Hotel Seri Malaysia Pulau Pinang — Hotel in George Town

The layout of the hotel is nice, with the lobby and walkways to the rooms being outside, which is perfect for this region of the world.  There is a pool in one courtyard, which has rooms that are close to the pool. The rooms at Hotel Seri Kangar are sized nicely with a tiled entry way, wardrobe type closet, refrigerator, desk, flat screen tv mounted on the wall, two side chairs and a king size bed.  This is a typical business traveler's room, but here are where the compliments end.

When you enter the room the first thing that you notice is the stuffiness of the room.  In my case, I am sure this room has not been used recently and the air conditioning has not been run.  The room is cooled by a wall mounted mini-split air conditioner that has a wireless controller.  It took about 2 hours to cool the room enough to stop sweating.  I also think the unit is not sized properly as it constantly was running to keep up with the heat and humidity in the region.

The largest and most over ridding negative to this hotel is the consistent lack of cleanliness.  As an example, There is a stain on the tile floor and onto the carpet that seems to be overlooked during cleaning. The room itself is dark, with dark brown tile and dark brown desk and dark curtains.

Because the bed sheets are cleaned daily, the bathroom is the most obvious appearance for lack of cleanliness.  The bathroom has dark brown tile that leads into the walk in shower.  The grout lines obviously don't get cleaned regularly and the lighting is so poor, I have trouble shaving.  I am not sure how females would apply make up in the bathroom.  In addition, the sink seemed to have been sealed with silicone and then never wiped off.  The silicone has now been stained and looks terrible.  The only positive is the shower size and water pressure. The other negative aspect is the obvious off white color of the white towels.  It has been explained by people that live in the region that the water color in this area changes seasonally and it is hard to keep white fabrics white.  In addition, there are no hand towels and the smaller bath mat has not been replaced daily.  In my case, I have been using a towel to bathe and another towel to stand on when I exit the shower on the tile floor.

The bed in the hotel is a typical 'asian' bed, which is a little short for me and is comfortable, but very firm.  In this hotel, they use a sheet on each side of a light weight blanket, which I think is perfect for this region.  Sometime you can find hotel with duvets that are too heavy and no separate sheets.

There is a hotel in the restaurant that serves breakfast daily from 7-10:30am and the restaurant is open for dinner.  There is also room service offered. The food is hot and tasty, but is not incredible.  The other item of note, is the primary clientele are people practicing Muslim.   This means the hotel does not offer any pork and no alcohol is available at the hotel.  In fact, it is difficult to find alcohol of any kind in this area of Malaysia because of the high...

Let's start with the pros first.

Location-wise is excellent, can't hope for better than this. It is close to private hospital, pharmacies, groceries, restaurants, bar, hypermarket, coffee shops etc. Not too far from airport and Penang bridge to mainland as well.

Parking provided, it is in gated area in the hotel but not covered. Still acceptable since the hotel is not high rise and you'd most likely will park near to your room/unit anyway.

Room is okay-ish, basic amenities were there. Satellite tv, iron and iron board, hot shower and individual unit AC.

Housekeeping staffs also attentive.

Now the cons.

Room or the building itself is a bit run down. There was 10 minutes of heavy rain when I were there, the corridor outside of the room totally flooded. See attached picture. Same goes to the bathroom, sunken floor caused drainage hole become higher than the floor so the water will stuck there forever. Yuck!

Another huge con is the FO staff that checked me in overcharging me. The rate supposed to be MYR 99 including breakfast for 2 but he charged me MYR130 without breakfast. Only learned about thw promo when I have to extend my stay and another lady staff told me about the promo rate. She even mentioned that the promo rate already in effect when I checked in. Just lazy to beg for refund, I just let it go.

Room service menu in the room should be removed. I called twice, the first time I called the staff told me room service only available until Iftar (it was Ramadan) even though it stated operating hour until 10pm on the menu. Fair enough, it was 9pm something anyway. Tried my luck again the next day (this time before Iftar), other person picked up the phone and guess what - 'sorry sir, room service not available during ramadan'.

Lot of...

I love budget hotels... Been to lots of them and I know the expectation when staying at this kind of accommodation. Cheap, basic amenities, no frills concept.||However Hotel Seri Malaysia Pulau Pinang just set a new standards of how a hotel should not be. I've stayed with them a couple of years ago and I know how bad their services are, but after several years maybe they might consider improving at least a little, but they prove me wrong.||Check in 2 days ago, and the impression is not good. Complaints from the customers at the counter (hot water, cleanliness, etc). I thought maybe he was because bg fussy. I've got the 3rd floor room which is not a problem without lift. The room is ok but the air-conditioning is unreliable. The temperature control doesn't really works.||The breakfast buffet nothing special with limited spread. I saw few tourists who bring in their own food. Don't know why but I assumed the choices of F&B is not enough for them. And the seating are so limited. I know that it is School holiday session but when the customers standinh for 10 minutes with food on their hand and no one even give a damn, then it is intolerable. I do ask for a container for me to take away the food, but as if they care.||So.. Seri Malaysia hotel... If you do read this review, good, please do something for the sake of your own good.||For me, no more Seri Malaysia ever. To be honest I'm ashamed they have Malaysia in their brand. Change to...