iStay Hotel — Hotel in George Town

We booked a one-night stay at iStay Hotel in Penang as the hotel we originally intended to stay in was fully booked. At first glance, iStay looks quite attractive from the outside, especially at night. It has the charm of a quaint, traditional boutique hotel, which initially made us optimistic about the experience. Unfortunately, that was where the positive impressions ended.

Check-in Experience: The check-in process was off to a rocky start. The receptionist at the counter was surprisingly rude and unhelpful. Initially, the hotel was unable to locate one of our bookings (even though both bookings were made at the same time – 1 room each under different names), and when we provided her with the the booking number, the receptionist accused us of booking under the wrong name – when clearly she was unable to pronounce the name accurately. We were almost ready to walk out at that point, but as our booking was non-refundable and we were only staying for one night, we decided to stay.

To make matters worse, the reception area had another staff member lounging on a couch extremely comfortably watching a movie on her phone, with her feet up. It gave off a very unprofessional vibe, especially in a hotel that seems to market itself as a boutique experience.

Room Quality: The room itself was small and the cleanliness left much to be desired. Upon turning over the comforter, I found two strands of curly, short, pubic hairs underneath, which was incredibly off-putting and disgusting, that I flipped them over immediately. In hindsight, I regret not taking a photo to document it.

Other Issues: One of the more practical challenges was the lack of a proper drop-off area for taxis. If you’re arriving by taxi or other private transport, you’ll have to drag your luggage a few steps up from the roadside. This follows another long flight of stairs to your room from the lobby. If you’re traveling with heavy luggage, this could be a real problem.

Location: The only redeeming quality of this hotel is its location. It's within walking distance to several good food spots, which is a big plus for food lovers visiting Penang. However, this alone doesn’t make up for the disappointing experience overall.

Conclusion: We really wanted to like iStay Hotel, but unfortunately, it fell short in almost every way. The rude staff, uncleanliness, lack of basic conveniences, and overall poor customer service made it hard to recommend. If you’re looking for a hotel in Penang, there are likely better options out there that offer better value for your money and a more pleasant experience. Would not...

We booked via Agoda a „Deluxe Room“, as it showed clearly windows from ceiling to floor. Upon arrival we got the room 109 above the „cafe“, and the room only had a small window close to the ceiling (not possible to look outside) - it was therefore dark. After the problem was reported to the reception, no solution was offered. No refund to the lower room category, no free upgrade. By paying almost 40% more compared to the „Standard Room“ - therefore we compared them on site; room 102 above the lobby is identical to „Deluxe Room“ 109 (above the cafe) - it is neither noticeably larger nor has better facilities. From our point of view an absolute cheek and deception from several points of view: to advertise the „Deluxe Room“ at Agoda with room-deep windows and then eventually get one with only a super small window at the ceiling (The staffs argument: we did not write into the „additional information“ section in Agoda, that we want room-deep windows). the service quality is lousy. There was no concession, no compromise, only the suggestion to cancel at Agoda free of charge and to book the standard room on site (after we asked for that solution). We learned that the service staff receive clear instructions from the owner with no room for other possibilities. the „Deluxe Room“ was advertised as better/larger than the „Standard Room“ with a significant surcharge, although no clear difference was recognizable between the rooms.

Apart from this, the rooms are very clairaudient (voices from the neighboring room can be heard easily), the overall furnishings look very used and the wifi is extremely poor.

It is not...

Tl;dr: hotel is great, until we found bed bug

Everything was wonderful at first, so it breaks my heart to write this. We stayed at their deluxe room on 2nd floor for 5 nights. The room is very clean and cozy. They lack amenities like tooth brush, sandals, tea, etc, but tbh those aren't really matters. It's budget hotel, I'd rather they cut budget on wasteful extra amenities and provide us with clean towels and sheet. Everything really was good and we were gunna give them five stars, until we found bed bug on the fourth night 😓. Killed it, ran down to receptionist to inform about our finding, even showed them the bed bug picture we took. We asked them if they ever had bed bugs problem before, and they said only on first floor... So they do admit they have bed bugs problem. We asked to change room, but they said they are full booked and offer to change our sheet instead. We just took what we can get, didn't worth arguing over it since we only have one night left anyway 😓

No reviews ever mentioned bed bug, I saw a review saying they found cockroach and tbh cockroach is fine for me lol, but bed bug is different story. I understand that no hotel is immune to bed bug, even the big ones, so I'm not blaming them too much for it. But I do hope they took more action when we found the bed bug last time 😓😓

Bed bugs infestation is no joke, you don't wanna bring it to your home. I'm sorry that I have to write this publicly, so the guests can be more informed about the risks. I do hope this will move the hotel to take more action, cuz as I said, the hotel itself is good, I would have definitely come back if not for...