainment room would often get too hot in our villa - thus, one would want to use "air con mode" there - while the bedroom would get cold - thus, one would want to use "heating mode" there. But it was basically all "air con mode" or all "heating mode". I do not know if CS can do an easy fix for this. If some rooms get too hot or too cold and say you need to have the "heating mode" on, you might want to ask CS if they have fans you can borrow (for the rooms that get too hot). 6. CS'S PARROTS NEED BIGGER CAGES -- as part of its garden walkways, CS has 6 parrots - I believe they are the lovebirds species. Two are placed in each cage, and the cages are placed next to each other. First, it is good that CS places two lovebirds together -- they are social creatures and they can bond with each other and thrive on each others' company, especially since it seems they have no other source of mental stimulation or constant, sustained human companionship. However, I hope that CS -- especially since it is an international-standard, ultra-luxury property which I assume follows international best practices -- uses bigger cages for the lovebirds. I am not a professional ornithologist, but I am a bird-lover, and I know lovebirds generally need space to spread their wings and to move about. The cages CS currently uses are the narrow vertical oval ones, which are too small to house two lovebirds. In fact, the cage is too small to even house one bird, regardless of bird species! CS should look into getting much larger, rectangular (wider and taller) cages for each lovebird couple, so they have space to jump around and spread their wings. When I went to see the lovebirds in the garden, I noticed at least one lovebird trying to open and flutter his (her?) wings -- it was evident to me he wanted to move around and fly, but he could not. The cages should also contain more things to keep the lovebirds occupied, such as toys, and . There was nothing in the cages except food, water, and one or two branches for them to rest/standard on. Lovebirds are among the most intelligent birds species, and they need to have mental stimulation. It is good that each lovebird has another lovebird in the same cage, but I think more toys or sources of mental stimulation could be provided in the cages. I also hope CS is letting the birds out of their cages every day to fly around in a protected area and to also get a break from guests watching them (birds, like any pets, also need time for themselves). CONCLUSION: The cons were all relatively minor, whereas the pros were excellent. I would not hesitate to stay at CS again.…