Luxury Hotels - best luxury hotel in Kuala Lumpur ? first time visitor

hi,
i am going to Australia for 3 weeks for christmas and new year.
followed by a stop in Kuala Lumpur on our way back to Ireland.
We will be arriving in KUL 6am on Friday 19th and departing KUL at 11.50pm on Saturday 20th.
i will be needing 2 rooms - one for my wife&I and another for our two friends that we are travelling with.
i am spg gold and IHG platinum ambassador ( not royal ) altho doubt thats of any use here.

because we only need a hotel for one night , but arrive early and depart late , and also because hotels in KL appear so cheap i would look at the club rooms! what would be the best 5* hotel to book in the hope of getting early check in/late check out and for experiencing Kula Lumpur for the first time??

Just for comparison we stayed at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in September , i went knowing it wasnt a luxury hotel but for the "experience" even although I new the MO, Raffles etc etc were the luxury hotels.
Is it sort of the same for Traders in KL on a first visit ??!!

There are no out and out luxurious hotels in KL. However there are several very good 5 star hotels.

I've stayed at the Shangri La a few times, the club facilities are excellent and even the standard rooms have been refurbished recently.

The Mandarin Oriental is also good. My parents have stayed at the Ritz Carlton and they enjoyed that.

A new Intercontinental has recently opened I believe so that may be worth looking at.

Traders is a 4 star hotel (albeit one that gets good reviews) - it's the 4 star brand for Shangri La hotels

Shangri La vs Mandarin Oriental vs Ritz Carlton
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Shangri La vs Mandarin Oriental vs Ritz Carlton
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MOKL , though had unpleasant incident on last visit.
View , next to KLCC with food courts & more restaurants , decent shops .., etc

Just got back from KL and the MO looked awesome. I had a Towers view room at Traders, which is 4.5star at best, and I looked down on the MO swimming pool. Looked lovely. However, there were people swimming in it during a lightning storm, which I thought was a bit odd. Surely luxury hotels have some responsibility?

Is the Carcosa Sri Negara still open?

Was fab when it was GHM, though I think they no longer are.

Update :

Its still open (http://www.shr.my/index.php/hotel-and-resorts/carcosa-seri-negara)

A one of a kind, private experience.

meFIRST
thanks i will take a look.
i am travelling with friends but may book and pay for friends as a thank you to them for travelling with us.
we stayed at Club @ GHM Chedi and Club @ GHM Legian both in Bali last year - both amazing.
i see GHM plan to open a hotel in KL in 2014!
i would be a bit worried its not the same hotel without GHM in charge?
At the moment I am thinking towards booking MO in KL.

I think it stopped being a GHM hotel like 3 years ago. They did not renew the mgmt contract, but kept the staff. Carsoca is still owned by the Malaysian government, and it used to host visiting dignitaries. Most famously HM The Queen, in the 90s.

I think its the only truly luxury hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

The rest are 5 star business hotels, at best.

I should also mention another property, which is part of LHW (Leading Hotels of the World)

The Club At Saujana

- This is effectively in the western suburbs of KL, 30 km from the city. But trainquil. Also formerly GHM.

Carcosa is much closer to the city center, if you need to be there.

I prefer the MO over Ritz-Carlton. Last time I had a high floor with a view facing Petronas Towers, which was a worthy sight. I wouldn't recommend the InterContinental; nothing special and not quite as good a location as the MO.

Flying in later this year to the new Hyatt, the GM used to run Shenzhen, before in BKK, a good operator so assume top rate hotel