Hilton Kuala Lumpur

In early January, I was transiting in Kuala Lumpur (KL) for 2 nights after my Dubai trip before enrooting to Bangkok.  I was looking around for an accommodation in KL.  There were quite some numbers of new hotel come up in KL in the past year, such as Aloft, Grand Hyatt and Pullman to name a few.   So it was a bit hard for me to decide on which hotel I should stay.  I was contemplating to try Aloft as I am a SPG Gold. Or even Pullman as I have Le Club and Accor Advantage membership.   However, at the end, I chose Hilton KL, as I realized that my Hilton Honors Gold, is still valid until 2015 and as Gold member I may get upgraded.

I stayed in this hotel few times in 2006/2007.  It was a great hotel at that time, as it was brand new.   So, after almost 7 years, I decided to come back to this hotel again.

The hotel is located just above KL Sentral, which is a transportation hub in KL.  If you take KLIA Express from KLIA, the airport just above the station, very convenient.  However, up to this moment (at least January 2014), there is nothing much around this area.  This landscape may change with the completion of St Regis next door.  I was told that the St Regis complex will also have a shopping complex.

My flight arrived KUL from DXB at 730am.  As it is still very early, I took my sweet time in KLIA before I boarded KLIA Express.  I arrived the hotel at just slightly past 9am.  I went straight to the check-in counter hoping that they will get a room for me.   Yes, they did.  The check in was very smooth and fast.  The room was ready and they even upgraded me to the Executive floor with lounge access. 

I straight away went to my room and put my bag before I went to the lounge for some breakfast.   As the gold member, I can choose either to have breakfast in the club lounge or main restaurant.  What I did notice also that they had made some renovation in the lobby and the restaurant.

The room is very nice.  Although this property is almost 10 years old, there is no obvious wear and tear in my room.  I was later told by the hotel staff that there is a plan to refurbish the room in the near future.

Here are some pictures of my nicest room.

 

 

I love the design of the bath room.  It is quite common these days, but I remember in 2004-2005 when I first stayed at this hotel, the "see-through" bath room was so revolutionary :)

 

 

 

the bath room is very nice and spacious.  The open concept I think helps.  The only thing I do not like about the bath room is the shower are.  If you notice from the above picture there is no glass partition between the bath tube and shower area.  Well, not as big deal though.

 

 

Also a good use of the space to "hide" the iron board and the luggage holder.


The lounge is quite spacious and nice.  It is also where the Executive floor guest (and Gold and Platinum member?) can check in.

The breakfast choice in the lounge is rather limited in the lounge, and that's why I decided to have breakfast in the main restaurant other than my first day breakfast.   The evening cocktail selection is also quite good.  Here is the lounges pictures and some view of the lounges

 

 

 The brown color building is the future St Regis, which is just on the other side of KL Sentral.


Here are some food that being served during the evening cocktails, which I think is quite good selections compare to other lounge that I ever been.  (Well perhaps Marriott lounge is slightly better).

 

 

Overall, I am quite impress and happy on my stay in Hilton KL.  I can say that this was probably one of the best hotel stay that I can remember in the recent past.  For almost 10 years old property, I found Hilton KL room is still very good and comfortable.  The lounge is superb and offer a very good variety "snacks" for not so much alcohol drinker like me.  In most of the lounge that I have ever been, the emphasis is mainly on the drink.  The staffs are also quite friendly, I indeed had a few good chat with the staff lounge.  Likewise with the concierge team, they are very willing to help.

 

The only drawback is the location, not saying this is not good location, but no shopping mall around this area, and hope this will change real soon.  However, this is completed with the easiness to travel around, as KL Sentral is just below the hotel.  You can easily take Monorail, LRT, and Commuter Train and not forgotten the KLIA Express from the hotel.

 

 

 

Birthday Getaway - Kuala Lumpur (6-8 Jan 2012)

As an annual ritual to give a birthday present to myself, I decided to visit Kuala Lumpur (KL in short) to pamper myself, as I do not want to spend so much time and money on the flight.  The ticket cost me SGD 67 and Air Asia also sell the bus ride from KLIA-LCC to KL Sentral both way for only SG7.  I think if you buy on the spot it will cost you RM10 per trip.  Also they sell the Tune Talk (i.e Sim Card) for SGD2.50.

I do not like with Air Asia pricing model is lack of transparency.  As you saw on the picture above.  The "actual" cost for the flight is only SGD 7 each way (2x7 = 14), that's what it showed when you choose the flight.  When you start finishing the transaction you will see all the fee and fuel surcharge come up and they cost more than the "actual ticket" cost.  Why can't they just simply add it up as these fee/charges I cannot opt out anyway.  Mr.  Tony, if you read my blog, please be more transparent please.  You thought you will pay SGD14 and end up it  becomes SGD67, it likes more than 300%!

Arriving at KLIA-LCC is quite an experience.  It is really very basic and like warehouse.  I am quite amaze on how things works there.  Kudos to Mr. Tony!

One thing very funny is there is a TuneTalk outlet just after you pass the immigration (and custom?).  But my prepaid card cannot be collected there and can only be collected at the outlet outside.  A bit strange.  If I order pre-paid, I should get it as soon as I off the airplane right? 

So I took the SkyBus, which is owned by AirAsia group also, to KL Sentral.  The bus was not that punctual as it was trying to fill all seat before it left the airport.  The journey took about an hour to reach KL Sentral, which is the main train station in KL.



For my accomodation, as I cannot decided if I should stay in Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur Hotel or The Westin Kuala Lumpur, I finally decided to stay at both properties.


Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur

Location wise althought it is located at Jalan Sultan Ismail, it is not really that near Bukit Bintang area.   It is 2 station away from Bukit Bintang Monorail Station.   The Medan Tuanku station is like 200 meter away from the hotel.  The hotel is located by Jalan Doraisamy which I was told by the cab driver used to be one of the popular KL night spot until recently.  Later on, I also found out that the Dan Wangi station, which is an MRT station is also a short walking distance (about 5 min lesiure walk).  This MRT will bring you direct to KL Sentral.

The hotel itself is quite huge.  It has nice lobby but the decoration shows that this hotel is built probabbly sometimes in 1990s.  Upon check in, I was told, as SPG Gold, I has been upgraded to City View room.

The room is huge and I like to see that the room is really prepared for me even before my arrival as I can see the welcome message on the TV screen.   Also I like the chocolcate with the strawberry dip, very nice!

This room has a really nice view of the twin tower from far.  No wonder the front office desk told me this is an "upgrade" as I am a Gold member :)

The bathroom is also quite huge with seperate shower area and bath tube

Verdict - no complain about this hotel.  I like the the spaciousness of the room, but the design is a bit "old" although it is quite well maintain.


The Westin Kuala Lumpur

Locationwise, it beats the Sheraton Imperial as Westin KL is located at the heart of Bukit Bintang.  It is directly opposite the Pavilion which is one of the most upscale mall in KL.

I decided to take the offer of last minute upgrade to Club Floor Room at extra RM 100.  Upon check in, I was asked of a choice of mix nuts and something else (which I forgot, chocolate?).  I took mix nuts and I do love it!

The club floor room benefit include access to the Lounge for Breakfast and evening cocktail and also 50% off the Internet in the room.  I found the lounge food both during evening cocktail and breakfast is quite lacking.

I feel the Westin room is smaller than Sheraton.  I am not sure if this is the case of just my feeling due to the design of the room.  The room is much modern here with very Westin's style, I suppose (I have not stayed in any Westin properties after the rebranding of Westin in Singapore).

I got the room with city view, mind you, this will not give you a twin tower view.  Later on I found out from the Front Office staff that they are getting less and less Twin Tower view room as there is a new building erected across the street.

The bath room is not as huge as Sheraton but again come with seperate shower area and a bath tube.  Interestingly, the soap is in the shape of leaves!

Verdict - nice hotel with good location.  But I do not think the club floor upgrade of RM100 is really worth.  I rather pay for the full amount of the Internet access which I think is RM40 and take proper breakfast.

So, is it Westin or Sheraton?  It is still tuff call for me.  If I go KL for shopping and eating, may be I will choose Westin due to its location rather than anything else.


When I was there, in front of Pavillion which is just across the street from Westin, it displayed this cute looking bear.  Later I found out this is a charity even with the name of United Buddy Bears in Malaysia.  It has bear from eveyr nation in the world!  Here is some sample.

Last few fotos just to show you how the KLIA-LCC terminal looks like.  It is fully functional terminal with even Duty Free Shops.  However, you have to walk quite far to your plane. 

And I am quite amaze that CIMB has an ATM in the LCC with foreign currency notes!  I did not try it though.

Finally, I think this plane is really awesome.  You can see the better picture here.