Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tower Regency Hotel Ipoh

We stayed at Tower Regency Hotel while in Ipoh for 2 nights. It is located at Jalan Dato Seri Ahmad Said, Greentown. It is quite an ideal location as a base to explore Ipoh old town from here onward.

The hotel is newly opened, around January 2009. This is probably the tallest building in Ipoh as well as the whole Perak state. It is rated to be 4-5 stars hotel.

Tower Regency offers 2 types of accommodation, apartment and hotel rooms.

I was impressed with the lobby area. Spacious and clean. There are a lot of seats available here for the visitors to sit.

Interestingly, there is also a shoes polisher machine at the lobby area. This is something I never come across in any hotels I stayed before.

Once the lift door is opened, there is spacious and comfortable communal area for the room guests to mingle.

The hotel and apartment rooms are separated. The apartment room rate is RM200 (corporate rate)

This corridor leads to the hotel rooms. I notice the floor has carpet.

And this is the corridor that leads to our apartment. There is no carpet here

The access door to the apartment rooms are rather peculiar. One will have to negotiate 2 doors to access the room.

One thing I like about the door card system here is basically one need not insert it into the door slot. Basically, just scan it and the door will unlock. It works like the Touch and Go card.

The room's power supply also depends on this card. I tried to substitute the power supply slot with my ATM card and the power supply simply shut off in less than a minute!

The apartment room door here is made of poor quality wood. I note it is not fire door material. It is so light I reckon I can ram it through without much issues.

There is also no scope on the door and I am unable to see who is on the other side of the door should someone knock on it.

The living room of the apartment is spacious and comfortable. I'm surprised they still use CRT TV here instead of the LCD TV which is quite common now for new hotels. All the rooms in the apartment are cooled by a Daikin split unit air conditioner.

The floor appears to be a bit dusty and dirty. Maybe this is a common issue with new hotels where these dirt had yet to be cleaned off completely.

There is a small kitchen area which lack of cooking utensils. I particularly like the kettle here.

Each apartment has a balcony that offer a panoramic view of the Ipoh Old Town which is surrounded by hills and mountains.

Each apartment has 2 bedrooms, a master room and a single room. Somehow our master bedroom has 2 single bed joined together with no side tables.


Each master bedroom has a bathroom attached to it. Somehow the bathroom in my room is a bit small with the shower and toilet bowl just next to each other (this is not the case with some apartment rooms which I surveyed at the same hotel).

My master room has another nice feature which I like. These seating arrangement has a nice view of the Ipoh Old Town. It's a perfect place to relax after a tiring day.

All the rooms and living room has a ceiling fan. This prove to be useful and energy efficient if the air conditioner proved to be too cold.

This hotel also has a maintenance issue. The door knob to my master bedroom was defective and can't be locked.

The water heater system for my apartment was also defective. Called the hotel management twice with no proper corrective action even though we were assured they will sent someone to fix it. So, we were forced to take cold shower during our stay here.

The single bedroom in my opinion is much better than the master bedroom. Even though the room is smaller, it is equipped with a king sized bed and side tables.

Unless you plan to splurge while in Ipoh, Tower Regency Hotel might be the best choice (besides The Syuen Hotel).

The apartment here is ideal for big family. I notice there are 8 family members who are able to squeeze into an apartment nearby where we stayed. I also reckon the hotel rooms here are better than the apartments.

Will I come back to stay here again? Maybe not (unless been sponsored). There are a few decent hotels around Ipoh with a lower rate like Regalodge, Excelsor and Grand View Hotel which are worth a try.

11 comments:

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

Looks compact. Is it cheap to stay there?

wenn said...

wow..hv a nice stay..

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Superman said...

Nice and homey apartment. I guess the apartment can well accommodate 8 people considering the size of it. RM200 for a room like that is cheap!

Robo said...

Thanks for sharing. I will not consider this hotel at all after reading your review, especially about the hot shower...I cannot stand of the poor services even you already made the complaint!
The only thing I love was the sitting area which you can have a nice view of Ipoh!

I had a bad experience before with the hotel name like The Regent at Ipoh few years back...I don't know whether it's the same or not...

After all, there are so many other hotel at Ipoh...even the budget hotel I stayed before seems like better than this...haha!

Thanks.

Malaysia Asia said...

Hi Ben,

Great write up on this. Good to know there are more hotels available in Ipoh.

Regards,
David
Malaysia-Asia

Anonymous said...

Being the sampalau me, a shoes polisher machine is new to me and first time heard of it. i know sabah has a lot shoes shine boys once upon a time, but a shoes polisher machine? i reckon not many ppl wear leather shoes nowadays. did you try the shoes polisher machine? i wonder how it works :P

SJB aka SUELYN J-B. said...

Interesting hotel, how much pernight?

Borneo Falcon said...

Willie: It's not cheap to stay here

jg: I have no time to experiment on the machine to see how it works

SJB: For apartment, the room rate is RM200 (corporate rate)

SJB aka SUELYN J-B. said...

not bad price..

Unknown said...

-the shoe polish machine works amazing..TRY IT
-Yes..the apartment is not as good as the Hotel room.
-try the Junior Suite...expensive..but worth it... VERY nice.. the design, very comfortable...and very nice view...
- Now with New Management...the hotel service a lil bit ok than before...(Can be better)
-Should try the KTV room...very nice...
- membership as low as RM 1500...
- nice gym facilities...
_nice hall for seminar...
-Like overall view of the hotel...
-hope the Front Office Staff...please smile...(seriously)
-