The vast majority of the HR staff at KK have been with the hotel for on average, I am told, 15 years or more. A lot of people join the hotel but don't leave and that could also be why they have such a good group of employees.

Wow, such loyalty...reminds me of the staffs of Dorsett Labuan, most have been there since the Sheraton days.

Already booked 5 nights here & redeemed DSU via their facebook messenger. Very efficient, my booking was changed within an hour and the room was upgraded into the exec suite. from the description in the booking, the exec suites are on low floors but slightly bigger than the regency suites. and extra kitchen table...hmm.

how did you find the stay ? is the renovation completed ? and from the posters above seem cocktail hour offerings are good ... how different is it to the Le Meridien ?

sorry for the bullet questions :p

Lol i've just replied in the LM KK thread :p

Hyatt KK is highly regarded by the locals & frequent guests, mainly for the food, better buffet breakfast taste. Their Ramadan buffet was also a hit among my friends & colleagues.

The building is old, there could be some ongoing minor renovation but i didnt hear any noise. Aircond works well for seaview room, kept the room cool. The suite was nothing to shout about, it was clean, no moldy or ciggy smell (window can be opened so there is no dedicated smoking rooms). The view was good, standing at the window admiring the view as passer by also admiring the view of your room...lol :p The best is the staffs, really sincere & proud to work for Hyatt. I've learned that the employees did enjoy the benefit of 12 nights free, it was the most generous compared to other hotel company.

Recently had a stay here. When you make a DSU redemption, do call or email the hotel ahead of time to request a NON-SMOKING suite. They have limited number of Regency Exec Suites available and may otherwise put you in one on a smoking floor.

The suite itself may have faint leftover smoke which can be cleared with a de-ionizer that's brought to the room... but walking through the corridor on the smoking floor to reach your suite can be quite choking!

Going downhill
 

I'm currently at the hotel and can say that its likely I won't be returning here again. Lots of little things still wrong. Tired rooms, smoke smell in the non-smoking floor hallways, maintenance issues exactly the same as last year or the year before.

The food in the Exec Lounge is also not as good, and the breakfast restaurant seems to have less expensive items than before.

Most of the staff is still very good, but I fear the new manager is trying to save on costs. I'll give a fuller report when I check out.

Delete

Ok, left the property, so I can post a bit more.

I was a little hesitant to book the property again, as I had major AC issues last year. As it was my last hurrah as a Diamond, I decided to give it a shot.

I really enjoy the staff at this property. 90% are very good or better. They are the main reason I go to this property.

The negatives is that no money seems to be spent on room upgrades or maintenance.

We were in room 451, which is a corner suite. I had some of the same issues, as we did in previous rooms. Leaking water from the AC, leaking toilet sprayer hose in the living room bathroom.

Wood floors are gouged up in multiple places. The paint is peeling off and bubbling horribly around the windows in the living room. The AC temp controls don't seem to function. The bedroom was set at 19.5, and no matter what you set it at, if it was on. The living room was 21.5. The last day, I figured out I could leave the living room on, and turn the bedroom off.

The lounge food offerings aren't as good as before. Luckily Dev is back, as well as Charisella.

The breakfast restaurant options seem a bit less quality than before. Last year they had some sliced roast beef every day that I liked, and I only saw it on the last day.

There are so many tour and package tourists here, and at breakfast it's a total zoo. The staff are overwhelmed, and I don't see many bus staff cleaning the tables. 75% of the time these package tour folk just sit down at dirty tables and push the dishes to the side.

Siti and, I think Suzanne do a great job, but they need more staffers.

They have 2 specific Hyatt Gold Passport member tables set up near the corner near the window. These are marked "reserved". The servers have gone so far to put a ladies floppy hat and food at the corner table so they won't get taken.

We had a pretty good Japanese buffet dinner at the Nagisa restaurant. It's only held once a month on the 3rd Saturday. About $29 net. I think kids under 6 are free. The freshly cooked Teppanyaki and Tempura stations are by far the best.

The swimming pool was so crowded that it was hard to even swim.

Given the maintenance issues, and club downgrade, we decided to leave early. I told Dev the night we checked in, that we might leave after 5 nights, instead of 10. I had booked 7+3 nights using two DSU's.

When I told Dev again, two days before we were going to leave early, he then came and told me that the manager was going to charge me an extra day. This seemed pretty petty, and normally this property has a cancel 24 hours before the stay. I know we were in the middle of the first reservation, but usually find properties are understanding if given notice.

I spent 90 minutes on hold with Hyatt USA, before I just hung up trying to see what they could do.

Finally, before checking out on Wednesday, I stopped at the lounge and talked to the asst manager. After awhile, she was able to clear things up, with no extra charges. This was certainly frustrating.

I thought that you're allowed to shorten your stays on a Standard Rate as long as you provide at least 24/48 hours (whatever the original cancellation policy is) before the new checkout date?

That's what I thought as well. Not sure why they were going to initially charge me for an extra day.

Luckily, it didn't occur, but it was a big hassle.

Thank you for the excellent review. I think we both have the same opinions on many points you correctly raised above.

I must say, given it is now peak season for hotels in Kinabalu and the majority of hotels are sold out or are running at high volumes, being petty and charging you for cancelling your trip given your status especially is just wrong. So so wrong.

Its a pity this is the sort of manager they have but things won't change, as long as they continue selling out/filling up and the limited options available in Kinabalu as far as 4 star/5 star accomodations are concerned.

I do suspect the lack of maintainence and repairs is also down to the fact they are selling out their rooms week to week with the massive invasion of China, Taiwan, Korean and West Malaysian tourist groups and the lack of rooms in Kinabalu to cope.

Just my humble opinion.

It is/was a stupid situation that, with some careful thought on their part, would have avoided this unpleasant situation to begin with.

It just does leave a bad taste...

Very nice stay with great service
 

We booked 5 nights at the hotel and used a DSU. We had a nice suite that faced the ocean and received a letter on the globalist inclusions. In addition to the nightly offerings in the lounge, we had access to the breakfast buffet, 2 pieces of laundry a day (most appreciated!), 10% off all food and spa and an ice cream cone.

What impressed me the most about this hotel was the staff--lounge staff told me that they researched my preferences so I had my hypoallergenic pillows, a sheet under the duvet and they offered me nuts. While the breakfast buffet is busy, we had no problem getting a table, the first day was one of the reserved tables for globalists, the rest we found on our own. The breakfast was very good, an international buffet with lots of offerings of malay, indian, chinese, japanese and western food. Enjoyed ordering included cappucinos.

We did not use the pool and the only negative was the location in the center of town, otherwise a plus, made for some noise. But since we had a four room suite, we closed the doors to the rooms that had the windows so that controlled the problem. Would definitely recommend using a DSU--our suite had a large living room, a bedroom, a large walk through closet area and a bath with two sinks and separate tub and shower.

We used the hotel as a base for exploring Borneo and since it is a category 1 hotel was a steal at points and cash rate of $50 and 2500 points per night. In fact we kept the room when we flew to Sandakan for a 3 day two night jungle wildlife excursion.

Our total bill for 5 nights with breakfast, one lunch for two and tax was $278 and 12500 points.

Definitely recommended.

Hyatt Regency Kota Kinabalu = Very Good Category 1 Hotel
 

Introduction I stayed at Hyatt Regency Kota Kinabalu on a cash and points reservation. This hotel is category 1 so the price was a modest $50 USD plus 2,500 points per night. Given that a night booked with cash at this hotel generally costs a bit more than $100 USD per night, that means I got more than 2 cents per point which is decent value. Room I used a Globalist Suite Upgrade Award to get upgraded to a suite. The cash value of the suite is about double the price of the basic room, so approximately $200 USD per night. Therefore money wise it might not be the best use of a suite upgrade but since I did not expect to be missing upgrade awards later in the year, I used one anyway. The suite is very spacious with 90 square meters and lots of space throughout. Some older reviews in this thread mentioned that the room is not in very good condition, but personally I thought it was fine. Obviously this is not a new and modern hotel, but the bathroom in particular was of very good quality and must have been renovated recently. Everything was roomy in the bathroom, including a large rain shower, large bathtub, and expansive space between the double sink counter and the rest of the bathroom. The hallway leading to the bathroom is also used as a closet. It has a nice hardwood floor and is very wide. The living room is separated from the bedroom with a door. As you can see from the pictures, there is a lot of space including a working desk, a small round table, and a large L-shaped sofa. Finally, there is a powder room next to the entrance of the room; I always find convenient to have that extra 0.5 bath. Dining We had good service in the Club Lounge. The lounge is not small but it has lots of tables a bit close to each other so it felt a bit tight. Gym We visited the gym on a few occasions. While the bedroom was probably renovated recently given how nice it was for the age of the hotel, the fitness gym was another matter. The equipment was fairly old. In addition it’s quite an experience just to get there. You have to go through several narrow corridors in the bowels of the building and without directions from staff you might not find it easily. The wifi reception was very bad in the gym which was another negative. Overall Overall we enjoyed the stay and considering the cost we would definitely consider coming back. I hesitated between booking the Hyatt Regency and Le Meridien which is not very far away so similar location. Both generally have a similar cash rate, perhaps HR is a bit more expensive by a small margin, depending on dates. If paying cash I would not rule out trying LM, but I cannot be guaranteed a suite like at HR when using a Globalist Suite Upgrade award so it might tilt it in favor of HR. In addition, HR is a much better opportunity to burn points than LM. At 7k starpoints per night, it makes no sense to use points at LM, whereas the opposite is true at HR. So if I return to KK in the future I am most likely going to book HR with points without much hesitation unless they move the hotel to category 2. At only 5k pts per night for now, it is very easy to save enough points to stay there.

Any recent stay report as globalist?

thank you

It's 5 years since we've had a stay report. Who has stayed post Covid? What are your thoughts? How is the lounge?

How does it compare to the Hyatt Centric? The Hyatt is closer to the water. For those of us who love a water view, is that a compelling reason to choose this property?

Not quite sure what you mean, “The Hyatt is closer to the water”. They’re both Hyatt’s, so a bit unclear. I don’t know anything about the Centric, but the HR is right next to the water.

The HR was showing it’s age when we last went, perhaps the report from 6 years ago. I know it gets pretty hot here, and the AC not always real cool, especially for the top floor presidential suite.

Most of the staff were great. It was used as a package hotel for a lot of Chinese tourists when we went last. Very crowded swimming pool, with not great behavior.

Poorly worded on my part. The Hyatt Regency is by the water; the Centric appears to be about 2 blocks back. I wonder how that impacts the desirability of the view when comparing the properties.

- Just finished 4-night stay about a week ago. Booked the cheapest rate of ca. $64/night and was upgraded to 2-room ocean front suite on the top 14th floor. While it was clear that hotel has not been renovated for some time, the suite was in a good shape, air conditioning was running fine, and everything was clean. A fruit plate was already in the room when we arrived.
The lounge is on the 13th floor and it is open from at least 7 am in the morning for breakfast. It was never crowded during our stay. On the first night there was only one other gentlemen during the Happy Hour (5-7 pm). Breakfast is in the lounge and they will cook eggs for you. There are also plated cold cuts in the fridge (nova lox, cheese, etc.), yogurt, a few hot dishes including a local one, pastries, juices, cut fruit, etc. It is not very big selection but they did a good job of rotating the dishes. Evening selection included 2-3 hot dishes, and cheese, cold appetizers (e.g., California roll) in a fridge, and different sweets like mini slices of cheesecake, etc. Two white and two red wines, Tiger beer, Red Label, branded Vodka and Gin were typically available for self-service. On some nights the selection was just O.K. but you can order food from the hotel Japanese restaurant and it will be delivered to the lounge - we did this one day. On the last night the selection was excellent and especially seafood bolognese, which was quite spicy and I liked that!
Overall, we enjoyed the stay - it is very solid offering for Category 1.

Is there some sparkling wine available?

- Unfortunately, no sparkling wine was offered in the lounge. After Kota Kinobalu we stayed in Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur and they did not have any sparking in the lounge either.
In Kota Kinobalu the lounge offered a white blend from France on the first night that was O.K. - about 3.5 on vivino.com scale. The second white was a "tropic chardonnay" from Argentina? and that wine had a rather strange taste - it was left mostly untouched. On the consequent nights the French blend was replaced by Sauvignon blanc from NZ that was more miss than hit (about 3.1-3.2). Red wines were not better for sure. We stopped at a local supermarket within the big shopping center on the way to the Jesselton jetty and found both whites on sale for ca. 110-120 MYR ($24-26). I think the alcohol taxes must be really high in Borneo.
Note that our room rate was 289MYR/night and I hope that the hotel is getting wine at sizable discount.

How does this compare to the Hyatt Centric, the Marriott, and the Le Meridien?

Same question, particularly comparing the two Hyatts. The Hyatt Regency has a lounge. Does the Hyatt Centric, and if so how do the lounges compare?

I replied to part of your question in the other Centric KK thread. There wasn't any lounge at the Centric KK - and having just had a look at the website - I don't think this will have changed since April 2023. The HR does have a lounge and this is probably one of the highlights of the property as its on the highest floor and commands great views of the sea and plenty of light. There is coffee, tea and biscuits / nuts available throughout the day, with a 2 hr evening drinks and light bites service. There wasn't anything memorable about the evening snacks / bites - and not comparable to say the HR Bali in Sanur or the HR Yogyakarta - both of which I rate in terms of choice and quality of food.

I stayed 2 nights at the HR immediately prior to my stay at the Centric. The Regency is a much older hotel and only about a 6 minute walk away. The age of the hotel shows in the rooms (was upgraded to a Regency suite) and the on site restaurants. While the room was very spacious and clean - it was very dark and I much preferred to clean, modern and minimalist aesthetic of the Centric. Breakfast was better at the Centric. I think it ultimately comes down to room rate - in April - the Centric was probably $20 more a night but I opted for a few nights at the HR so it counted as a my first stay for a promo that was running at the time, with my second stay and bonus points accruing for my second stay at the Centric. If I were to go back to KK and the rate differential is in the region of $20 a night again and I could be confident of getting a standard suite at both of these properties, I would go for the Centric.

Thank you, AncientSquash that's very helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to give a very informative response.