Pacific Express Hotel Central Market — Hotel in Kuala Lumpur

I spent 3 days 4 nights (21-23), checked out 24 July. This hotel close to Central Market, Chinatown, and easy to reach almost everything (food, cafe, and public transport, and tourism places). So, I would say this hotel is perfect for a solo traveler as well like me. They have roof top pool where you can enjoy the sun and book at the same time. In terms of price per night, it’s affordable too! However, I sadly have to share my worst experience with everyone. The experience that traumatizes me so much. There is a staff that was nice, always smile, greets and ask if I need anything such as clean towel, tissue, and water. No suspicious thing on the first day when we talk on the elevator, I believe he is just being nice because he is working in the tourism and hospitality world, so it must be part of his job to provide the best service to the customer. On the second meeting on the elevator maybe around 12 or 1pm in the afternoon, he offered the same thing and I said yes please get me clean towels, and water. He came to my room and gave 2 clean towels and 2 bottles of water. Then he asked if I need anything else, I forgot that I need tissue so I told him if I could get some of them. Then he came back and gave me tissue and got me another 2 bottles of water. I said thank you and about to close my door but he said he wanted to be friend with me and asking for my number. I respectfuly said I'm sorry I can't give my number. He kept insisting and it's really made me uncomfortable. He even offered free stay if I ever came back to KL. That was just freaks me out as he also checked my room a little that I think to make sure that I'm all alone!! I have never had such a terrible feeling in my life. I said to him I need rest then I close the door. I was totally freak out and called one of my friend, told her what just happened as I didnt know what to do, I was afraid to get out from my room because he was maybe still around. 5 minutes later, he knocked my door again. It took awhile for me to open the door but I made it. He said sorry for what just happened. An hour later, i went down to receptionist and asked to meet the manager. They said the manager is not available at that time so I told everything to the receptionist staff (there were 2 of them). They promised to address the issue to the manager, and I asked them to have his/her to call me to talk about it. However, I didn't hear anything back from them on that day, such a terrible service. I checked out on Wednesday 7/24 and move to KLCC. They got my email address, my phone number but no kind gesture from them to solve this case. My friends who heard this story suggested me publish my personal review on social media. It took me a couple week to finally write here, this guy maybe only the bread winner at his home and he might lose his main job if I published this. But I had to, everyone should never experience this kind of feeling when what we expect is such a nice...

UPDATE: Adding on to this review with an update to the previous situation. After enough messaging to various customer service channels Agoda finally acknowledged their mistake and refunded me for the difference after calling the hotel to confirm.

Otherwise my stay at Pacific Express wasn’t too bad. Most of the complaints in the original review still stand (including the WiFi — it is essentially unusable) but it does seem that a few of the staff do genuinely care about helping guests have a good experience no matter how undercut they are by poor choices from upper management. There was a guy at the front desk who was always very nice to me and let me keep my luggage there after he even gave me a late checkout. Also the security man at the front door was very professional and helped me with my bags and held the front door for me several times.

And the rooms weren’t too bad. Bed was very comfortable and noise wasn’t bad in my 5th floor room. The fact there was a bath tub was a welcomed surprise so I popped by Central Market to pick up some bath bombs and treat myself.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Good location right next to Central Market and somewhat recently (last 5-10 years) renovated rooms but that seems to be all this place has going for it.

The bad:

1. Booked their most premium room on Agoda for $100 a night, but when I arrived was told that Agoda had only reserved a standard room (with no windows) for me. Now I understand that this is mostly Agoda’s fault but they have to bear some responsibility as the company working with Agoda. No, instead I was given the option to pay the full rate for the premium room or go with the standard. Again, I understand that this wasn’t all their fault, but I’ve also worked in hospitality/customer service and generally we would throw something in free or give the person a discount. Nope. No discount, no “Here’s a some free drink tickets” etc. Really gives me the impression that this place is fairly poorly managed.
2. Pool is only open until 7pm, aka barely past sunrise. For many tourists this is before they’re getting back to the hotel from a day of sightseeing. Also, the pool area has a total of 3 chairs which is so few it’s almost comical.
3. The WiFi speeds here are so terrible. I actually just stopped using it at one point and was forced to use up my cellular data because pages wouldn’t load. It’s under 10mbps up/down. For reference, Starlink Satellite internet is 300mbps up/down.
4. Windows hasn’t been cleaned since before covid by the looks of it, not that it really mattered because my “premium room” view was of another building.
5. Trash left routinely in the stairwells.

I could go in with my grievances but I think you get the point. Not great experience overall but...

This hotel was an absolute nightmare.my 2 day stay felt like a 2 week drama.||Upon arrival, the check in took forever (at 23.30 after a long 18 hour journey) and I was standing with a heavy backpack waiting. There was no communication to mention that it may take time, so I stood and stood and eventually sat down, it took forever. Once my booking was found I had been asked to confirm that it was a 2 night stay..After confirming, I was given my receipt with the amount due, logically assuming it was the payment for a 2 night stay. . ||As I walked to my room with all my luggage, my door lock didn't work so I had to go downstairs to ask them to open my door. Once they said it was fixed, it was not which meant I still had to keep asking them to open the door. Accordingly there was no hot water, and after being understanding I insisted to move rooms. Once I was assigned another room (which was supposed to be an upgraded premium) they walked with me to the room not offering to help with any luggage to carry. The room was no different, and thus, no upgrade.. It was not cleaned properly, had a water leakage in the bathroom and the bed was indented, and the bed base was broken. The shower was atill not hot enough! ||Also, the swimming pool was under maintenance which is also something which puts the price of a hotel up.. The pool is a big pull factor for many people, including myself, it should have been mentioned on the website during the booking.||The day of check out, the reception mentioned that the payment I had made was only for one night. She then asked for my receipt, which should be in their system in the first place as I had disposed mine. Alas, after all the bad service and quality of my stay, one would assume that the hotel has some sorr of compensation, but they insisted I pay the outstanding balance.||The manager is involved in the pisitive things, such as booking trips with the company in the same building, and he helped me bargain. But when I checked out, he sat quietly at his table watching, not getting involved with the complaints and question marks. ||In summary,||The beds are soft|The customer service was beyond poor|The check in was not in order|The manager was not directly involved with issues|The rooms are not blocked off from sound on the corridor.|The pictures on the website are inaccurate because there are multiple branches. Some pictures are from another branch.||It felt like a 2 week stay at this lonely hotel, when it was only 2 nights. Do nit bother...