Shangri-La Golden Sands, Penang — Hotel in George Town

This should not be Shangri La. This should be a JEN. Calling it Shangri La is misleading. ||The infrastructure and the facilities here are great but it is the service which is lacking. They lack the finesse of a Shangri La property and we say this having experienced Shangri La in Kuala Lumpur and Abu Dhabi. ||Positives are that the resort facilities are family friendly. The pool, the slides, adventure zone, a gaming arcade, toy shop. The place is self sufficient for families. ||The check in was also great and Mr. And Razak provided a great welcome and gave us rooms with a beautiful view of the sea. ||Unfortunately beyond this in this hotel the service is not really at the level of a 5 star hotel. I would encourage a few instances. |1. The pool opened at 7 am and closed at 7 am. Here pool cleaning is done after opening. So even though the pool is open but the staff would cleaning and their vacuum cleaner and their pipes are in the way and they would not move them. |2. Breakfast is busy as this is a big hotel so that is understandable. The breakfast spread is expansive and the person at soup counter was great. However they are too anxious to clear the table and literally force you out of the restaurant. On one of the days of my stay I came 15 minutes before closing time as one of my family members had fallen sick. I made my plate and was eating breakfast as I did not expect them to keep the buffet open for me beyond 11 am but they were just too anxious and eager to clear. They would take the dishes while I was taking the food out and while I was eating my food my table was literally surrounded by 6 cleaners, which obviously made me leave. While leaving I told one of the staff members that my table was literally surrounded and there were three caucasian families still sitting and no one was surrounding their table or standing at their table so why this differential treatment. She apologised and also asked for my room number but of course the management at this hotel is too busy to talk to their guests as no one contacted me about this. |3. My wife was unwell. She had called the hotel asking if they had a basic medicine. They did not have it nor did they provide any guidance about the pharmacy. I figured it out on my own. 12 years ago in Shangri La in KL we had asked for a thermometer as we were feeling under the weather and they did not have one but in half an hour they came with a doctor free of charge without us asking for it. Here the chapter was closed and no one even followed up or asked if we needed anything. Rather I was literally forced out of breakfast as I mentioned earlier. |4. Penang seems to have a problem with taxi’s. We had a terrifying incident with a grab driver and we called the hotel if they could send in a car to pick us up at a point which was 5-6 minutes drive from the hotel and we offered to pay for it as well as there were no metered cabs nearby. The front desk simply said that we have to book a grab as they do not have a hotel car. The incident was quite scary and we actually contemplated calling the police but we had no concern shown by the hotel. We have been to places where people have complained about taxi’s but luxury hotels have that figured out when they have external taxi’s who they use. Amari Bangkok does that. Taj in Goa does that. Here there will be no concern for you. |5. On the last day of our stay the breakfast was exceptionally busy and there was a wait to even enter the restaurant. One of the front desk staff even came to apologise to every guest for the delay which was nice but inside the restaurant it was chaos. A cleaning lady bumped into my chair three times while cleaning and setting up the table behind me and this was not a gentle bump. She literally pushed my chair and three times cannot be an accident. Not a word of apology.||6. They have an ice cream cart in the lobby which is next to a star bucks coffee machine which has a card machine for payment. After dinner one night around 10:15 pm when he had finished dinner in their restaurant my children wanted ice cream, I asked them how to buy this and they said that restaurant closes at 10 pm and we cannot buy it now. While the staff was still present at billing counter, so this place has really no flexibility.||You need to have realistic expectations when you come here do not expect typical Shangri La treatment here. I would...

Totally OVERRATED. Made reservation through agoda with remarks request for complimentary birtday room decoration. I called to confirm about the deco set around 11am and to confirm arrival at 8pm.Sadly when arrived 8pm driving from KL, nobody follow up about my reservation and there's no deco for my room even i arrived late at 8pm. Buggy driver named rika rudely asked me to get another small buggy when i waited at pickup point parking area. He just drove away with his empty long buggy. When we reach at lobby, Deva the luggage guy also just ask either want him to help take my luggage or not but then just rudely leave us and just looking us pick up our luggage and begs after i waited for him to pickup my luggage. Ayu the receptionist really disappoint me with her rude way welcoming me by blaming me for did not telling her about the deco request but she knows about it when she checked the system. Is there nobody follow up about my check in details even after i called in the morning for confirmation?? Fyi, hotel confirmed to make the complimentary simple birthday deco by the time i arrived. Ayu then blame the KL hq for receiving the confirmation call i made on 11am and proudly mention her 13years service in the hotel without being asked. She then set up for the deco for the the next day only after i asked for it. There's a leftover cake and birthday card for other previous chineese guest in room i checked in, and blooded stain on the bed sheet when i checked in room. I dont get it either they clean up the room before i checked in or not?? I got all the picture proof of it. I made request to make up room and do the birthday deco when I'm out from 2.30pm-4pm on the next day as agreed. But then on the next day when i come in room after they made the simple room deco, i found out they just leave the iron board on the next bed and leave the hanging phone fall down from the wall in bathroom. All check in process are really disappointing which really spoil our whole holiday mood here and for your information i never got this kind of service for my whole life at this kind of 4star hotel experience before. Not even 1 single staff did nice simple hand gesture on their chest bending over and said thank you like most other 4stars hotel. Based on my observation, most of the staffs will only serve nicely to chineese customers only. The only best experience is only at breakfast. They got varieties of breakfast foods such as fresh juices, teh tarik, roticanai, nasi lemak, fruits yogurts, mee soup section, dimsum, breads, eggs section, hams & hasbrown, kids food corner. All breakfast staff team give the best service and serve us really well which is totally different excellent service from all other rude staffs. Got 2 different pools section for kids and adults. The hotel location is in beachfront. Got foot massage service at the garden, bar and spa. Theres kids zone in the hotel as well. Its really enjoying for kids. For me i will definitely not coming again to golden sands with this kind of horrible experience. It seems like nobody supervise the staffs services and like they didn't trained well. Its better to go to nearby other 4 stars and 5 stars hotel around batu ferringhi beach with the same price but with totally different...

Firstly I would like to commend the service staff here for their superior hospitality. I’ve visited this establishment and it definitely lives up to its reputation. During check in we were greeted by Aiman who had excellent service levels and it was really impressive. There were some teething issues which the duty manager Farina handled with the highest level of professionalism and client focus in mind and heart.

There is 1 small issue I would like to highlight as I believe in the years to come this is an extremely important factor of consideration- EV chargers. If you own an EV car, As you enter golden sands you will be welcomed by 2 EV chargers. Every member of the staff from the parking wardens to the bell boys to the front desk reps will inform you as they did to me, download the app and we will assist with charging. I informed them I will charge on my last night as I need to leave for KL the next morning and asked if I need to book. They reassured me no booking is required. On my last day I downloaded the app and registered online as instructed by the member of the crew. Evening came and I asked the parking warden how do I charge and they informed me download the app. I said the app is already downloaded and they said ask front desk. We went to the front desk and asked for help with the charging. To our surprise they went to the back office and came back minutes later informing us the chargers have been decommissioned for sometime due to issues and I can go to the garden wing at Rasa Sayang to charge. I asked if there is availability and if we need to book. the front desk staff said they already informed the manager at rasa Sayang we will be charging. So I made my way back to the car and drove to the garden wing to be informed by the guard that all chargers have been full for some time. Frustrated that I am unable to charge, I checked for nearby chargers and they were all low power chargers. I ended up making my way to George Town at 11pm at night to charge the car.

Recommendation: please keep your crew well informed of the charging situation as more and more patrons are using electric cars these days. Knowing that I was informed multiple times to download the app when the charger has been decommission is not a good approach. It’s also apparent only a handful of individuals are aware it’s not working and the rest believe the app will solve all issues. I hope my next trip to golden sands will address this issue. If not , don’t block the 2 parking lots for no purpose, let people park. It’s not a disable parking lot.

Besides the EV issue hotel is still top notch all round. Thank you golden sands for the wonderful holiday...