OZO George Town Penang — Hotel in George Town

Stayed here for 5 days 4 nights with my family (we booked a total of 3 rooms).

On the first day, we reached early at 12pm and asked the receptionist if early check-in was possible. She said no as check-ins were strictly at 3pm but we could store our bags at level 1. When we came back at 2pm and sat in the lounge area to wait for check-in at 3pm, we realised that others were being checked into their rooms. We went to ask again but she repeated the same instructions. When we asked why others who came in after us could be checked in, she then asked us for our passports and proceeded to check us in. Why were different visitors receiving different treatments from the start? (I don’t think it had to do with nationality, but a lack of consistency in standards).

Later, we asked about the wifi speed as I had an online work meeting the next day and wanted to check if it would be stable enough to conduct the meeting. They also had a conference room in the lounge area so I wanted to check if it was available for use (in the case where the room wouldn’t be convenient). The receptionist’s reply was, “No, we’re a 3-star hotel.” A very unnecessary reply imo, and also, why list yourself as a 4-star hotel online then?

On the second day, we went out in the day and came back at 4pm to see that the rooms had not been cleaned yet. The housekeeping staff wanted to clean the room at about 4pm but we asked if they could come back at about 5.30pm as we had just come back to rest. The staff said ok and that he would come back at 6.30pm instead as 5.30-6.30pm was his dinner time. I informed the receptionist at 5.30pm as I was leaving the hotel to request for housekeeping at 6.30pm and when we came back to the hotel at night, the room was made.

The next day, the same thing happened. We asked if they could come back later but when we came back at night, the room wasn’t made. We called to ask and their response this time was that housekeeping services are only available from 8am-4.30pm.

Terribly inconsistent service throughout our stay. Thankfully, we didn’t spot any cockroaches in our rooms (like what the reviews mentioned) but the pillows and bedding smelled musky. The room doors are thin (ours was directly facing the lift) and we could hear people walking and talking loudly as they were waiting for the lift.

The bars nearby have live bands and we could hear the singing and music till 2am every night. Our parents who stayed in a room on the opposite end of the hotel were away from the music, but woke up to the drilling of construction from 7-8am onwards.

Before we checked out on the last day, we also found this list in the wardrobe. There’s additional charges for things like asking for more water, so take note.

Would we come back? 100% not. The boutique hotel a few shops down from ours looked 10 times better. I’d probably choose to stay there if we come back...

Looking at the review of hotels in Malaysia, there seem to be tons of people giving negative reviews for almost every hotel so was pretty wary of booking this hotel and all the other ones I stayed at! However, I found that this was a decent hotel albeit with some minor problems. To start with the good. The hotel is well constructed, by that I mean the rooms and walls are made of good material so that generally sound from other rooms or outside is not an issue. This is my main concern, because you must be able to sleep peacefully or live in your room without being disturbed by neighbours or the outside, that should be the primary goal of any hotel. The room size is also very large, although I found small things like the funny diagonal shaped desk not to be practical because it was too small to use comfortably. Also, you cannot connect your laptop to the TV with and HDMI because the TV is fixed to the wall. I had some small issues with a blocked basin and the shower hose was broken, but these were resolved after a couple of visits. I needed to persuade maintenance man to change the hose, which I thought was strange as it was obviously broken. He called in housekeeping afterwards to clean up some of the water on the floor that came from the work. The cleaner used one of the body towels to wipe up the water. I said that he should at least use the floor towel and not the ones for the body. He said it was "Just water". As someone who is prone to eczema, I have to be careful about detergents and what I put on my skin. If this is something that house cleaning do regularly, this would be a problem for me. (I did start getting some skin issues here, but cannot say for certain it was due to the hotel). There was also some old stains on the bed sheets that I had to ask to be changed. Bed sheets like that need to be either bleached or thrown away. They may not pose any health risks but no one wants to sleep on visibly stained sheets. Also, the small sofa bench on at the foot of the bed was heavily stained and really needs to be re-furbished. The breakfast was okay. I remember the dining area which is nice, but not much of the actual food. I just like eggs, toast, fruit and coffee. The check-in is on the 20th floor, so you will probably only see the managers when you check-in and when you check-out. I had a nice Indian lady check me in. I saw one other man manager, portly Indian man, there when I tried to extend by one night, who I found to be less friendly. I would stay here again, as the problems were minor. (I also stayed at the Citadines, which I absolutely do...

Looking at the review of hotels in Malaysia, there seem to be tons of people giving negative reviews for almost every hotel so was pretty wary of booking this hotel and all the other ones I stayed at! However, I found that this was a decent hotel albeit with some minor problems.

To start with the good. The hotel is well constructed, by that I mean the rooms and walls are made of good material so that generally sound from other rooms or outside is not an issue. This is my main concern, because you must be able to sleep peacefully or live in your room without being disturbed by neighbours or the outside, that should be the primary goal of any hotel. The room size is also very large, although I found small things like the funny diagonal shaped desk not to be practical because it was too small to use comfortably. Also, you cannot connect your laptop to the TV with and HDMI because the TV is fixed to the wall.

I had some small issues with a blocked basin and the shower hose was broken, but these were resolved after a couple of visits. I needed to persuade maintenance man to change the hose, which I thought was strange as it was obviously broken. He called in housekeeping afterwards to clean up some of the water on the floor that came from the work. The cleaner used one of the body towels to wipe up the water. I said that he should at least use the floor towel and not the ones for the body. He said it was "Just water". As someone who is prone to eczema, I have to be careful about detergents and what I put on my skin. If this is something that house cleaning do regularly, this would be a problem for me. (I did start getting some skin issues here, but cannot say for certain it was due to the hotel).

There was also some old stains on the bed sheets that I had to ask to be changed. Bed sheets like that need to be either bleached or thrown away. They may not pose any health risks but no one wants to sleep on visibly stained sheets. Also, the small sofa bench on at the foot of the bed was heavily stained and really needs to be re-furbished.

The breakfast was okay. I remember the dining area which is nice, but not much of the actual food. I just like eggs, toast, fruit and coffee.

The check-in is on the 20th floor, so you will probably only see the managers when you check-in and when you check-out. I had a nice Indian lady check me in. I saw one other man manager, portly Indian man, there when I tried to extend by one night, who I found to be less friendly.

I would stay here again, as the problems were minor. (I also stayed at the Citadines, which I absolutely do...