The Waterfront Hotel — Hotel in Borneo

Dates: Oct 2024 Nights: 4 We stayed in this hotel for 3 nights and 4 days. During our stay, we had the chance to visit all the attractions in the city and enjoyed the hotel.

This hotel is located in the heart of the city, one of the best locations as you can move easily in the city, and the hotel is just in front of the river and offers a beautiful landscape if you are lucky to get a room with a river view.

The team was so kind and always helpful. As this is one of the best hotels in the city, there are some moments when reception is very busy with guests arriving or leaving. In any case, the team was always there offering to help us with any question/request that we had.

The check-in process was very smooth, and we had the chance to meet the front desk manager who guided us and helped us with all the requests we made, for example, a quiet room away from the elevators.

We moved rooms once, so we had the opportunity to stay on different sides of the hotel. Our first room was located on the river side, so we had an amazing view of the river as you can see in the images, and we had the opportunity to enjoy the night of lights event. In our second room, we had the city views, which were also very nice and quiet as there are no cars nearby, and it's also lighter.

Good quality bed and big, clean, and new bedding

The bedroom is very spacious and the shower works perfectly, good water pressure and very clean. Internet connection: The internet connection was ok, no problem connecting in any of the hotel spaces.

Very nice views over the river and also if you have the chance to stay in a room with city views. We definitely enjoyed both views. The whole hotel in general was very clean, the room was clean and always made on time.

One of the best breakfasts that we had in Malaysia, the restaurant is spacious and they had a great variety of food. The breakfast is divided into sections depending on if you prefer local or international food. They have a specific section with a chef for eggs and omelets and a fantastic coffee station. They have a lot of people attending during breakfast time, so all the tables are clean and you don’t have any problem finding a nice table, even though it is super busy.

One of the highlights is definitely the views of the river and the location just in the heart of the city. We also loved the fact that the hotel is connected with a mall, full of shops and great cafes.

We will give a high rate. Even though this is one of the most expensive hotels in the city, they had very good services and location.

The pool is small and the bar services open at 4 pm. Here we noticed that the cost of beer is extremely higher in comparison with any of the other restaurants/bars around.

The mall next to the hotel is fantastic, and the hotel has direct access via the elevator.

We will rate this hotel high as we really enjoyed our stay and we recommend it for your next visit to...

Don't get me wrong, generally, rooms, food and overall facilities are satisfactory (3 stars I would say) . However I would need to give one star is based on personal experience this stay during check out. Firstly, the hotel is located at the city center which makes it perfect to be part of no car day event. As a business traveller, I stayed for 3 nights from Thursday to Sunday and scheduled my flight on Sunday 10am flight.

Here goes the situation on the Sunday of no car day. Firstly, there is no notification by reception informing of this event during checking in. Second, there is no physical letters or email sent to me to inform this event and road closure eventhough I have a car registered to the room. Even when I check out, they still didn't bring up this information. So when I check out at 820am and drive out of the parking basement, to my surprise all exits are blocked and the security told me to get permission from reception. So I went to reception and the receptionist made a call and informed me to exit parking accordingly. When I try to exit a second time, the security still told me the same thing, there's an event ongoing and their orders is to lock it until 10am. A moment later, another two security personnels came and join our discussion and maintain their stand of keeping the door locked and no car shall pass. At this moment I am so desperate that I even plead to them if I were to walk out, where can I get a grab? Their answer is, itu kamu punya hal la (ie, that's your issue). At this moment I am really furious and disappointed. They sensed my unsatisfactory tone and told me that they can open the door, and when I am stuck outside of the basement parking exit, they would not hold any responsibilities. I nodded and told them I am taking full responsibility for my action and please open the gate. After about 20minutes of argument, I finally exited the basement car park. Yes I was stopped by the traffic police for a few minutes and then guided out of the area accordingly within few minutes. There is not even a single police that hold us or question us.

As a citizen, I totally support this sort of events and would totally join if possible. But seeing that the event is ongoing for almost a year and the exit management of hotel is still so lacking is something the hotel needs to look back and learn from this. I don't believe for so many months there is not a single passenger that need to leave for a morning flight. In my case the worst could be just miss flight, what if there's an emergency? Is the hotel doing everything to keep things safe for customer? Hotel operator please read this...

We really wanted to love this hotel, but unfortunately some aspects were just not up to scratch - certainly not what I would expect from a 5 star hotel. We had a suit on the club floor, and really, most of the things we found disappointing were to do with the perks that should have come with this. Perhaps if we'd stayed on a different floor, maybe we'd have fewer inconveniences?

Room aircon: would not go below 21.5. I'm fact, it took 12 hours for it to even reach this temperature. I was far too tired to complain on arrival, and on day 2, it was finally a nice temperature. Only to increase to 22.5 in the evening, without us ever touching the thermostat. To clarify: we set it as 18, and it never got this cold.

Sink and bathtub: air in the pipes. At times, when running these taps, water would spout aggressively or slow down to a trickle. Clearly hardly used, or need replacing. Also, yellow water came out of the bathtub at first.

Room amenities: should have had a complimentary minibar of soft drinks. We had water. That's it. Same for coffee - only two capsules provided. Is this standard, or never refilled? We also did not receive the advertised evening turndown service.

Pool: on level 4, with an open access to the mall so essentially open to the public. Who monitors this? Anyone could have come in.

Service was mostly good, but there was a lot of confusion around airport pickup and then drop off. Complimentary, yet I had to message on the day of arrival if anyone would collect us as I hadn't heard from the hotel at all. First I was told no, as our flight lands past the final collection time... But then the message was deleted, and we did get collected and dropped off.

Towels were very nice. However, on day 2, they were taken away (even though we hung both up to indicate we'd be re-using them) and then I had to request new ones, as we did not receive any.

With that in mind, excellent location. Bed was very comfortable. We also enjoyed a cocktail at the hotel pool bar. Breakfast featured a huge variety of food, and coffee was great. Would we come back? Maybe, but with lower...