Lachlan Burnet

Review of Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur

5 star hotels can all be similar: A nice lobby, ni...

5 star hotels can all be similar: A nice lobby, nice rooms/suites, fancy displays of flowers and fast elevators with the latest "Cafe del Mar" CD playing as you ride up-and-down.

However, at hotels like Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur you notice the little things that make a difference.

Things such as the waiting staff in the restaurant remembered you ordered 2 glasses of iced water at breakfast yesterday and automatically bring it to you the next day.
There's other things like the housekeeping staff notice you use more of one of the supplied toiletries than the others and give you an extra or two of that particular item when they service the room. Having "welcome eclairs" waiting in your room instead of a boring old fruit basket.
Not to mention the staff always greeting you politely and sincerely as you walk in and out of the lobby and ones you don't even remember talking to remembering your name.

The rooms here are lovely - we had a corner room and even the bathroom had a lovely view from the 28th floor. I believe the rooms will undergo refurbishment starting in 2015. Don't let this put you off - the rooms are superbly maintained and left spotless by the housekeeping staff every morning. The evening turn-down service freshens everything up as well while you're out at dinner. There is great water-pressure in the showers, and a wide range of amenities/soaps/gels/creams/razors/toothbrushes etc for you to utilise in the bathrooms.
The public areas - particularly the lobby - are chic, funky and really eye-catching.

The bed was superbly comfortable. I slept so much better here than I do at home, and that's saying something!

WIFI worked really well both in the lobby and in the room.

Breakfast was fantastic - in Malaysia with three diverse cultural groups making up the country (Malay, Chinese and Indian) there is plenty of food from all these nationalities not to mention food for the western palate. There's even Vegemite on the buffet for Aussies! Wonderful. Lunch wasn't needed after a huge breakfast each day.

The pool area is lovely and shared with The Hilton next door. There's a slide for kids too which they will enjoy.

Whilst some people might think staying in Bukit Bintang or KLCC is better, staying here was a definite bonus in my mind. The hotel is located right at the door of KL Sentral, so it's super-easy to get the KLIA train to/from the airport and be exactly where you need to be. In the station you can catch the LRT (light rail) and the KTM Commuter service which will take you most places you need to go. KL's traffic is notoriously heavy, so I recommend using public transport to get around. If you do need taxis, try to use the blue-coloured "Eksekutif" taxis. They cost a bit more, but the drivers are good, honest and they will use the meter. Their car will be cleaner and more modern than the average taxi as well.

I had room service one night and the food was delivered quickly and was delicious. After so many trips to Malaysia in the past - and being a huge partaker of street food! - I'm not sure how the best Satay I've ever had in Malaysia is from the room service department of a 5-star hotel in KL, but there you go. It was amazing.

There are numerous food and beverage outlets - The Gastro Pub (very reasonably priced), a steak restaurant and an Italian restaurant just to name a few. Quite a few dining promotions were being offered as well which would appeal to many.

You can tell the staff working here genuinely enjoyed their jobs and seemed happy to be there each day. It was a superbly comfortable stay at Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur and I'd highly recommend it to people wanting a great 5-star hotel in a location that makes it easy to get around.