The Hermitage Jakarta

The hotel is located in the upscale residential area of Menteng.   The location is not far away from buzzling Thamrin and Sudirman area but you can find some tranqulity in Jakarta which is rather rare.   Navigating to the hotel may be a bit a challenge if you are not familar with the area as the streets around are mostly oneway street.

Here is the entrance of the hotel taken from the roof top.

Here are the picture of the hotel lobby.  It is nicely decorated and many pictures of old Batavia (the old name of Jakarta during colonial time) and also map of the Menteng area during the colonial time.

 

As a Starwood Platinum, I was upgraded to the Executive Suite room (which is the second highest room category in the hotel).

The hotel has a huge living area with a door that separated the living area with the bed room area.   The bath room is quite long with seperate bath tube and shower area.   I found the wardrobe area is too big.  I guess this probably the limitation imposed by the old building stucture.

Most (if not all) of the suites room located in the old building and the Deluxe rooms are mainly located in the new tower.


Here are the pictures of the room.

Huge living area

A door that separated the living area and the bed room

Bath room area

 

    

 

The room was pre-prepared for me and here is the welcome gift which is very beautiful

The hotel does not have a lounge, but they provide evening cocktail and the best choice is to use it in Le Vue which is at the roof top of the hotel.

It is advisable to go up before sunset as the view is very nice and the place tends to get very crowded.

Here is the menu for the Platinum

The swimming pool and gym is rather small and located just below the roof top.

Breakfast has a quite good selection also.

 

Here is some random pictures taken from the hotel

I found this hotel is good for someone who wants to have some peaceful time in very busy Jakarta.  It is not too far from Thamrin and Sudirman area.  The service is also very good.

Pullman Thamrin Jakarta

I did make a short long weekend gate-away to Jakarta.  Two reasons why I have chosen Jakarta.  First, because I cannot any "cheap" ticket to Bali and SQ has promotion fare to Jakarta at SGD268, which is considerably cheap.  Secondly, I managed to get a decent price for Pullman Thamrin Jakarta from Accor Asia Pacific Sales.

I have always want to try Pulllman Thamrin Jakarta since the day they rebranded to Pulllman.  For your information, this property is one of the oldest 4/5 stars hotel in Jakarta.   Based on my memory and my conversation with the hotel staffs, the hotel was actually older than myself.  The hotel was build in the 1970s.   It was one of the grandest hotel in Jakarta at that area together with Hotel Indonesia which is diagonally across.  The hotel was named Hotel President before it was renamed to Nikko Hotel and then now became Pullman Thamrin Jakarta.

The hotel is actually located in the heart of Jakarta, in the center of Jalan Thamrin next to Monument Selamat Datang at Bundaran Hotel Indonesia (HI) - Hotel Indonesia Roundabout.  There are four hotels located on each side of Bundaran HI, namely, the infamous Hotel Indonesia Kempinski (connected to Grand Indonesia Shopping Center), The Mandarin Oriental, Grand Hyatt Hotel (connected to Plaza Indonesia) - and also The Keraton, which is next building to Grand Hyatt, and the Pullman Thamrin Jakarta.





So location-wise, Pullman Thamrin has centralized location.  There are 2 Shopping Centres just across the streets, which are also the biggest luxury mall in Jakarta.   Jalan Sabang which is quite famous with the local street food at night, such as sate and nasi goreng, and Sarinah, which was the oldest shopping center in Indonesia are within the walking distance (5-10 minutes).   However, you need to know that Jakarta street is not so friendly with pedestrian, so you have been warned.

The hotel has 2 towers, Main towers, which is the original building since the Hotel President time, where the Superior and Deluxe room are located and Pullman Towers, newer building, build in 2000s (??) where the Grand New Deluxe Room and Executive Room are located.

With 300+ rooms, the hotel seems quite generous with the upgrade also for their Gold/Platinum member.   I did book the Grand New Deluxe Room which located in the Pullman Tower .  Upon check-in, they asked me if I preferred the street view or pool view.   I decided to stick with street view which I thought I can see the Monument Selamat Datang, as it is quite pretty at night.   Later on, I found out that I should have opt for Pool view.

My room was on 14th floor which is the second highest floor.  It is actually a 13th floor as there is no 13th floor if that matter to you.   The room is just next to the lift and is huge and have open concept.

The entrance hall and the mini bars

There is separate shower and bath tube.  The bath tube is by the glass mirror which you can lower the blind for some privacy.

This is the view from the room.  From my room, I can see the Plaza Indonesia extension Shopping Center, which has the Keraton hotel next to it.   This is why I said earlier it may be better to get the pool view room.   The bright light from the Louis Vuitton shop across the street can be quite bothersome.  Also the noise from the street can still be heard even I was at 14th floor (or rather 13th floor).   So, I cannot imagine how the noise level like in the lower floor.   You can't see much of the Bundaran HI, well you can get some view if you peek from the other side of window.

The swimming pool and fitness area are located on the 2nd floor on the Main Tower.  As there was construction of the ball room during my stay, I cannot go down to 2nd floor on the Pullman Tower to go to the pool.  I had to go down to the lobby and walk over to the Main Tower and took another lift to the 2nd floor.  I was told this is a temporary.

The lobby is very huge (wide, I should say).

Lift of the Main Tower is rather slim.   Well it was build in the 70s what do you expect.

Here are some of the Swimming Pools picture which I found quite well design

The gym is located just before the pool.  It is quite well equipped in my opinion.   There is a steam and sauna room also with Jacuzzi and whirlpool in the male locker area.  I am pretty sure there are similar type in the female locker area.

I was told you can access the gym 24 hours.  However, as the spa closes at 10pm, you need to get the Duty Manager to help you to unlock the door.  I found it is quite troublesome.  The Stones hotel is Bali which offer 24 hours gym, let you open the gym door using your room card when the gym is unattended.  The hotel should probably think a similar solution.

I did manage to take a peek of Supeior room and Deluxe room in the Main tower,  Here are the pictures

The Superior room is listed as 21 sqm.  It is rather small in my opinion.  However, after visited the room, with the open concept, I do not feel the room is cramp.   It is rather comfortable I should say

The Deluxe room which is listed as 36 sqm, looks larger than my New Deluxe room which is listed as 42 sqm.  Also, the partition which exist in some Deluxe room, give more privacy in my opinion.

Point to note, as the Main Tower is rather old, there are some teething issue that you may face while staying in this tower, such as air-conditioning issue which may be quite difficult to be addressed due to the building age.    So bare this in mind if you book the room in Main Tower.

So in general, I was quite happy with my stay in Pullman Thamrin Jakarta.  I think this is a good hotel in the heart of Jakarta which may be a good option especially for the Le Club Accor elite (Gold/Platinum) member, as they seem quite generous with the upgrade.