Lexis Suites Penang — Hotel in George Town

Fully paid but I was required to show receipt. Then, the front desk took a photo of my phone showing the e receipt and WhatsApp somebody else. Weird, isn't it? I paid extra for my 14 year old son. But was told that breakfast wasn't included. With the same 2 beds in room, why was I charged extra for my son? I was told that the extra charge was for the towel and shampoo. But shampoo bottles were glued to the wall. Housekeeping must be well trained on how much to refill depending on room occupancy. After some clarification, manager on duty gave us the breakfast. At 9:30pm, bedtime, manager was very kind to send fruits and cake and donuts to our room as a gesture of appreciation. However, the staff was not well trained. Lights were already off and my kids were already in bed. We received the tray of food and was instructed to return the tray immediately. We had to turn on lights, remove plates from the tray and return the tray immediately to the waiting staff. How humiliating. As if we had to gobble down the free food or else no tray of food. A word of advice for staff training here: the tray goes to the room so that plates stay in the tray. Once done, we will put the tray outside the room so as not to make a mess inside the room. The pool in the room is not a jacuzzi, just a rectangular box filled with water. The design of the room is stupid. I couldn't roll our luggage into the room because there is a bump at the door. I hit my toe against the bump going into the shower. The shower area should be at the place where the tub is, not at the door. Shower water kept pooling at the door and I had to manually sweep the water away from the door while taking a shower. After my kids took a shower, I was like a maid wiping the floor making sure no one slip on wet marble floor. Room area has a glass panel and a glass door leading to the bathroom area. That glass panel and glass door is a hazard as we easily bump into it. Also, the glass door takes up space in the bathroom area. No sofa in the room. A lot of wasted space. There is a slanting marble top prohibiting us from putting stuff. I can't understand the use of that slanting marble top. Malaysia is hot and humid all year round. Who needs a steam room? Er... seems like others love the steam room. Elevator area is not air conditioned. Malaysia is hot and humid. 5 star hotel without air conditioning in the common area? Unacceptable. Also, housekeeping is using the same elevator we are using. Of course, they are not sharing the elevator with us. I saw them keep waiting for the next available empty elevator. This building wasn't designed for a hotel to begin with. They don't have a housekeeping elevator. 25th floor restaurant is a joke! Not all elevator can access 25th floor. Coming out of the elevator, with no air conditioning, we face all walls along the narrow corridor, imagine the musty smell. Then, see a small door. Open the door, then come to the so called satellite bar. Can't really see the view because it is blocked by potted plants. No wonder it is called a satellite bar. It has sky view and for us to see the satellite. Amenities such as pool table and air hockey come at extra cost. Toilet refused to flush. Glad that maintenance team fixed it immediately. A shout out to the manager on duty. He is in a difficult position dealing with fussy customer like me and managing staff, obviously lack of...

True feedback if you're looking for the most genuine one:

Drinking water: Only 2 bottles provided as a complimentary, afterwards each bottle charged at RM20/500ml. Marriott group provides unlimited free water. I'm okay to pay if it's EVIAN, but it's just the normal RO water, which is even cheaper.

Lizards: Warning was given that uninvited guests would enter only via the balcony as there is a pool. The fact is the lizards will enter via the main entrance, through the gap under the main door. Remember to keep your food and water covered always for your safety.

Sound proof: No sound proof at all, because they haven't put carpet on the floor and the doors are not too tight. You can hear all the sounds from the floor clearly.

Bidet at toilet: They don't even want to place a gun bidet for your comfort. So, if you want to use, you need to keep a hand on the tap to open and close, such a worst idea, which cannot be seen in any 5-star hotels.

Older televisions: The TV provided don't even have smart features built-in, which means you cannot watch Netflix at your own comfort, but bounded to just watch the ones offered by them. The word PREMIUM doesn't make any sense here. In fact, the remote also don't work properly.

Touch N Go Parking: For guests, every time you need to walk to the reception counter to redeem free exit using the TnG card. If they want to offer FOC to hotel guests, why not they enable the parking access to the room access card? 5-Star hotel management not even upgraded to the Gen-Z ideas, needs improvement in their thinking.

Surcharge on public holidays: This is not applicable if you're booking using the special vouchers, else they'll charge you RM150/night. Even the receptionist don't have idea, they had to clarify with their back-end team during the check-in process, which took additional time, if you didn't question, be prepared to pay additional charges.

Don't visit during the holidays or weekends: The service quality is even worse as they couldn't handle the customer volume, even at the breakfast, your table would be unattended most of the time.

Breakfast: Definitely, not a 5-star rated, can be a 3-star rated. In Marriott, a representative will visit your table to ask if you can be served a coffee or any special dishes like an egg omlette, etc. Here, nobody cares even on weekdays with less crowd.

ZERO hospitality: The hotel exit is nearby a traffic light, expect vehicles flowing both the directions continuously, the security at the hotel won't even step out to block the traffic and assist the guests cars no matter how long the cars are queued to exit.

About the room: The pool attached to the suite is quite convenient, but the water will be cold, the ocean view is nice. Sauna is good as well, the bed and other room accessories are decent.

Overall, do not expect 5-star quality and services. This hotel can just be rated...

Consistent disruptions in the room.

The room looked pretty nice and we were excited once we entered. However, there were too many disruptions that occurred which annoyed us.

Firstly, there were too many charlie insects in the room. I opened the toilet bowl and saw one inside the bowl. Thereafter, there were a few around the sink, the floor, the bathtub, and a whole lot around and even inside the pool. As you all know, these insects are dangerous and highly infectious. Having to be cautious all the time was so irritating especially as there were too many of them. This is a known fact at the hotel as they have a note on the table in the room to inform us about this. Their advice is to have us call them for additional cleaning service, but how many times can you do this per stay? It is just not efficient to have people cleaning over and over again per day.

Secondly, our sink was clogged. This made us have to call the front desk for help at 7 in the morning. Then we had a problem with the safe box, twice. Afterwards, the toilet bowl flush was stuck. So you can imagine how irritating it was to have people coming in and interrupting us due to these inconveniences. Glad that they did their job though, just that it would have been better if these problems didn’t arise.

Then, we have a problem with the pool. The pool area is dark. There is one dim lamp outside, and pool light. On our second night, the pool light did not work. We called front desk thrice, and they said that the light comes on automatically and the timing is inconsistent. This is definitely annoying, since there are charlies everywhere in the pool area, it would have been better to have other lighting options to help us see things. We were planning to swim at night, but now we cannot at all as the light does not work. Called front desk a few times to ask again, but their answer remains the same. Past 10PM, still no pool light. Really disappointing. I’m pretty sure that there was a problem with the light, because even at 12AM it did not light up. Only when we called at 11PM did they suggest to call in maintenance. We think this is a poorly trained move and should have been done the first time we called. Could’ve saved our time and energy with it.

Was hoping for a great stay, but due to these issues, everything was just stressful for us. I would only consider coming again if these areas...