Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel & Convention Centre

“The most family friendly hotel probably in South East Asia!”

A very deserving 5-star rating! Business travellers and families on holiday will be well taken care of with the extremely thoughtful facilities and manpower deployed along with it. Pricing: 5/5 - almost identically priced to the far inferior sheraton just down the road that is known lately for its… more

A very deserving 5-star rating! Business travellers and families on holiday will be well taken care of with the extremely thoughtful facilities and manpower deployed along with it. Pricing: 5/5 - almost identically priced to the far inferior sheraton just down the road that is known lately for its underwhelming service and room quality. Location: 3/5 - as it's not as centrally located as many other Marriott branded hotels we've stayed at, for example, St Regis/Le Meridien, Westin, JW. Food: 4.5/5 - quality breakfast buffet is usually of very good quality; i'd rate it as number 2 in KL (behind St Regis which is of a class of its own), the staples/carbohydrate dishes somehow are a hit-and-miss (somedays really good, other days bland or too salty) Lounge: 6/5 - hats off to the management for setting aside a separate family lounge area just for children to have dinner, it's a first for us as I havent seen any other hotel sparing the expense (and food/labour cost) for families. This arrangement still allows business travelers to dine at the executive lounge without the chaos that kids inevitably may bring. Parking: 2/5 - other KL marriott hotels either charge a flat per entry fee, or compliment the parking charges entirely. The RM10 per day charge, which while not much, subtracts from the otherwise amazing stay. Rooms: 3.5/5 - our suite night award request was graciously approved. Big plus points for the very much appreciated two sofa beds that come with the suite! However to my surprise, post-renovation defect checks are very poorly done, if done at all. I also note that unlike Renaissance JB, the KL suite doesnt come with the very welcome dining table and chairs. Staff: 6/5 - I dont often write such a detailed review, but decided to do so upon seeing how spirited/motivated/friendly the staff members are across the board. Facilities: 6/5 - the reasonably sized swimming pools are complemented by water slides, a wet playground and the largest dry playground that we've seen in a hotel. Looking forward to the kids club completing its renovation! The extensive provision for kids facilities perhaps is superior to any of the Marriott AP Vacation Clubs. Suggestions for improvement: - Use the taxi rank as an open road so that guests who turn in from Jalan Ampang can make a left and then U-turn to the hotel lobby – it was a tedious and confusing experience as a first time guest to stumble upon four points, then car park entrance, then the lobby to unload luggage and then go another round to the car park. - Do allow Platinum elite (and above) guests to check in at the lounge when the check in counters have a long queue, especially so as there’s no proper sofa or seating area for them to rest so my kids were running up and down the stairs/ramps. - There was plenty of food wastage at the family lounge each night, do consider switching to an ala carte model instead where we have a choice of 2-3 dishes that we can have made to order? - I noticed there was a lack of a welcome gift which is usually the norm for Marriott hotels across the world; it can be something really small like a box of chocolates or my personal favourite Renassiance Bangkok’s jar of cookies (Le Meridien has something similar – a tiny jar of local goodies). - We encountered cigarette smoke coming through the toilet vents at 1am where I had to repeatedly insist that using air freshener would not remove the toxic fumes but simply mask it – the default solution should be using an air purifier which unfortunately took 2 trips to arrive along with a multi-plug (as it needed 2 power sockets while the toilet only had 1 power plug). I’d have appreciated an update of whether the culprit was told to stop smoking or if they were fined, or perhaps even a small form of service recovery upon check out (eg. 20RM F&B voucher)? - We tried to tell the most wonderful housekeeping staff we didn’t need our towels and bedsheets changed everyday, but he seemed to do so any way.

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