Firstly, the rooms at Shangri La Lhasa are ok, average size, clean, nothing special. I had a view of the courtyard (which you can not get into without tracking down one of the cleaning staff and getting them to unlock it, then you will have to wait until she comes back to get back into the hotel!). Location is fine, about a 10-15 minute walk to Potala Palace. Not many other things for tourists VERY near the Shangri La Lhasa, but it’s close enough to quite a few tourist attractions.
I have two main problems with the Shangri La Lhasa:
1. Upon checkout, (around 630a.m), I went back to my room after going for a bit of a walk and found the room card key wouldn’t work. I went to reception to get a new one. That didn’t work either, and during the 3rd try I asked one of the staff to come back to the room and that didn’t work either. What made this worse was I had a flight to catch, and the hotel is big, so it’s not just an elevator ride then a few steps, it’s like 200+ meters to the room one way so going up and back to reception is a bit of a hassle, especially at 630am in the morning when you’ve got a flight to catch.
After 3 failed attempts the staff basically said “sorry can’t get in, the lock has lost it’s memory and the machine to reset it has it’s battery dead”. I asked what are they going to do about it, to which I got a bit of a blank stare. I was then fuming and did my angriest guest routine, then the staff ran away. I went down to reception and saw him fumbling around with the machine and when I saw him serving another guest, I completely lost my marbles. I mean, I’ve got a flight to catch which I couldn’t miss because I had a connecting flight to Hong Kong and this guy is not really onto my case. Anyway after about 25-30 minutes, he sent another girl who looked much more switched on and had a battery charger sticking out of the machine to reset the lock. Problem solved. Luckily the trip to the airport was about 45 minutes, not 70 minutes like I had been told.
Potala Palace is about 1km from the Shangri La Lhasa
2. The Food. It’s absolutely atrocious at the Shangri La Lhasa. I was only there for 2 nights and had two of the worst meals I’ve ever had – an Australian Ribeye that was so tough I literally couldn’t chew it and had to stop. And a “Spring Chicken”. Trust me, there was nothing “spring” about this chicken. Both were quite literally, not edible.
The breakfast at Shangri La Lhasa was fine. To be fair, the other food I ate in Tibet wasn’t much better so perhaps it’s a location thing and not a hotel thing. I’ve travelled to India, Bhutan and pretty much every Asian country and don’t expect michelin star dining in countries like this, but this was just horrible and literally not edible.
On the plus side, the staff in general are friendly and try to help. Although I was told the Potala Palace was 10km by one of the concierges, but that didn’t make sense when he told me it takes him 10 minutes to get to! It’s about a km, maybe less. Anyway, I wouldn’t stay here again due to the stressful incident upon checking out (It’s not a pleasant feeling being locked out of your room with all your luggage in there and being told the only way to get in is with a machine who’s battery is flat, and you’re looking forward to getting home to see your kids!)
If I was ever to come back to Lhasa, I wouldn’t stay here and don’t recommend it because of getting locked out of my room. If it was at any other time during the stay, perhaps I’d be more forgiving, but when you’ve got cars booked and flights to catch, it magnifies the problem.
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