Pullman Kuala Lumpur City Centre Hotel and Residences
 

Unfortunately not a hotel review.

I popped into this property earlier this week as I was staying next door at the Novotel. Idea was to get an impression of the property as there are mixed reviews on TA.

The Pullman KLCC took over from the former Prince Hotel in 2015 and is located opposite the Pavillion shopping centre. A large up-market mall in KL with a very big food court, some bars, cinema etc etc.

It's separated from this the Pavillion mall by a wide road which can be dangerous to cross - so there is a pedestrian linkbridge about 100m up the road (close to the Novotel). This is also the long linkway that takes you to the KLCC and Convention Centre.
Between the Novotel and the Pullman is now the completed Banyan Residences (which owned by the Pavillion management) and also has it's own linkbridge to the mall. Once that link is open it will be very easy to head across.

The property is very large with a grand entrance. However not much has been renovated. From a distance it looks ok, but even the wooden check-in desks have patches all over (a single coat of varnish would do the trick :confused: )
The property has two L-shaped towers that in a way form a square with a swimming pool in the middle. One tower are the residences and the other the normal hotel rooms.

I asked to view a room on each side and was then shown a 1-Bedroom Apartment (Residence) and a Deluxe Suite (Hotel).

Interestingly a 1-Bedroom Apartment costs roughly the same as a simple Deluxe room on the hotel side. Is there much difference? Not really.
Non of the rooms have been renovated yet, but all have new mattresses. But the furniture, carpet etc are all a bit dated (last renovated 10 years ago). It's not too bad though.
Apartments have full kitchens (stove, oven etc).

Apartment guests have their continental breakfast at a restaurant on the pool level.
Hotel guests have their typical full hotel American breakfast at the restaurant at the lobby level.
So that is the main difference. (Smaller breakfast for residence guests).

There is an Executive lounge on the (4th?) floor. Not high up. Quite ok, but also a bit dated. Staff there were VERY friendly and everything seemed very personal there.
The next step of renovations will be enlarging and renovating the executive lounge.

After 7 months they have now also finally firmed up their mock-up guest room and room renovations should start in Q4 or early 2017. (They don't seem to be in a rush - when I was there, they were running at 95% occupancy).

Side note: As a platinum guest, even if you book the residences, you have access to the Executive lounge and its facilities (1hr free meeting room etc).

what I like here: Welcome drink voucher is accepted at the pool bar, and does include alcohol, unlike the Pullman Bangsar or the Novotel.

Also the staff at the pool bar are very friendly and accomodating and remembered me from my last stay, inviting me ' back to my place [pool bar] '

The rooms are not as modern as the Bangsar Pullman, but just as good.and the pool/garden is no much better than Bangsar.

How is it you received a drink voucher here? :confused: I stayed here twice. First time in January I didn't really ask for it. Second time back in July I specifically asked for it but was told the syrupy concoction presented to me when checking in was the welcome drink, and I was welcome to have some drinks at the executive lounge; no voucher.

Now I'm even more ticked off at the hotel :mad: :p

PS: That second stay left me very sour with the hotel, no welcome drink voucher being only one of the smaller causes.

No idea. they just gave them to me with check-in..

One thing annoying with this hotel is that when you move (room to lobby to lounge etc) the wifi on my phone disconnects and I have to reconnect ('needs signig in'). If i don't notice no connection/Whatsapp notices email...


I don't have this issue at Pullman Bangsar, so it must be how they linked the hotspots with the same SSID together..

Good stay!
 

Introduction Following my post further upthread, I decided to stay at this property on my recent trip. Took a bit to convince my wife that it would be no lesser a positive stay compared to the Novotel (where we always get a large suite) and worth the short extra hike to the Pavillion mall.It was all worth it :) Check In Check-in could have been handled a bit better. As usual in a property with an executive lounge I ask to check in there. I wanted to park the car first so dropped off my girls and asked the friendly greeter to escort them to the lounge.When I came up from the carpark they were standing at the checkin counter and had handed over their passports. I asked to continue the check-in at the lounge and we did so.From there on everything was great.Some other points: I knew from my earlier visit that the hotel was quite strict witha single level upgrade. The hotel has 17 (!!!) room catagories as there is the residential wing and the hotel wing.To get the chance to be upgraded into the highest bookable room catagory, the Deluxe Suite, I would have to book a level below. That is the Jnr Suite. The Jnr Suite cannot be booked online! You need to call the hotel for that - and that is what I did. Occupance wasn't high so we were upgraded into the very nice Deluxe Suite Room The Deluxe Suite is a 107m3 room at the end of the corridor shaped in a semi-circle. A quarter of that is the living room and pantry. The other quarter is the master bedroom with full ensuite. Linking the two is a foyer with a small toilet as well.There is a 4 seater dining table in the living room and a sofa set seating for 4. We placed our daughters' extra bed in there.As mentioned in my earlier post the rooms are dated, but I would say that they are still in pretty good condition.Nevertheless renovations will start next year.New mattresses for all room are coming in the next weeks. All beds have new mattress toppers.The Lounge will be extended in the next few months. Service Service is great all around and everyone aims to please. No complaints there.The lounge is large and again served by very friendly staff. They offer an afternoon canape in addtion to the morning breakfast. Only issue I had with the breakfast is that they serve an a-la-carte option and dublicate one of the a la carte items at the hot food section. I would prefer if they were to place something else at the hot food section to complement the menu rather than repeating it.If you're staying in a Executive Floor room, the mini bar is free (excluding alcoholic drinks). You even receive 3 pieces of free clothing per guest. So if you booked a room for 2, you get 6pc of laundry - per day. Location Location is great. It's 5 mins walk up to slope and onto the bridge to Pavillion. It's 2 mins if you dare the dash accross the road (very dangerous).The same linkbridge takes you to the Convention Centre and to KLCC. Overall I had some time to sit down with the new GM of the hotel who recently transferred from the Pullman Saigon. That property was very well run so I am sure he will be an asset to this property.To clarify the point on the welcome drink: You SHOULD get the welcome drinks voucher and it CAN be redeemed by the pool.On the "to-do" list are the wifi access points (all 170+ of them) and they will be replaced soon so that guests no longer need to log in every time they disconnect.

Thanks for that review. I've only ever tried the Novotel there and given my very poor experience as a Plat there a few years ago (booked Exec room and they didn't want to upgrade to suite even though they were bookable - they finally did after begging) it's great to know of alternatives in KL.

Armani will be nice:D

Anyway nice review and nice suite. Can't wait to see what it'll look like post renovation.

What annoys me is this property doesn't follow the Accor Plus discount structure at their ever popular Chinese and Japanese restaurants. I think it's a straight 20% off, only the lobby level cafe allows Accor Plus way of discount.

Free Laundry allowance (including dry clean) is extremely generous.

Had another stay here for 4 nights just prior to Christmas.
Booked the same Deluxe Suite as reviewed above as well as an interconnecting Exec Deluxe via the website. Again the issue cropped up that I could not book a Jnr Suite online (which is what you need to book if you would like to have the chance to upgrade to the Deluxe Suite). So I booked what I needed.
I emailed the GM after I had made the booking to request for a interconnecting room. I met Mr Boon on my previous stay and he is a very approachable person whom I find very genuine and a real hotelier.
Mr Boon replied and proactively reduced my rate to that of the Jnr Suite. I very much appreciated this gesture.

We arrived and I dropped off my family and quickly mentioned to the front desk my surname and if they could take my family to the lounge as I wanted to park the car.
When I got back to the lobby the Duty Manager, FOM and another snr staff were with my family, welcomed me by name and mentioned that they would escort us to our room for a In-room check in. NOW THAT is what I call VIP treatment (under the Accor benefits).
I recognized the other Snr Staff member as being the person who showed me the rooms when I popped into the hotel the very first time (1st post of this thread) in August.
We had a good chat and with all formalities done I was asked if I would like to see the mock-up room. OF COURSE! So they took me there and all I can say is WOW. It looks very nice and I can't wait for the rooms to be renovated. (for obvious reasons I wasn't able to take pictures).
But to give a bit of an idea, I googled around a bit, and they are working on a similar concept as the Pullman HK Parklane or the Pullman Aerocity Delhi with the grey/white/blue colour concept.

Work has started on expanding the lounge - but you don't notice much of it as it is happening mostly behind a wall which will be torn down once the renovation is done. I would say it should be ready by Q2 2017.

Overall the stay was very good. The wifi router issue isn't fixed yet (they are in the process of replacing all the routers). Having your welcome drink at the pool is now no problem.
They took on board the suggestion that have a different dish in the hot food section in the lounge for breakfast compared to what is on the menu.

I felt that the coffee machine in the lounge had some issues on the first afternoon of our stay. Asked if I could have a look and noticed that the grind was set to 'coarse'. I changed that setting to 'fine' but it only marginally improved the quality of the espresso (no crema). The next day there was a new machine in the lounge and coffee was back to perfect again - the old machine went into the restaurant on the ground floor. :D

The hotel is currently having its exterior washed (first time in many many years).
I have to say the staff, the service and wanting to please really bodes well for this property - even though the rooms are old and a bit run down.
But with such a large property in a capital city, I am sure Accor wants to do the right thing and not rush into some renovations. I'm looking forward to the improvements that will come.

Excellent Gilbertaue. Indeed that is a real VIP treatment ^

Yep, that's how they should define what VIP treatment is ^^^

As far as I remember, I only ever got in-room check in when I was in Mercure Jakarta Ancol. Never been elsewhere.

I had it once at Sofitel Angkor.

I frequently stay at this property and don't normally posts further updates as the rooms are always the same as in my initial review, the staff are as always friendly and the lounge is as always gloomy if it wasn't for the staff :)

But there is change!

As announced upthread, the hotel has finally started renovations and 4 Executive floors (21, 22, 23, 24) have so far been completed. And they are NICE!

We arrived at the hotel and as was previously the case, were greeted by the GRM with apologies that the Operations Director could was busy in a meeting. I then found out the the fantastic GM, Mr. Boon, had left the property 3 weeks earlier. Very sad news. No update so far if he has left the group altogether or if he is moving to a different property.

The GRM (Ms. Martine Strous) recently joined Accorhotels and previously worked for the large Amercian Hotel Groups. Extremely friendly and does her job very well.
We were shown to our room "and we have a surprise for you". That was when we were told the room was just recently released as it had completed renovations. We were led to our room and check-in was done in-room.

A couple of points to know which have been changed.
- You now "only" get 2pc of free laundry per room (used to be 2pc per person)
- Gone is the free mini-bar.

As they are in the process of renovating the lounge - it should be ready by September 2017 - they have moved the lounge temporarily to the top floor Presidential Suite which nice views of the KLCC. Honestly, that should be the location of the lounge :)

So here are now some pictures of the very nice Suite.

I also booked the interconnecting room which is a Executive Deluxe Room.
In both cases, not much was done to the bathrooms. So I didn't take pictures of that.
Here are the pictures of the Exec Dlx:

Finally the welcome amenities.
Since it was Ramadhan, we were served a platter of locals delicacies (Kueh). Very nice presentation.

Looks very nice gilbertaue ^