Kuala Lumpur (reviews)

This one is indeed a Five Star hotel!
Huge and comfortable bed. Nice japanese restaurant. Good and plentiful breakfast buffet. The location is excellent with the MRT station across the street. Overall quality of the food, facilities and accommodation is very good!

However, the delivery of services by hotel staff clearly needs improvement.

• Cleaning by housekeeping is done seemingly rushed and clearly overlooking details with stains left behind where you don't want to see them. 
  
• Swimmingpool area was deserted of service and lounge chairs lacking cushions and just overall uncomfortable. 
  
• Bell service took forever to show up when I wanted to leave and the bill at checkout had to be recalculated manually due to the promised IHG discounts on food not having been processed, thus also took way too long (over 30 mins). 

Whilst I had a nice stay, the improvement areas make me conclude that the value for money could be a lot better!!

Let's start with the good parts. It is still a rather new hotel and therefore so much better than any of the older (supposedly) 5* hotels in Putrajaya and Cyberjaya (Marriott, Shangri-la, Cyberview, etc), which in line with local custom become rundown after their 5 year existence.

Everything in this hotel still feels new when it comes to the rooms, lounge area and overall level of service. There is the excellent Chinese Le Mei restaurant, which outperforms the buffet restaurant by miles. Whilst it has to be mentioned that the decoration and atmosphere in both restaurants is basic and misses the additional touch of interior design and inspiring music or entertainment, Le Mei's quality of the food makes up for that. The bed in the room is very comfortable, there is a large bathroom and good room service menu. The wi-fi works very well throughout the entire hotel and the mall next door is a plus for those moments of boredom or need for snacking.

Now for what doesn't work in this hotel.

• Breakfast is disappointing I'm afraid. Powdered egg mix for your scrambled eggs and omelets is unacceptable in a 5* hotel in my view. French toast that is completely dry on the inside is also a big 'no no'. Exotic fruit platter stops at papaya and melon - I can get that at home - where's the dragon fruit, jack fruit and others?? 
  
• The bath tub in the room is so high that accidents will happen as guests will miss their step getting out. 
  
• The pool is a big disappointment, 1.1m deep for the entire pool length, doesn't make for a comfortable swim. And that is the adult pool, the kids pool is separate. The bar at the pool is only in service for events, and there are quite a lot of those, meaning that as a regular guest you find yourself having a swim in front of people in suits having business discussions. 
  
• The worst thing about this hotel is the location. Apart from the next door mall, there is absolutely nothing in the near surroundings. If you don't need to be here for business, then go stay downtown!!

To close on a positive note, service from the front desk has been superb, bartenders go the extra mile and the doormen are always at your service! If you have to be in the Putrajaya/Cyberjaya area, this hotel is absolutely the #1 choice!

5-star? I don't think so. This place can merely pass for a 3-start resort.

Where to start...
The place is tired, rundown, under-maintained and just hasn't been kept to a 5-star standard. Trust me, 10 years ago the Cyberview was indeed a 5-star resort, now it just sails on a very old reputation that sees no other future than complete degradation.

The rooms are large but very basic and old. The door not quite straight in its shingles doesn't close properly unless you use the lock and still it lets the corridor light come in underneath, all night long. A kitchen without anything in it besides a hotwater kettle and two coffee cups, why?? The reservation confirmation indicates a mini bar with certain free items, well yes I guess air is free, as that tiny fridge was emptier than empty. Sockets hanging from the wall. Wooden floors full of scratches and water leak stains.
A bathroom with fungus stains around the edges. The shower head misses a bunch of those rubber bits and clearly needed replacing about 2 years ago. No soap bar, no extra toilet roll.
The sofa is covered in indescribable stains I don't want to think about too long and the balcony furniture is covered in bird poop. The bed is good and comfortable but the four poster bed curtains are old and stuffy. Need I say more? Well yes....

Despite having three good sized restaurants, the food is less than average and pretty tasteless. How can anyone mess up a margarita pizza, it's beyond me. Best meal I had was the buffalo wings and fries at the bar, you can't quite mess up a deep-fry. However, eating at the bar comes with additional dinner guests, stray cats that invite themselves to your table and.........just-won't-go-away! Luckily for them other guests will gladly leave their roomservice leftovers on the floor in the open air 'corridors', which end up staying there for more than 24 hours attracting not only the stray cats that have invaded the property but other rodents as well. Had I not called to have my neighbours' trays removed after observing their immobility for over 18 hours, it may have stayed there even longer, whilst housekeeping, security and new roomservice deliveries happily walked past and ignored the task glaring them in the face.

The 'it's not MY job' attitude is prevalent across the resort. Spilled milk will remain on the breakfast floor for the full duration of breakfast service as staff chatter along and spend their time resetting tables as a three man team, in an almost empty breakfast room. Maybe mopping up the spilled milk or refilling the empty food trays on the buffet could be more helpful for the guests actually having breakfast. As for aforementioned cats and rodents, those may well have been the same ones I heard having a party on the ceiling over my head during the night. 

The pool is quite good and large but was closed for two days without prior notice, luckily there is the spa with its own lap pool, the only highlight of the stay! The grounds are nice and green apart from the bare patches that used to have grass and now just have electric wires sticking out and overall just are no longer as luscious and as well maintained as they used to be. The parasols and pool furniture have also seen better days (many years ago). Watch your head, I've seen every single parasol take a dive once the wind starts blowing. Too bad also that the gardeners felt the urgency to use the noisy hedge trimmers on the bush right next to my pool lounge chair, rudely disturbing my thoughts as I'm quietly reading my book by the sounds of the waterfall; and naturally it was normal to leave everything they cut off that bush lying around for most of the day. 

Other than that, the bar does a nice Singapore Sling. Enough for 5 stars? I think NOT!!!!

PS: Linda at reception, Christy at the spa and the guys at the bar, they did their very best to make my stay as good as possible! I would've run out the door without their service and kindness.... This review does not reflect their individual qualities but a five star resort should never have to depend on three or four individuals to keep guests happy!