Without sounding cliche, this JW really is the definition of Underwhelming. Hi there, my name is
Kevin and I make honest and to the point narrated video tours about premium hotels and flights all
over the world. This is episode 137 coming to you today from the JW Marriott in Kuala Lumpur,
the 48th hotel brand featured on the channel. The full tour and review are coming up in 10 seconds.
Welcome to Kuala Lumpur. Right now we are standing on the famous Bukit Bintang
street which is truly smack in the middle of the cities famous golden triangle and just
across the street from the pavilion shopping mall. I’ll preface this review with saying if
shopping is your thing you’ll enjoy any hotel on this street I assure sure you.
If you’d like to know the exact rate that I pay for this stay or my next five videos in queue,
please check out the description below.
If I had it my way, every hotel that I stayed at would be beautiful amazing well designed well
laid out truly something special but I don’t make the rules here so sometimes I come across
hotels that are just so uninspired that it makes me question how they maintain the brand at all.
So in this quick review today I’m just gonna give you my honest opinion unbound
by any sponsorship because this hotel stay is 100% self funded.
let’s get straight into the location as all the city is it’s about an hours drive
to the airport but then once you’re here at the hotel you really are in the center of
things. Obviously pavilion shopping mall is just across the street KLCC park is around a 15 minute
walk away as well as the new exchange 106. This JW Marriott originally opened in 1997
and was fully renovated a few years ago in 2017. The hotel has a total of 738 rooms and
they referred to themselves somewhat ironically as “the happening hotel“. On the ground floor you’ll
find the reception area and nothing more- specifically related to the hotel that is.
Over the years as the Marriott group has expanded their portfolio of hotel brands The JW Marriott
brand has honed in on a more specific niche for their 100 properties around the world.
They focus on as they call, allowing guests to feel whole present in mind,
nourished and body and revitalized and spirit. So if you do stay here, there’s a pretty good
chance that you’re here for some sort of convention meeting or wedding because the
number of rooms and spaces dedicated towards conventions, and and things of that nature is
truly baffling for a Hotel footprint that doesn’t seem that huge on the outside.
As you would expect the hotel has its own spa, but if you’ll notice that word underneath
the spas name, star hill that’s actually the root of what I think is wrong with the hotel.
Let’s go outside take a look at the pool and I’ll explain a bit
The pool area as in the physical space is fantastic and there’s so much that they
could do with this area but it just comes off feeling a little bit sterile, and unfinished.
All right, so what is Starhill? Technically speaking, Starhill is a smaller mall across
the street from Pavilion. It is attached to the JW and the Ritz Carlton and it seems that
Starhill operates all of the venues on site, which just leads to an overall generic feeling
without the normal focus on the guest experience that you would expect at a hotel of JW’s caliber.
Next next to the pool is a bar area which only functioned as a water station during my stay.
Let’s head up to the room which is probably the best part about the hotel.
I switched hotels last minute and so all that was left were double rooms,
which is quite impressive, occupancy wise, for a 700 room hotel.
The hallways, like the ground floor lobby share the same premium big box hotel design language.
The room itself, besides being on the small side was outfitted nicely and equipped with an espresso
machine and glass bottled water- and despite being a small bed, they were wonderfully comfortable.
This is my second room though. My first room had an overwhelming perfume scent. In the most
literal sense, it smelled like someone broke a bottle of perfume on the floor minutes earlier.
I called the front desk and this is where the irregularities of the service at the hotel began
to show. The front desk agent responded to me politely and said she would inform housekeeping-
but she also offered up that the hotel was very limited with available rooms, something that just
came off as an odd comment to make. Promptly, someone from Housekeeping came upstairs, walked
into the room and told me she couldn’t smell anything and suggested perhaps I was sensitive,
that this is how all of their rooms smelled. She was wearing a mask but I promise you even if you
were wearing 6 N-95s, you would smell this. She suggested it was becasue the room was just
cleaned- again, I’m not stupid, I’m sure it was trying to cover up a guest that smoked in the
room, which I told her. She called her supervisor. He came in and even before he said a word I could
see in his eyes that he knew exactly what I was talking about and simply said, please wait a
moment so he can arrange another room. Fair enough and props for reacting to quickly, but please go
and train the rest of your staff to do the same. The bathroom was nicely outfitted with a single
basin and Aromatherapy Associates products were I did enjoy.
The shower was in a wetroom and featured a small soaking tub.
Just across was a standard sized wardrobe.
Last but not least in the room is the view. In
the distance you can see Exchange 106 with the swimming pool below.
Ok, let’s get to the weird stuff- all of the dining options.
So, to cross from the hotel into the dining area, branded as Starhill Dining, you need to
walk through someone that gave me Space Mountain vibes. And you come out on the other side in…
the basement? Yupp, all of the dining and drinking venues are all clustered together in the basement.
Imagine if you will, a giant cruise ship that put all of the restaurants together without any real
walls in between any of the venues and forgot to put in any windows. It kinda felt like that.
While each individual venue was nicely decorated, every single one of them could have been in
literally any premium hotel anywhere. The flagship restaurant, Shook! Served a litany
of cuisines throughout the day and is also where breakfast was served in the mornings.
The buffet was underwhelming.
It had all of the basics but nothing was particularly great or memorable.
Actually, that’s a lie, there was one thing that was memorable, the gray color of this
griddled turkey ham having a bath in some yummy juices, that’ll stick with me for a while.
There were also small Indian and Chinese sections. In addition to that, there is also a Tea House
and a Coffee Shop. The Coffee Shop, mind you, isn’t open in the mornings.
Alright, let’s get into the Flip Flop Score. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Today
I’m taking an L so you don’t have to. There’s nothing at all offensively bad about this JW
and if you’re here for an event or a wedding or just to sleep, it’s perfectly fine- but if you’re
expecting a full five-star JW experience, you’re going to be disappointed. Despite all of that,
if you enjoyed this video please give it a big thumbs up and subscribe so that you don’t miss
a beat. I’ll see you next time on my flight from Kuala Lumpur to Saigon with Vietnam Airlines.