boomingtales: Park Royal Kuala Lumpur

This was our 2nd stay at the hotel within a span of 3 years. The first was in Year 2008 at the orchid executive club which even though the room was at a premium, was a pleasurable experience. This time, we decided to opt for a deluxe room instead due to a longer travel period.

Location
The location was main reason for choosing park royal. With close proximity to major shopping centres like lot 10, sungei wang and times square, you could spend days just shopping in this area alone.

Room
We loved the king size bed as it virtually can fit 3 normal sized adults no kidding!

I am also pleased with the full range of amenities provided and the spacious room. Our room rate also came with free internet service which was great and we encountered no problems with connection or speed. Generally, we had a comfortable stay but we do have a few complaints –
* the furnishings are outdated even though it’s a deluxe room. As commented by some reviewers, most hotels have upgraded to flat screen TVs but not this one and the channels are rather limited. I agree we are not here to watch tv but then we need some entertainment in the early morning and late evenings.
* There is some problem with the water heating system. On our first morning, the water took sometime to heat up. On our last morning, the water refused to heat up and worse, the water that came gushing was yellowish. We had to call housekeeping and problem was fixed after the technician looked into it. We don’t know what was done but imagine waiting around for almost half an hour just to fix this.

* I was spooked by the centralized room system one night. I remembered I tuned the air con to low but it turned full blast in the wee hours and the alarm also suddenly went off when I did not set it.

Facilities
The pool was not fantastic but it was good enough for us to lounge around and for a good swim. We did not try the gym though.

Food
We enjoyed the breakfasts as it has a good variety so we do recommend tagging this to your room. We did not try the other restaurants though.

Service
Most of the service staff are all smiles and polite. The concierge was useful for arranging day tours for us and there is a free shuttle to twin towers at about half hour intervals.

General Comments
There is some improvement in KL taxi system as some taxis are now willing to turn on the meter rather than haggling over a fixed price. In fact, most taxis now have a signage on their doors that spells “metered taxi”. Still, old habits die hard and there are still many who refused to abide.

We also do not recommend getting a taxi from the hotel driveway. We tried getting a taxi from there with our luggage in tow and the concierge was all too eager to persuade us to take the blue limo taxis, which I think charge a premium. When we asked for a normal taxi with meter, he looked unhappy. In the end, the taxi that came charged a fixed price and obviously, the concierge lent us no helping hand.

There are also some hits and misses in terms of food outside of the hotel. One thing we learnt is that while some are bang for buck, there are a few eateries that charge tourist prices and worse, the quality does not justify these prices. If you have recommendations for good eateries around the area, do share!

view from our room