Modo

Hotel is close to F1 circuit and several new areas of commercial development.

What is your Priority Club status?
Diamond.

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
OK for the overnight interlining purpose - at price paid (UK£54 could have been £45 for base room)

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
1 King Premium and that is what I got

How are the rooms?
Decent size room (45SqM) in brand new hotel. On entering it was incredibly hot. AC didn’t work. But engineer came with ladders and quickly fixed.

How is the executive lounge?
Exec Lounge was in a temporary space in what appeared to be a second floor meeting room, pending opening on top floor. Pleasant space with comfortable seating. Food and drink offering was a waste of time. Anchor beer was the only thing drinkable. Argentinian red tasted as if they had thrown away the grapes and just crushed the vines. White was indescribably awful. Food consisted fried potato wedges, chicken nuggets and Egg Mayo sandwich triangles. They charge an £18 uplift for lounge. Fortunately I have a Lounge Pass. On checking access at check in for Lounge Pass they said the give access to diamonds.

What was good and what was bad?

· Location for airport is great for an overnight stay. Only 20mins at most. But note shuttle is hourly only. We missed the shuttle on arrival by 5 minutes so took a Grab (small SUV was RM 40).

· Local area was interesting but in no way touristy. Lots of small restaurants plus many food stalls stretching across the public car park fronting the hotel. Chains like McD’s etc all within a close walk.

Poor

· Check in was slow and shambolic. Hadn’t taken prepayment and couldn’t deal with my Chase Debit Card that carries no numbers or CVV.

· Breakfast offered a big selection but quality very poor. Seating ridiculously tight for the number of guests.

Value for $ or IHG One Rewards Points? Would you return?

This stay was decent value. It served the purpose well for a late afternoon arrival at KUL and a late morning departure.

But looking at current cash and points prices as Diamond Ambassador with Lounge Pass it is hopelessly over priced compared to Central KL hotels. We currently have 2 nights in late Jan for 29,000 points at The IC in KL. 4p checkout with an 8p flight out of KUL V 28,000 points at this HI.

And for a short overnight I’d be inclined to use The Sama Sama at the airport. More expensive but less hassle. And if you need to use a Grab then price is going to be nigh on the same at current HI prices.

minz56

Thanks for the honest review. I've seen the hotel, but not stayed in it, and the area didn't impress. With a layover of less than 15 hours I'd probably use the Sama Sama at the airport, and for over 15 hours I'd consider going into KL. The easiest hotels to access are the Hilton, Le Meridien and the Aloft at KL Sentral, though the IC is quite easy to reach now via the KLIA Transit and the MRT Putrajaya Line.

Modo

Absolutely.

Sums it up perfectly.

Anything over 300 Myr for the base room on a regular night is not competitive.

If 2 or more then Grab/Airport Taxi makes the train price look excessive - especially if heading to The IC with the awkward connection from Sentral with baggage. I’ve read about the other connection but it sounds potentially a slow transfer unless lucky.

I quite like the local area for sampling restos. Not a fan of most Malaysian deep fried or coconut milk heavy. But very good Afghan grilled and roti meat almost opposite the entrance. And found great BBQ Octopus amongst the food stalls.

minz56

Maybe there is an upside to this hotel after all - and, of course, there is always McD's

FLYGVA

Thanks for the report Modo . Also added the hotel to the master list.

FLYGVA
co-modertator IHG Forum

cabinopf

i’m an avid FT reader but a rare poster. Apologies in advance if i did it wrong.

I would like to share my experience from last week at this hotel. I booked this property for it’s proximity to the circuit where i spent a week working there.

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum Ambassador


Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
3 Days stay. Mixed feelings

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
booked 1 double standard, got doublr standard. All properties around were booked due to the Japanese Super GT preseason testings and an international go kart race.

How are the rooms?
New hotel, big enough, nothing fancy, usb port & power socket next to bed. Hot water comes fast.

How is the exec. lounge?
N/A

What was good and what was bad?
Good: usb port and power socket next to bed.
Written welcome letter from hotel manager and and small snack.
Night market in front of the hotel and lots of restaurants all around, ideal after a full day work at Sepang circuit

Bad: Initially booked without breakfast but changed my mind at check in and asked to add breakfast for the entire stay. The price wasn’t too bad.
The following day, i went to the buffet restaurant for breakfast and let the personnel know my room number. It wasn’t on the list. They had to go to the reception to clarify this. Same thing happened the following day. On my last day of stay, i had the waiter chasing me with a credit card machine and asked me to pay on the spot, in which i had to clarify one last time. It’s obviously clear there is a lack of communication between the reception and the restaurant, and the list of guests with breakfast wasn’t updated.
Also, a lot of guests with their plates on their were trying to find a clean table. Lots of tables with used cuttleries and some even have noodles on it. The waiters and waitresses were busy tiktoking rather than being proactive at their tasks. My following 3 days were spent at Sama Sama hotel, it’s a bit more expensive, but a much better experience.



Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
i would give it one more try and see if they had improved after leaving an honest review to the hotel manager.