Hotel Review: InterContinental Kuala Lumpur – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I flew into Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia after spending a week on beaches around Krabi, Thailand and was looking forward to spending a few days in a larger city. After I made the initial reservation at the Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur, I was able to make a successful Best Rate Guarantee claim for my stay which was in a Grand Premier Room.

IHG offers one of the most generous BRG programs, it offers a free first night if you find a lower rate on a site other than IHG.com. I’ve written before about the basics of how to find and get a free night with IHG and you can find the article here. Standard award nights at this hotel cost 30,000 points per night and the Grand Premier Room normally runs around $200+ per night.

The InterContinental Kuala Lumpur ranks #18 out of 268 on Tripadvisor for best hotels in Kuala Lumpur.

Location

The Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur in ideally located within a 5-10 minutes walk of the Petronas Towers, a handful of shopping districts, and there is also a sky train stop within a few blocks to get you anywhere in the city.

The location and the hotel itself definitely feels more oriented towards the business traveler, but you’re also very close to all the main tourist sites in Kuala Lumpur and the location is ideal if you are just going to spend several days exploring the city.

The two nights prior, I had been staying in the Renaissance Kuala Lumpur which was just a 5 minute cab ride away. Upon arriving I was greeted by the door staff and pointed towards the IHG member check-in.

The lobby was enormous and looked to be rather new and flashy. To the right as you enter you will find reception and to the left there is a bar, restaurant, and atrium garden on the lobby level.

I was early for check-in so I was told that I could wait for an upgraded Executive Room without lounge access or take a Grand Premier room. It seems a little weird to consider it an upgrade to the Executive floor without lounge access as the rooms are pretty much the same as standard rooms (at most slightly larger), so I asked which room she preferred, in which the she said she preferred the Grand Premier because they were recently refurbished. The Club Lounge at the top of the hotel is undergoing renovations, but there is a temporary Club Lounge on the 2nd floor.

There was some confusion because even though I agreed to take that room, we were told to wait until 2:00 pm for the room to be ready. Luckily the hotel was close to many sights, so we headed off to KLCC.

After returning, I quickly got my key and headed up to the room on the 9th floor.

Grand Premier Room

The room itself looked very new and the renovations made it feel fresh. Everything was light, clean, and nothing looked worn out.  All of the furniture fit nicely in the room and offered several options for places to sit and work including a glass desk and lounge chair.

It’s nice that the renovations were from floor to ceiling and the design of the whole room felt integrated. I particularly liked the modern furniture that made the room feel open and spacious—and nothing took up more space than necessary.

The view from the room was quite bad, and didn’t offer anything to look at thanks to a large construction site—it was actually almost better to keep the blinds shut. This is a stark contrast to most high end hotels in Kuala Lumpur that offer views of the Petronas Towers from at least one side of the hotel.

Of course there was an overpriced mini bar that offered beers 7x the price of walking down the street to a 7-11.

There was only a small safe in the closet, as well as a iron and other closet amenities.

The bathroom was very clean and light with natural stone and granite counters. It had both a walk-in shower and a separate bathtub on the far side of each other. The one part I did not like is that the toilet was not separated and yet the whole bathroom shared a glass window with the bedroom, so if you want privacy you have to shut the blinds over the tub.

The amenities were from Agraria and from what I’ve found that line of product to be the standard across most InterContinentals in Southeast Asia. Nice, but nothing too special in my opinion.

Breakfast

Breakfast is offered at Serena Brasserie, which is the hotel’s main restaurant located on the lobby level. The dining area is quite large and offers both inside seating and also a small outside seating area next to an Asian inspired garden.

In general the breakfast spread was great and fresh, and on par with other InterContinentals within Asia offering a variety of foods—both western and Asian. The fresh fruit and juice bar was particularly nice and had a great selection. Baked goods were delicious and featured some regional coconut based sweets.

The choices varied from western dishes, cereals, fresh fruits, and a variety of Asian breakfast dishes.

The Pool and Gym

The InterContinental Kuala Lumpur has a small gym that wasn’t too impressive, but it did have several tread mills and free weights for a quick work out. The pool featured a nice garden area which surrounds the pool area with trees and even though the temperature in Kuala Lumpur is hot, the water was too cold for comfort.

The Bottom Line on the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur

My stay at the InterContinental was only for one night using IHG’s Best Rate Guarantee for a free night. Overall the property is in a great location and as a whole seems in very good condition and is new. I really liked the the newly refurbished Grand Premier room and I would love to see the Club Lounge as soon as it is done with its renovation. One of the drawbacks of the property at this price point is that none of the rooms have views of the Petronas, but you are within a 10 minute walk.

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