Renaissance, Johor Bahru

World-class service that surpasses the top names in Hospitality

There is a great new hotel in the Johor Bahru, a city at the southern tip of Malaysia, right across the straits from Singapore.  This hotel is ideal for business and leisure. 

The new 6-month old hotel is a Renaissance, which is under the Mariott group.  There are 272 Deluxe rooms, 48 Club rooms, 8 Pool Terrace rooms, 19 Junior Suites and 1 Presidential Suite.   The number of rooms is ideal.  Generally, I dislike staying at hotels with more 400 rooms as I find that the lobby café cannot cope with so many guests.  It becomes quite chaotic –you have to wait for a table, it is noisy, food runs out very fast etc.   None of that happens here.

Located in Permas Jaya, halfway between Johor Bahru town and Pasir Gudang, where the ports and heavy industries are, the hotel is only a 15-20 drive from Malaysian Checkpoint or Johor Bahru town.   It is also just 10 mins away from the North-South Highway.  North-South Highway is the main traffic artery of Malaysia.  It runs all through Malaysia up to Thailand.  In other words, driving on North-South Highway connects you to Kuala Lumpur and other parts of Malaysia. 

The hotel is located right beside a small highway (not the North-South Highway), but it is not noisy inside the hotel.  This highway connects you to Pasir Gudang in 15 mins.  It is infinitely convenient for business travellers whose work takes them to Pasir Gudang.  They can be back in the comfort of the hotel in 15 mins.  Right beside the hotel is a gasoline station.  It is infinitely helpful for business travellers who may not be familiar with the area.  They never have to worry about driving around and finding a gasoline station—-there is one right next door!  Also, for leisure travellers on a driving holiday around Malaysia, they can easily fill up their tanks before embarking on their journeys.  No time wasted.  Behind the hotel are several rows of shophouses.  You can find very inexpensive local food, desserts shops, car washes, a McDonald’s, legitimate massage places, pirated DVDs as well as the other kind of massage places.  There are also inexpensive Japanese restaurants.  I also found a mid-market Italian restaurant and a couple of Irish pubs.  Beyond the shophouses, around 15 mins walk from the hotel is Aeon Mall, a one-storey air-conditioned mall.  You find pharmacies, newsstands, a supermarket, fast food restaurants, mid-market restaurants, a food court as well as clothing retail stores.  In short, it is a very typical mall.  Staying at the Renaissance, you are not short of anything.  The surroundings provide a fair bit of exploration and shopping.

In the hotel, there is the requisite lobby café (Café BLD), which serves breakfast, buffet and a la carte lunch, buffet and a la carte dinner. There is also a Chinese restaurant Wan Li (open for lunch and dinner), as well as a bakery The Chocolate Cake Company.

My room was spotless and for that I was relieved and grateful.  Cleanliness in Malaysian hotels may not meet international standards, especially in a 2^nd tier city like Johor Bahru.  But Renaissance definitely meets international standards.  The sheets in my room actually smelled clean and laundered.  The deluxe rooms are not particularly spacious but they are still acceptable.  There are no bath tubs in the room, only shower stalls.  The hotel provides Tokyo Milk toiletries which smell lovely.   The TV has 20+ channels, most of them are Malaysian or Singaporean free-to-air channels.   The down feather bed is the best I have experienced (even better than Sofitel)—firm underneath but soft to touch.  They have very thoughtfully installed night lights under the bedside tables.  

Breakfast here is a sumptuous spread that definitely matches up to any international hospitality brand in any capital city.  There are the usual Western basics—–sausages, ham, eggs.  There is a bread counter with all kinds of bread and pastries.  There is dim sum, a live noodle station (noodle soup prepared right in front of you), fried noodles, fried rice and some Chinese dishes such as Ginger Fish.  There is even pizza as well as the local dish Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice).  What’s more, there are specially prepared smoothies right by the restaurant entrance every morning. This is an edge over other hotels. 

The service here truly surpasses some of the biggest names in hospitality – Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, The Peninsula.  The staff is always energetic and smiling.  Everyone greets you.  They speak good English, which is not always the case in a 2^nd tier Malaysian city.   One way of deciding whether a hotel is well-managed is to look at perhaps the lowest rank staff, because they have the most physically demanding jobs but not necessarily the highest pay.  In this case, the doormen are always friendly and they always pull the doors for you.  I have seen doormen at the above-mentioned establishments pretend not to see guests or just stare despondently, hopelessly into space when guests walk through the doors.  It is a very good sign that the lower rank staff here seems happy performing their jobs. 

The staff is extremely understanding, extremely flexible and they definitely put in effort in making your stay enjoyable.  That was definitely observable and acutely felt.  For example, at breakfast, there is a toaster (with a moving conveyor belt inside) and also an oven.  I must have looked lost as I wasn’t sure which one I should use to warm up my muffins and pastries.  A waitress rushed forward to ask me if she could help me (super attentive). I explained my situation and she said I could use the oven to warm up my stuff.  But she couldn’t open the door to the oven.  Immediately, she said she would warm up my stuff for me in a microwave.  And she did it very fast.  When I returned to my table, my pastries were already there, all warmed up.  Another example was when I called Guest Services late one night.  I wanted to use wifi but I had to become a Mariott Rewards members first before I could enjoy free wifi.  To enrol, I had to go down to reception.  I explained to Guest Services that it was late and I didn’t really wish to go down to lobby.  Was there any way I could still use Wifi?  He replied that I could choose the paid Wifi and they would void the cost when I check out.   Lastly, when I checked out, I asked the receptionist if he could activate my lift card so I could go up to the lounge for one last cup of tea before hitting the road.  He immediately helped me with my request.    

One area they could improve is the food offered in the club lounge.  All the hot cooked food was fried—-deep fried chicken drumlets, fried spring rolls, fried egg roll, fried rice.  There are bread rolls, soup and some sandwiches, but I feel they can offer grilled stuff and steamed dim sum for hot food.  Regardless, you can go up to the club lounge on weekday afternoons.  There have a very simple afternoon tea—just a few small cakes and cookies.   What’s great is that it’s so quiet here.  Everyone is out at work.  It’s great to have a quiet environment to have a cup of coffee.

I would personally rank the service here in top position in a tie with the service-renowned Shangri-la. Overall, it is also the best hotel experience I have had (again in a tie with Shangri-la Jakarta).