With a pool and view like this, it’s certainly worth a look.
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 135 coming to you today from the Mandarin Oriental in one of my favorite
cities, Kuala Lumpur.
The full tour and review begin in 10 seconds.
Welcome to Kuala Lumpur, more specifically KLCC park, the beautiful and expansive park
that was developed with the opening of the 88 story Petronas Towers just next door.
If you’d like to know, the exact rate that I paid for my room on this stay or my next
five videos in queue, please check out the description below.
The Mandarin Oriental in Kuala Lumpur was originally opened in 1998 and was developed
in conjunction with the KLCC development project giving the hotels 629 rooms, one of the best
locations in all of Kuala Lumpur and for sure, specifically in the KLCC area.
By the way, just a quick note, there are thousands probably hundreds of thousands of videos on
YouTube that position themselves as reviews but in fact they’re in someway shape or
form sponsored by the Hotel in the video.
This is something that I don’t do this video is unsponsored because I don’t think that
sponsored unbiased reviews exist so today all you’re gonna hear is my honest opinions
about the property and nothing more because this hotel stay is 100% self funded.
Whether you’re planning your first trip to Kuala Lumpur or reliving your memories
from a past trip if you enjoy the concert that I produce please be sure to give this
video a thumbs up and subscribe with notifications on those three things are the three biggest
ways to support the channel against my biggest competitor the YouTube algorithm.
Fact of the matter is for smaller channels that are still developing.
The algorithm is a huge challenge to compete with so every bit of support from you is greatly
appreciated.
My Patreon is also link to the description below if you’d like to check it out many
many thanks in advance Like many newer developments in Kuala Lumpur,
the main entrance of the Mandarin Oriental, is accessed through a maze of one-way streets,
which bring you to the hotels driveway.
The exterior is buttoned up and stately, giving way to a very traditionally, elegant interior.
Before we head inside, let’s take a quick look at where we are.
Kuala Lumpur international airport is a long ways out of the city which means that it’s
going to be around an hours drive.
Within close proximity to the hotel you’ve got everything from of course the Petronas
towers, the aquarium, the pavilion, shopping mall and more all within just a few minutes
walk.
Walking inside now we are presented with an interior which is old-school Mandarin Oriental
to its core on the right we have the reception area where you’ll be haphazardly served
a glass of iced tea as you’re checking in at the time of my check in my room wasn’t
quite ready yet so the front desk agent offered me a free drink voucher that I could use for
any nonalcoholic drink while I waited for the room to be ready.
Walking through the Long lobby Corredor at the end we come to the Mosaic restaurant,
which serves a breakfast and dinner Buffay daily, as well as the lobby lounge, which
is best known for its afternoon high tea.
The lounge also has an outdoor terrace which overlooks KLCC park, but to be honest, it’s
a little bit awkward since you can’t actually access the park from back here if you want
to access the park, you’re gonna have to go all the way back to the front of the hotel
and then go all the way around Also, in the rear of the lobby is a secondary
entrance to the hotel, which is used primarily for events and functions, which use the conference
rooms and events halls.
Also on the side is the insert name here grill in the ammo bar which in today’s review,
I’m not going to specifically cover.
Now, let’s head up and check out what is hands-down the best feature of this hotel,
the pool.
Just a few floors up the elevators open and you’re in the spa reception area well actually
the spa area is behind these doors on the left, but this is the general wellness reception
area, with the entrance to AQUA, which serves lunch, dinner, snacks, and drinks throughout
the day on the right.
While the pool does certainly need some sort of food outlet I would say that the atmosphere
of the restaurant here comes not even close to matching how spectacular the pool itself
is.
Behind the bar there is additional lounge space as well.
So let’s go take a look at the main event.
Well, I certainly haven’t been in every single building that surrounds KLCC park.
I have to assume that this is the best view from any pool surrounding this area.
Due to its orientation, it’s also the prime spot to watch the sun come up over the city
in the mornings, though you can for sure expect to be the only one up here at that time.
On one side of the pool, there is a smaller pool for families with some chairs around
it, and on the far side of the pool or where the majority of the loungers and the beds
are including some roped off areas, which are surely for the VIPs.
All right, time to head to my room.
OneNote this hotel still offers smoking rooms and it seems like quite a few of the floors
are dedicated for smokers so when you make your reservation, make it clear what your
preference is.
Whether a smoker or not it honestly just still surprises me at this day and age that there
are still luxury hotel brands in major global cities That have dedicated smoking rooms.
I reserved a park view king room and was upgraded to a Towerview king room upon arrival which
is the exact same room just with a view of the Petronas towers instead of KLCC park.
If I’m honest, though I think I’d probably prefer the park view next time.
The rooms are a bit of a mixed bag on one hand most but not all of the fixtures in the
room are well-maintained on the other.
The room is very dated.
This, however, is where the price of this room really comes in to play I booked this
room through American Express find hotels and resorts For around $150 per night including
a $100 spa credit.
So this Mandarin Oriental Petronas towers view king room was affectively only 50 bucks
a night and that’s why it gets a little bit of a pass with the data design and condition
issues here in there.
If you do book a similar rate, make sure that you book your spa treatments, well and advance
and learn from my lesson.
I rocked up on check-in day with no booking made yet just assuming wrongfully so that
there would be appointments available there were not so the front desk Very quickly suggested
that a accept a $100 food and beverage credit instead of the spa credit and from the speed
at which this was offered it sounds like this does happen quite a bit.
That being said I’ll take a food beverage credit just about any day over a spa credit
anyway.
Connectivity in the room is pretty good though with well-placed UK style outlets throughout
the room and while Mandarin Oriental‘s way of getting you to sign in for Wi-Fi forcing
you to sign up for the federal Mandarin Oriental club in order to access the Internet is annoying
the Wi-Fi was fast.
The mini bar was not really well stocked and when I came in to the room, I thought I was
having a repeat of my stay at the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore, which I am still referring
to as instant coffee gate 2021 when I arrived in the room, there were unbranded glass, bottles
of water, as well as some tea, sashes and instant coffee sticks on offer, double check
my booking to make sure that somewhere in there it said that a coffee maker was gonna
be in the room because I remember seeing that when I made the reservation and sure enough
I didn’t say that so I called down to the front desk and they told me normally the Nespresso
machines are only for the club rooms which perhaps is the same policy that the property
in Singapore was in forcing but I didn’t ask anyway this time at least they did promptly
bring up an espresso machine with a selection of Nespresso pods.
The storage area was sufficient, but in this day and age any new or newer hotel would offer
quite a bit more than you can see here but for me, it fits the bill the safe though was
comically large, and given how large it was surprising that I still couldn’t fit a laptop
at it.
The low point of the room for me is the bathroom there’s just really no way of getting around
the fact that this is just an old room while I do appreciate the Diptyque amenities.
It’s hard to enjoy them in a one square meter shower.
The last feature of the room to look at is the all important view now the reason that
I say that I probably prefer Parkview is because while the Petronas Towers view is great, you
have to kind of turn your neck to get any sort of greenery in your view.
And let me just quickly point out some of the small condition issues in the room again
these are not major issues and for the price of this room I guess it’s fairly acceptable
but I just find it hard to wrap my brain around Mandarin Oriental as a brand allowing fixtures
to be in condition like this, regardless of what the price of the room is.
That night having come in for my flight from Jeddah earlier today room service was the
only thing that was calling my name.
Room service menu is mostly standard fare for five star hotel.
I went for the MO Burger, which was OK at best and the mixed satay, which was very good.
The next morning, dark, and early before anyone else is seemingly awake we head to mosaic.
If by mosaic, they meant they were going to continue to use every single style and color
of surface possible in one restaurant then I think they’ve succeeded.
For me Personally, I think there’s just a little bit too much going on in this restaurant.
As for the food, it’s a nice mix of standard western dishes Indian dishes, a Chinese station,
and all of the other basics that you would expect.
There’s also a à la carte egg station, but not a separate à la carte menu per se.
So yes, the Buffet was nice but the selection and quality on offer I think also fits into
that category of really good for the price, but not what you’d expect from a mandarin
oriental.
And last, but not least, we had to the very well outfitted and large fitness center.
All right as we head into the flip flop score, what are we thinking?
Overall for the price again keywords for the price it’s an OK experience it’s certainly
not the best that Mandarin Oriental or Kuala Lumpur has to offer, but the pool does make
a very strong argument for considering the Mandarin Oriental for your next trip to: pour
my last note that I’ll say about the service is that there really wasn’t much to say.
It was short to the point very businesslike nothing bad, but lacking the warmth that I
think you would generally expect from a property of this caliber I really do hope that you
like this video.
If you did, please give it a big thumbs up and hit that subscribe button so that you
don’t miss a beat I will see you next time at the RuMa Hotel and residence in Kuala Lumpur.