Question

Asked by JC from luxembourg | May. 16, 2019 05:53

About:240-hour Visa-free Transit in Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu

Shanghai hotel reservations not accepting guests using '144-Hour Visa-Free Transit'?

Hi, Re-posting as I cannot see my question here.
I got an odd message from our hotel in saying something along the lines of: pursuant to SH regulations all hotel guests need to have a valid visa, hotel will no longer accept reservations for guests using '144-Hour Visa-Free Transit'.

I was not able to find any regulation that would make such clause legal especially that 144-Hour Visa-Free Transit is a legal mean of entry to China/Pudong airport. Based on Shanghai's immigration official website the hotel needs to register guest using 144-Hour Visa-Free Transit option so that kind of contradicts the message from the hotel.

Did anyone see something like this from their hotel before? Or had any problems at hotel using '144-Hour Visa-Free Transit'.

Just to clarify: I'm still going to use 144-Hour Visa-Free Transit as I have no time to get a visa before the departure. I had also no luck in getting a response from the hotel to our query on this so a bit puzzled now.

Many thanks,
J

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Answers (6)

Answered by JC | May. 16, 2019 21:33

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Thanks Zupan. The place is known to take all sorts of foreign guests. It’s called New Harbour Service Apartments and I booked on Expedia. But they are available on all other major hotel websites. And I looked up previous reviews by all sorts of travelers and also checked my reservation and didn’t see anything to indicate that they would cause issues for guests with 144 hour visa free transit entry to China.
Will find out shortly as we’re flying to Shanghai early next week. And cancelling now and booking a new apart hotel or hotel for 4 in similar central location and standard would cost quite more now so not a good option.

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Answered by JC | May. 19, 2019 08:50

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So is there any such regulation or not? Based on all available info this is some major bs. It seems to me they are just making up laws.

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Answered by JC | May. 19, 2019 10:48

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So I ended up cancelling after all. Thanks everyone for all the info!

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Answered by CDKING | May. 18, 2019 06:15

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I'm guessing they may have had problems with over stays. I looked on trip.com and there is a note that states:

IMPORTANT NOTICE： According to the law of EXIT&ENTRY ADMINISTRATION MINISTRY of PUBLIC SECURITY OF SHANGHAI, all tourists must check-in and register on the Reception with the valid visa. If not, you should bear all the responsibility. The hotel will not accept reservations with 144-hour transit visa-free from now on.

Expedia just lists notes that i cant tell if are bad translation or not:

Accept reservations with non transit visa-free
Accept reservations with non 144-hour transit visa-free
Except For Visa-Exemption Transit

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Answered by CDKING | May. 18, 2019 06:25

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I think you may be out of luck. There are reports on tripadvisor talking about this particular serviced apartments not accepting people without a visa.

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Answered by ZUPAN | May. 16, 2019 14:51

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Honestly speaking, this is the first time that I have heard something like this. It is perfectly known that in mainland China there are hotels that accept only mainland Chinese only and not the foreigners, but this is, at least for myself, unheard of. Anyway, its is possible that maybe there was some misunderstanding in your communication, i.e. maybe that particular hotel does not accept foreigners, so they have just replied that the not accept guests using 144 hour visa free transit. Probably poor understanding of your request.

My suggestion is to forget about that particular place and book through some of relevant booking websites like Trip com or Booking com. When you choose a hotel, just take a look whether they have very recent reviews written by foreigners, meaning that the hotel accepts foreigners and do not enter in conversation with them. Just make your booking and appear at their reception. This is the best solution!

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