The George Penang By The Crest Collection — Hotel in George Town

I do not recommend this hotel and would not return. If you must stay here, don’t book Pearl Suites or any other room on the 6th floor - there is a prevalent issue where the AC isn’t cold enough upstairs where the bed is (living area downstairs is fine). We waited an hour after we got back from our dinner then called front desk. Technician came in and reset the aircon control but told us all 6th floor units are like this. It didn’t get any colder. We requested a fan and he said he would pass on the message.

I called front desk again after 15mins. The lady said it takes 1-2 hours for the AC to get better and said we should’ve left the key card in room (but they only gave us 1). No one had said that during check in!

Then she said she had already requested a fan from Housekeeping and would call me back at 10pm. She didn’t call back. At 10.35 we called again. She just said she has “already informed Housekeeping”. There was no attempt at any follow-up nor provide us an alternative solution. I requested for a change of room but was told there weren’t available tonight. She said she would put in a request for the next day.

We tried to call Housekeeping ourselves numerous times but couldn’t get through. We had also tried to order Room Service at 9.30pm and couldn’t get through despite many attempts.

At 10:48pm we went down to check again. They said, “you know, we don’t actually have fans for guests.” Yes, ok, but how about offering me an alternative solution?!

The two ladies at the Front Desk didn’t want to address us directly. They just kept speaking to each other in Bahasa and didn’t even ask us to take a seat nor offer any apology or anything. We stood there a good while, waiting for them to finish conversing. Another guest from the 5th floor also came down to complain about his AC and we also saw them give him the same treatment.

We finally got another room (cheaper- from a room with a duplex & balcony to a basic one without shower screen) at 11.20pm, without any mention of any refund or making it up to us. The lady merely uttered a casual “sorry for the inconvenience” when we ourselves were lugging our bags to the new room. I didn’t even know how to respond to that, so I just said “it’s ok”. I was shocked at the non-existent customer service.

I would not come back again nor recommend this hotel, not because of the facilities (the building is beautiful), but because of the extremely poor customer service. They made me, as a guest, feel as if it was my fault that I created trouble for them. I had to smile and word each question carefully just so that I wouldn’t offend her (she had a snarky attitude).

The new room on the 2nd floor (214) has a connecting door thru which you can hear your neighbour taking a shower and chatting with their companions (not their fault). The bathroom also had MANY drain flies. The bathroom seems to be made wheelchair-friendly (they had removed the screen doors. But this means the entire area gets wet when you take a shower) but neglected to change the height of the sink, so a person in a wheelchair would not be able to access the sink anyway. This shows a general lack of thought put into planning.

I already had a sense that the service was not up to par when we checked in and there was no smile nor warm greeting. When I asked about an area map and food recommendations, they merely shoved a generic food pamphlet towards me.

I had wanted to get the names of the staff who had “attended” to me during the aircon saga but realise there’s no point singling them out. This is because every staff had the same kind of attitude, from the person who checked us in, to the front desk staff in the daytime.

A “5-star” hotel is about 5-star Service, and not about how the building looks. We travel a lot and have stayed in many hotels and can say that we have received much better customer service in “lower” rated hotels. Sure, those hotels didn’t look as beautiful, but the service was warm and genuine and made us feel welcome and cared for. I cannot say the same for the staff...

I’m a local but wanted to suss out this new glamorous hotel (right smack in the centre of Georgetown) for future reference for friends who might want a handy place to base themselves when visiting Penang. Great introductory rates as they just opened in December 2022. Spick and span, brand new furnishings with a nouveau art deco style, and lavishly glossy looking restaurant make up the ground floor. Check in was prompt and though check-in time was supposedly at 3pm, my room was ready before 1pm. They graciously let me have it then and there. The room was the “basic” Deluxe, ie the cheapest tariff, but was impressively spacious with a bathroom practically half the size of the whole room. Wonderfully comfortable and luxurious bedding with properly plump pillows adorned the king sized bed. I was worried the in-house music which was rather loudly playing over the tannoy would encroach into the room but the sound-proofing was fantastic, so much so that once I entered and closed the door, it was like being in a cocoon. The room was very clean, and kitted out with very nice electronics; an electric weighing scales ( which was kept firmly in the drawer thereafter as WHY would I weigh myself after eating SO much!), a solid kettle ( as opposed to the typical plastic ones), a fabulously powerful hairdryer, iron and ironing board, and most impressively, a TOTO bidet/toilet. Bless the fancy buttock-warming seat, which made such a difference in the middle of the night, with the air-con on!! The hotel has a lap-pool on the 2nd level which is “open-air”, cleverly sheltered by a high glass canopy, giving and outdoor/indoor feel. The changing room is large and divided into two; there are two steam rooms, one for female and the other, male guests. There is also a small but well-kitted out gym. The room rate came with breakfast for two, which was buffet-style. This was the only area I feel the hotel can improve on. While it may appeal to some to have it as a buffet, most of the dishes were substantially bland. The nasi lemak tasted more like chicken rice, with the ikan bilis condiment very tough and chewy. The fried noodles lacked depth and salt. The mango juice was too syrupy and sweet and tasted very artificial. And while I appreciate the hotel was trying to be halal, the chicken sausages and chicken ham were too nondescript. The only tasty items were the lobak, loh mai Kai and local cut fruits. I think they should review their breakfast spread and focus on quality instead of quantity. Being in the heart of our culinary centre/heritage area, this hotel should present the local flavours better. I may sound harsh, but I really want this hotel to succeed and do well. The staff and service are commendable and can only get better. Here’s wishing them...

The George is in a great spot in historic Georgetown and the building itself is fabulous. There are lots of appealing things about the hotel: the rooms and common areas are sparkling clean, new, and well maintained; the bed was very comfortable; and the linens were great. On the less attractive side: the smart TV was far too smart for us mere mortals to figure out so we were unable to watch much of interest (we requested help to adjust and coach us on use of the TV twice, but no staff ever came to help us); the Pearl Suite room we had was a strange arrangement, with the main bed a flight of stairs and the main bathroom and shower in the lower section (weirdly, the housekeeping staff never put any towels in the bathroom on the upper level!). The complimentary breakfast was not bad, but not impressive for a hotel of this level and the staff paid little attention to keeping items replenished. The chef also failed to keep requests in order resulting in confusion and delivery of items to the wrong diners. ||Our biggest complaint was about the staff attitudes. The initial check-in was cool and lacking in warmth and welcome. That was bad enough, but when we got to our room, we found that it was set up for only two guests even though we had clearly booked a room for three. When we asked the front desk staff to prepare an additional bed, he said they had no record of our booking for three and that he "would have to check" on it, even after we showed him our booking sheet indicating payment for three. Finally, the room was prepared for the additional person, but in the morning we were confronted with another staff who said we our room included breakfast for only two people! We had to again show our payment receipt clearly indicating payment for three breakfasts! It was a weird experience to have the staff treat us as if we were trying to get away with something rather than being accommodating and cheerfully solving the matter. There seems to be something lacking in the training and management of the staff to have customers treated in this manner. I was frankly surprised that after these episodes, the staff didn't offer us a fruit basket, flowers, or some other token of apology for the confusion and the way we were treated. Most hotels of even average quality would have bent over backwards to apologize but The George didn't even give us a sincere "sorry". ||This hotel has the potential to be fabulous, but it needs some serious attention to staff training and...