Kingston Hotel 3 @ Kuala Lumpur (Formerly known as Swing and Pillows @ Jalan Baba, Pudu) — Hotel in Kuala Lumpur

I am right here in the hotel now, 3rd day and finally in a room with all functioning parts. I understand the downsides to a less expensive hotel - major construction across the street, rats and poor lighting feels unsafe at night - but they seemed to throw money into the place from online photos. Unfortunately it’s poorly considered and has major issues.

I was put in room 106, a decent sized room with a hotel safe, but nowhere to put your suitcase at all, and a bathroom with no counter space. All design and no function.

I checked in at 1:30am and was greeted by a gentleman at reception who told me that the government tax of 6% that was included was NOT the government room tax of 10MYR per night. What? Why was that not mentioned before? Then, I was asked to leave a 100MYR deposit IN CASH, to be returned at checkout. Again, why is this not mentioned at booking? And what if I had no cash? So stupid.

So it’s almost 2am now, and I’ve been on planes for nearly 30 hours. I want a shower and a cool room and a soft bed. No, no and no. Fine, beds in lower cost hotels are sometimes rock hard foam pads. It’s ok for my back, but not luxurious. Also, no top sheet, only the suspect duvet which I don’t know when hotel quilts are washed, so down to the foot of the bed it went, no sheets. That’s when I realized I was still boiling hot. No air conditioner- it was broken. So I went to shower. No hot water. Then I went to the bathroom and used a small amount of paper. Toilet doesn’t flush. So I go to sleep dirty, on the hard mattress in a steaming hot room that smells like sewage. Great start.

In the morning I tell the front desk and leave to explore. They were very nice, and told me maintenance would look it over during the day. They did a great job fixing the toilet and air conditioner, but still no hot water. I take another fast rinse in cold water.

Cut to this morning when still not hot water. I ask the front desk to look at it again (3rd time). I come back late afternoon anticipating a hot shower, and nope again. At this point I lose my mind.

I went to the front desk dripping wet from my cold plunge and tell them they need to fix the problem now or give me my money back so I can book another hotel. Mind you, I’m leaving at 4am. They transfer me to a new room, 108, that has a lazy air con and no window. A WORSE room than before!! I called down and told them no, find me a room with a hot shower and cold air, and finally I’m in a room that meets these simple needs.

3 days of multiple continuous broken issues. Three days of deferment of action and surprise charges. I cannot believe they didn’t upgrade the room initially or comp one of my nights or SOMETHING. The staff were nice and helpful, but seriously, hospitality has some basic functions and known...

We were stunned by the 'horse-drawn carriage bed' which came into our eyes the first thing when we opened the door! The children got so excited about the whole design of the themed-room. Decorations have been old, some deteriorating, for sure, but the whole aura of the themed-room was still very fairy-tale-like, which was appealing to the children, who immediately took a lot of photos in the room. Other things were still fine with us, but the carpet desperately needed replacement, with quite a few patches of obvious dirty marks and maybe some 'burnt marks'? There was a water kettle in the room, which was a plus, but the LACK OF FRIDGE was the major, major minus for this lovely-decored room. Another thing which annoyed us was, out of two air-conditioning units, only one was working, which took a long time to cool down the room in tropical KL, seemingly on the top floor of the building. Worse was the fixed programme of that only air-conditioner, which would automatically turn itself off in one hour's time. That means we woke up at night by the heat once a while to walk to the switch next to the door to switch it on again (yes, there was no remote control for that). And for the breakfast, I wouldn't complain about its lack of varieties considering the amount of money I had paid for the whole room INCLUDING breakfast, and the plain fried rice did taste not bad, with a toaster for guests to make their own fresh toasts, with 'Kaya' (coconut cream) available with butter and evaporated milk, which was definitely a good surprise for us. Watermelon slices were fresh and cold. Coffee and tea came with evaporated milk to give us a taste of local drinks as well!

So, in summary, positive aspects included: • Fairy-tale-like themed room decor: horse-drawn carriage bed, respective matching furniture pieces and pretty wall painting (as seen in the photos on Agoda) • Presence of electric water kettle

Good value for money for aspects included: • Not bad breakfast in a rather cozy, small restaurant area • Coffee and bathroom kits included • Centrally-situated location surrounded by local food outlets in the old district and new shopping areas, even walking distance to places like Jalan Alor

Points to note when considering this room included: • No fridge in room • Horribly stained and deteriorated carpet • Timed (automatically switched off after only one hour) air-conditioning with no remote control

Additional point to note: The hotel (Kingston Hotel) was named something else on Google Maps, so it could be difficult for guests to order a Grab to get there. The management of the whole hotel chain should take initiative to correct the names of all the Kingston HotelSSS across the country to avoid further confusion of...

Positives : Our check in guy was really helpful and friendly. No complaints there. It is a budget friendly hotel. Room refreshed daily with water. AKA the bare minimum. Negatives : Where to start?! Check out guy was sat on his phone the whole time, in fact every time I saw him working he was on his phone, even when dealing with customers including ourselves. We asked for a late check out by only one hour (1pm instead of 12pm) which cost us our entire deposit !! 50MYR!!! I'm more than sure that this is not the true price of an hour late check out. I wonder if the rude check out guy pocketed this, but we had to move on due to our own schedule so could not argue this as much as I would have liked to speak to someone about this. Even if this is the true price, that is an extortionate price to pay to stay one extra hour. Breakfast was terrible. We paid extra to have breakfast included. The first morning we arrived at 9am (breakfast from 7am-10am), and there was almost nothing available without any top ups of the buffet during our 45 minutes we spent in the breakfast area. What food there was available, was questionable. Warm water and warm juice provided. Not ideal. So we did not eat breakfast here again, which was a shame as we did want to opt for breakfast included. The general state of the room was poor. Dirty sink, moulded shower (which can be cleaned - I wiped it off with my finger so it clearly had not been cleaned), wallpaper or paint (whatever it was) peeling away in several areas, stains on walls, a very questionable semen-looking stain on the bed headboard (disgusting and added to the dirty motel brothel vibe). Common area: Pretty sure i saw something crawl along the floor several times. We were glad to see washing machines but when i paid to top up my credits to use them they didnt work. Waste of money. They did give you 6 free credits though which was enough for one wash and one dry (a coloured or a white wash). The non smoking floors had a strong smell of cigarettes. Overall : If you're on a budget, and not squeamish, this place is fine. If not I wouldnt recommend at all. Its not really what it was...