I have decided to stay in the Puteri Pacific Hotel which is located near City Square Mall in Johor Bahru.  I have read some reviews on the internet about this hotel where some people commented that it is a 4 star hotel but with worn out rooms. I booked the Princess Deluxe room which is their version of standard room to see for myself what it is liked to stay there. From City Square Mall, I cross the overhead bridge and walked towards a small lane where it can lead to the hotel. It is all right to use this short cut during the day, but not advisable during the night.
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The lobby of the Puteri Pacific hotel was large and spacious. And there is always a hotel staff standing near the entrance opening the door for you, which was nice. I went to the check in counter at about 1 pm to check in even though the official check in time was 3 pm. To my delight I was able to check in and given the key to my room. The lift that brought me to my room was very spacious with a clear glass panel where you can see the swimming pool of the hotel on the way up.  The corridor leading to my room was also spacious and carpeted and I saw cleaners with their trolleys cleaning up some of the rooms.

The room that I was given was spacious enough with a queen size bed, a small writing table, two sofa chairs and a rather old cabinet. Inside the cabinet contained a CRT TV.  Apparently the hotel do not see the need to upgrade it to a LCD TV. On the mini bar counter, there were 2 bottles of mineral water and 2 cans of orange drink given free. There was a mini fridge, a small kettle with coffee/teabags and also a small safe.  The queen size bed and pillows were firm and generally, the room was tidy and clean. For the bathroom, it was rather small and there was a small tub which was totally worn out. The shower screen looked old and dirty. The impression of the bathroom was that it really need a complete makeover. But the problem does not end there. When I took a shower, I found out later that the floor was flooded as well. The problem it seems was that the water was unable to flow into the floor trap as it was not properly designed and made to incline water into the floor trap. The shower head and hose was also old and worn out. For the toiletries that was given, it was sufficient and the towels were clean too.

The windows of the bedroom was facing the road, however there was no noise as I was on the 12th floor. The air conditioned was cold and with adjustable control knobs placed at the side table. In my view, the condition of the room was still acceptable to me even though it looked rather worn out but it was clean. However the bathroom with the old shower screen and flooded floor was unacceptable. I did not file a complain about it as it was just for one night to stay and review. If the Puteri Pacific hotel still regard itself as a 4 star hotel, then the management of this hotel should seriously looked into renovations and  refurbishment of the rooms,  especially the bathroom.

The morning breakfast was served at the hotel cafe on the ground floor. The choice of food was quite good and there was even roti prata ( Indian version of fried pancake ) being served. But when I asked whether I could I have prata with onions, the staff told me that it was not available. The nasi lemak ( Malay rice ) was delicious and I think the kambing curry ( mutton curry ) was the best. The mutton meat was easy to chew and there was no stong pungent smell typical of many kambing curry which I have tasted. For coffee lovers, there were 2 self served coffee machines that makes good Espresso and cappuccino coffee which was a good feature in this restaurant.  Even though I do not drink coffee, I took the opportunity to make a cup of  the black coffee and cappuccino for myself just to taste it and it was good. It was nice to make your own cup of coffee and I enjoyed watching the steam, milk and coffee flowing into the cup. So it was great having breakfast in this hotel cafe.

I also took the opportunity to try out the swimming pool. The pool was sufficient in size with uniform height throughout the pool. There were hotel staff there to give out towels. I saw some debris floating on the water of the pool which ought to be removed.  There were sufficient tables and chairs for guests to put their towels and relax beside the pool. Overall the condition of the  swimming pool was good. I did not try out their Gym was I do not have sufficient time to do so. The kids’ pool was very small and I think it is suitable for small toddlers only.

My assessment is that the Puteri Pacific hotel in Johor Bahru is still a nice place to stay and relax. Hopefully the management of this hotel could renovate and refurbish the hotel rooms just liked what Mutiara hotel in Johor Bahru have done. Then I am sure more guests would want to stay in this hotel more frequently, including myself. I will try their Imperial Deluxe room in the future – which is the more expensive room.  Overall I did have a pleasant stay there.

 

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I have stayed at 11 at Century Hotel Johor Bahru on a few occasions in their Standard room. This time I decided to stay in their Deluxe room which was slightly more expensive in room rate. The 11@Century Hotel is located directly opposite the new KSL City Mall in Johor Bahru. It is a relatively new boutique hotel and it provides a comfortable stay without any amenities such as swimming pool, gym or spa. There are still taxi drivers who do not know the location of this hotel. But when I mentioned KSL City Mall which is also a brand new mall, they immediately knew the exact location. If you want to read my previous blog on the standard room of this hotel, just click on the link below:-

Review of standard room at 11@Century Hotel

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When I reached the hotel at 1pm, I was informed by the staff at the check in counter that the room was not ready; and to come back after 3 pm.  So I proceeded to the KSL City Mall next door to take my lunch and did some shopping.  I came back to the hotel and saw a small group of people at the check in counter. I managed to get my card key and went to the elevator. I must say that the elevators or lift in this hotel is among the smallest and compact in size that I have seen.  So if there is a group of people waiting to use  the elevators, you just have to wait for your turn.
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The deluxe room that I was given had 2 beds – one queen size bed and one single bed. So this room is good for 3 persons. I must say that the deluxe room was more spacious in size and there was a large window which was good. However the bathroom was small if you compared it with the standard room. I liked this arrangement because I don’t need a big bathroom. There was the standard LCD TV mounted on the wall, a mini safe, a compact kettle with some tea and coffee bags. But most important of all, there was a mini fridge, so you can put all your cold drinks in it. By the way, the mini fridge was totally empty which means that you could stuffed all the drinks and food stuff in it.

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Overall, the deluxe room was acceptable in terms of cleanliness and comfortable. The flooring is parquet wood and the air condition was strong. But there seems to be a strange soft humming noise coming from somewhere. Perhaps it was the air condition or from the air duct in the bathroom. However, this was acceptable to me as it was just a soft humming sound. The windows of my room faced the KSL City Mall directly. I had a good view of shoppers moving in and around the mall.  The bathroom was small in size and there were limited toiletries given. As the room was meant for 3 persons, there were 3 bottles of water given. The shower cubicle in the bathroom was really compact in size and it had the rain shower hose mounted on the ceiling. The water pressure was very strong which I enjoyed. The bed mattress and pillows belonged to the so called soft category. So for someone who can only sleep with a firm mattress and pillow, then this is not the hotel for him or her.

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Breakfast was served at the cafe on the ground floor. Don’t expect much in terms of spread and variety. When I was there, there was a large group of elderly folks at the cafe, so there wasn’t any empty table left. I went back to my room and came back one hour later for breakfast. I noticed that the restaurant was short handed in terms of staff. Tables were not cleared and leftover food and drinks were everywhere. The hotel management should looked into the deployment of more staff if the hotel has high occupancy rate on that day. Breakfast was basic but it was sufficient if you are not fussy about it.  The good thing was that when food were running low, the staff and chef did try to quickly replenished it instead of just leaving it as empty.

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Checking out was tedious as there were a number of people waiting for their turn to check out. There were 3 staff on dtuy at that time. But the problem was that only one staff was able to handle the check out quickly. The other 2 staff seems to be clueless as to what to do. They constantly need to be guided by the experienced lady with glasses on what to do. Perhaps they were new and were under training. But I felt that there should be another senior staff there to help and guide the new trainees. The hotel should not keep the customers waiting for too long – whether it is checking in/out or at the restaurant. But these are minor problems that I think the hotel could resolved in due course.

Overall, I felt that the 11@ Century hotel is a nice hotel to stay.  So long as the hotel is able to provide clean and comfortable room at reasonable rates, I am happy with it. For more photos on this hotel, please visit our website and go to the photo gallery section, the link to the website is –

ImageSingapore.com

Update Information dated 21st July 2011 – I think this hotel has started to have some maintenance problems. Stayed again a few times on previous months – the light bulb for the table lamp do not work and was not fixed. The mirror had become loose and was not tightened, the pillows and blanket are not so cleaned as before, etc. The hotel should looked into these issues even though these are not major problems – because customers certainly expect and deserve a clean room with fixtures and fittings that work properly.