Hyatt Regency Kinabalu — Hotel in Borneo

2025: The hotel is still the same great. Hospitality here really shows 50 years of experience. Bed linen softness is simply the best out of all Hyatts. Despite being old it’s still incredibly well maintained (unlike nearby new HC). Food is great but the in-room dining has a slight taste difference (similar but not as terrific as in 2021). AC this time super strong. Only issue I have is that I was 2 times rejected for the in room dining menu (cheese naan) despite being in the correct time window but close to closing time. No more gelato benefit for WoH globalists. 50% discount for food for globalists/explorist. I keep returning and they never disappoint me.

2021: Great memorable stay at Hyatt (again). We chose Hyatt after previous good experience (room and being treated nicely). Again we opted for the city breaks package (2nd night for 50% off) and we were nicely surprised by triple upgrade to club room on a high floor. Check-in was smooth and we didn't need to wait which was a surprise as we rushed from another 5* resort which had already long checkin queues (families with kids). We immediately felt we did a good choice that day. We waited for the reception call to ensure if everything is ok but no one called (we got the call previously). All our room request phone calls were quickly answered with a greeting with my name and it made me feel comfortable as their guest. Our room on 12th floor was larger than our previous stay. It's important to mention that windows are clean so taking a sunset picture of the south china sea with islands is never a problem (the only enemy is the weather). The room condition is kept at a very high standard despite being slightly older. Pillows and bed are comfy, AC is sufficiently cold, french size window provides a lot of daily light, bathtub is larger than competition. A nice surprise was a digital scale in room and upperclass amenities such as organic shower gel with arganic oil. Minor issue: Broken floor tile sealing in the shower room. Water leaked under and it made it's way to toilet. Breakfast was this time served as unlimited a-la carte (previously only a-la carte). There was even a smoked salmon platter which is our favourite. In-room dining in this hotel is always a nice surprise. Their mee goreng mamak seafood comes with large portion, great taste and nice presentation. The same applies for the cheese naan which surprisingly came with butter chicken. The amount of cheese and butter chicken taste would easily award them with michelin stars. Highlight is the instagramable rainbow cake set from the mozaic cafe. One of the nights we tried unlimited a-la carte dinner and we were happy that we tried all items on their menu. The only downside is the limited operational hours for...

My stay at this hotel did not meet the standards for the reasons I am listing below:

1. The Lobby has barely any furniture: 2-4 uncomfortable bench style seats is your option when waiting for a ride (Not sure if this is an unsuccessful attempt at minimalism or something else).

2. They have a well equipped gym but it is not very clean. The exercise mats are so dirty that the white sanitizing wipes turned black one after the other until I gave up (this happened more than one time).

3. Felt slightly unsafe at the gym once: it was daytime and there were not many people around and a man dressed in street clothes ( I think he was in mid 50s with a big protuberant stomach and he was wearing cap) came and sat on one of the stationary bikes and started checking stuff on his phone. Again, he was not wearing workout clothes and he was not exercising. He was there until I finished my workout then followed me down the stairs and then he stopped and stared at me. His features suggested he was Malay but I could be wrong. He did not follow me any further and I did not get a chance to go back to the gym to see if he was truly a stalker.

4. One day in the early evening, I opened one of the faucets to find the water coming out was light red in color and I checked all the faucets and the toilet flush and it was the same thing. I thought if I let the water run for a while, it will clear up. Luckily, I really did not need to use water that night but the water did not clear up by the next day. I called the front desk and the tech they sent said this problem could not be fixed anytime soon. He suggested I move to the lower floors which did not have this problem but I told him that the street noise was bothersome even on the 11th floor where I was staying and it would be worse on the lower levels. I went to the front desk and they offered to provide water bottles so I can use it to brush my teeth and bathe!!! I told them I would prefer to checkout and to get a refund for the rest of the stay since I paid in advance for the whole stay and the manager included the night I spent without water in the refund which was the right thing to do. When I was packing, I noticed a new piece of clothing that had the price tag on was missing (I put it in the closet when I unpacked) but did not mention anything as at that point, I wanted to get to a hotel that had...

One night stay here was not great. The entrance feels like you are heading into some form of multistorey carpark, it's very built up and not nice views unless you get a sea view.

On arrival we were told the extra beds we had booked "may" not fit in the room (after travelling with babies for 24 hours), we made it work just using the sofa as a bed and saving the need for an extra bed.

There was no balcony to go out on so we had to put children to bed then take in turns coming down to eat dinner to not disturb them after a long day of travelling.

The bedroom design is bizarre, little cabinet with the toilet secured with a glass door that doesn't fully close which means your on the toilet able to look on the bed. The shower/bath whilst a good size are in the cubical next door but the same style of glass door opens outwards which meant water all over the floor after a shower.

The bathroom sink was outside on what appeared to be a kitchen island, had to brush teeth over the tub to not disturb sleeping kids. In room toiletries were fine.

No coffee machine, just instant coffee in the room.

TV is a smart TV but despite having netflix apps, you can't seem to sign in to any of them so rely on the providers channels.

Service in the lounge was great, very hospitable and the food was really nice. Wine selection wasn't great, they were out of stock of all wines that were not by the glass.

Breakfast was poor, slow and most of the food despite being under heat lamps was cold. Selection wasn't great, paratha was too thick and too cold. Eggs not a great quality and we waited for 15 mins for pancakes as the chef kept burning them. The traditional Malay food was ok but also not great. Bread for toasting was remarkably stale.

The bellboy service again was shockingly slow, it took 25 mins to get cases down after I had explain we needed to be at the airport for our flight and the cab was arriving in 10 mins. Check out very fast but the guys took so long bringing 3 cases down, just zero urgency resulting inme getting a late charge from grab for not being ready to go.

Wouldn't recommend this place even for a quick visit. Certainly more suited to...