Putrajaya Marriott Hotel — Hotel in Sepang

I stayed for one night in an executive room, and unfortunately, my check-in experience set a negative tone for the stay. I was attended to by Joyce at the check-in counter. I suggest that anyone from Marriott management do an undercover check-in with Joyce to understand what I'm talking about. I felt a lack of respect from her throughout the process. Unlike her colleague at the next counter, Joyce did not acknowledge my presence, did not even smile and barely made eye contact with me.

Upon approaching the counter, she simply said, "need your passport or IC." Standard hotels check-in procedure; providing ID, confirming details, making payments, and asking about hotel facilities etc. However, this time around, my check-in experience at this hotel, Joyce barely looked at me throughout the entire thing. As someone who holds elite status with a few other hotel chains, I've become accustomed to the check-in staff explaining the hotel's facilities, breakfast timing, and locations of amenities like the pool, gym, and dining areas. However, Joyce barely explained anything unless I asked first. It was my first time staying here, and it felt like I had to prompt her for every piece of information—what time breakfast started, where it was located, etc. If I hadn’t asked, she probably wouldn’t have told me anything.

When I asked questions, her responses were very brief, and she seemed reluctant to answer. For example, I inquired if there’s a sofa bed for my toddler in the room, to which she confirmed there’s one. And then I asked another question, whether it needed to be set up by me or if I had to make a call for assistance. Her response was terse: "Have you requested it?" (again, with minimal eye contact and no smile at all). When I said I hadn’t, there was silence until I asked, "So, do I just call from the room later?" Only then did she say, "I’ll request it for you; someone will come and set up the bed." It was frustrating to have to ask for every single detail.

Given my elite status with other hotel chains, I was considering upgrading my Marriott Bonvoy membership to elite status as well, but my experience with Joyce made me seriously reconsider. DoubleTree by Hilton Putrajaya offers a much better check-in experience with friendlier staff. If customer service isn’t your passion, Joyce, perhaps working in the back office would be a better fit. Remember, you are the face of Marriott and should represent the brand with care.

On a positive note, I’d like to thank Ali Arif (I hope I got the name right), who was very attentive and friendly. When I was heading out at night, he saw me from afar and immediately acknowledged me, and greeted me warmly. While validating my parking card, he maintained a friendly demeanor and even wished us a safe drive, which I found thoughtful and kind. Kudos to Mr. Ali Arif for his excellent service.

ANOTHER incident: We encountered a misunderstanding at breakfast. We were DENIED access to the executive lounge because, according to the staff, our room wasn’t entitled to it. This was surprising because Joyce had mentioned at check-in that we could choose to dine at either the executive lounge or the lobby, and the paper she handed over confirmed the same. We were looking forward to avoiding the crowd, but we had to head down to the lobby for breakfast. Later, we received a call from them, admitting that they had made a mistake by confusing our room with another, and they apologized for the error. I appreciated that they took accountability for the mistake. We had breakfast at the lobby lounge, which offered a decent variety of food.

The hotel seemed like it’s still undergoing renovations. We loved the swimming pool—it was huge, kids-friendly, and featured slides and a mini water park that children would enjoy.

The housekeeping staff was also commendable, responding quickly to our requests and delivering items with a smile.

Would I consider another stay here? Hmm, probably never. I'm planning to try Palm Garden next and hope for a better experience, which might change my perception...

The good: Kids pool and kids activities are great fun.The bad: Breakfast is terrible. Not the food itself, but the service. Even mamak is better. Let me tell you my story.First of all, the queue for breakfast is very long due to school holiday. But I'm not complaining as I went early. Can imagine others complaining about the queue. But I believe my demise started due to the pressure from the restaurant's staff to quickly letting people in for breakfast. I went for breakfast with my wife but she had to leave early. When she was about to leave, she left some food on the table and I left a glass full of juice as a sign that the table is still occupied. I then got up to take more food and she left the restaurant. As i get back to my place, the food and juice is GONE! They've cleared the table when I'm still not done eating. I complained to one of the staff there and I thought that's it. WRONG! After I'm done with my first plate, I got up to take other food. Guess what happened when I got back to my table? My table is cleared AND THEY LET SOMEONE ELSE SIT THERE!!! Mind you, my journey to take my food and back to the table was not even 2 minutes. Hats off to their staff for this lightning quick efficiency! Obviously I'm already a bit pissed off at this point of time. I complained to the staff that my table is taken and they direct me to another table that 'seemingly empty'. Noticed that I said seemingly empty? At this point I have loss all confidence with the restaurant's staff, and I asked “are you sure it's empty?“ and they said YES. I think you know where this story goes... So I sat there, at the new table that was shown by them. While I'm eating, suddenly another guest came and said that it's her table! Surprise surprise! To cut the story short, they asked me to move AGAIN!! At this point I have lost all my appetite. I quickly finished my food at the new table, that has not being cleaned from previous guest as I couldn't be bothered to stay there any longer, and left. So moral of the story, DO NOT HAVE YOUR BREAKFAST HERE. Or do not stay at this hotel even. I asked for a feedback/complaint form when I checked out but they said they don't have that and offered to talk with the manager instead. So I talked to the manager and he said sorry and yadayada normal script you would expect. He said, the restaurant will contact me via email to address my complain. But till now still nothing. Maybe still busy serving the...

Vacation in a "Lost Place"

The Marriott Hotel in Putrajaya is one of those hotels for which one should actually write two reviews. One for the "hardware", i.e. the hotel itself, and one for the "software", i.e. the staff, food, etc.

The software: All the staff were friendly and courteous throughout. We felt very welcome and comfortable. Although you can see that the hotel is not extremely busy at the moment and that it is about to go through a lengthy renovation period. Therefore, there was the one or other thing only upon request. But then also really very prompt and satisfactory.

We would especially like to emphasize the very good food in the hotel. The breakfast buffet is very extensive and everything tasted excellent. Also in the Executive Lounge all dishes were very good. The buffet was also very extensive and it was, which is quite not common everywhere, replenished again and again until the end. Unfortunately, the beverage selection in the lounge is not quite as lush. It is sufficient, but can not keep up with others by far. On request, we got Coke Zero, for example, but it was nowhere to be found in the displays.

The hardware: The hotel is huge. At check-in, you don't even realize how big the lobby you're actually in is. If you walk a few steps further, you come to a railing from which you can see into the rest of the lobby. It is three stories high, has a large dome and looks almost palatial. These dimmings run through the entire hotel. The corridors are wide, and there are countless huge halls for events, etc. The pool is also enormous and almost deserted. There is a beautiful green garden, through which you can walk.

Unfortunately, everything is extremely run down and seems almost spooky. One has the impression that since the hotel was built in the early 2000s, nothing, but nothing at all has been done to the building.

However, our room was apparently renovated at some point. This was absolutely fine. Housekeeping also did a very good job.

As I said, a comprehensive renovation is currently underway, which, according to the staff, should affect the entire hotel. You can be curious what awaits you after the renovation.

All in all, we would give 4. Since the hotel itself is so extremely outdated and worn out, there is only 3. Sorry, staff, you would have...