A night at the Times Hotel

thinking that i was almost the end of the school holiday, i've decided to bring my family to stay in one of the newest hotel here in Brunei, the Times Hotel. Well, actually that was not the plan. We were planning to stay in the Gadong Centrepoint hotel, but then when i called them, the receptionist told me that the whole Gadong will have electricity interruptions starting 2200 onwards. Since this problem was unavoidable, i moved on to "un"planned B.

The promotion was quite decent. They offered BND88 for standard room. But since i had no idea how this standard room looked like, i've requested to preview the rooms first, then i will decide there which room i want to choose, whether the standard or superior (which worth BND108). The difference is quite significant especially in terms of room space. if i want the superior room with balcony, then i need to pay BND19 more.

As people always said, first impression will last and it also gives the general idea. Frankly, they were not doing quite well in giving the best first impression to me.

Well, firstly the parking space. i was quite happy since they reserved some spaces for their customers, and my parking space was right infront of the lobby door. Good! hehe...also, the bellboy was quite pleasant and polite. Good! The lift is brand new with touch-screen buttons. Good! When we were inside the room, as usual, we check around the room to see what they were offering. Coffee table? Checked and considered standard. Toilet and bathroom? Checked except no bathtub. And one more thing. the floor tiles are very slippery when they are wet. All tiles are slippery when they are wet you said? Trust me, this ones are very very slippery as if there were a layer of algae (gelugut nya orang Brunei) so i need to tip-toe when walking inside the bathroom. Next? Main lighting system? checked and still kind of old system. Room design? Checked and the design kinda reminded me of Sungei Wang Plaza hotel in Kuala Lumpur. This was the time when the bellboy came pressed the door bell, appeared infront of me. Why? To hand me the tv remote. okay...so, what channel were they offering? by the way, the tv is flat, slim tv by Philips. Impressive. I pressed the remote button, no response. I was wondering why...My wife asked me to bang the remote once, so I did it. still no response. You want to know what the problem is? Oh, you dont want to know, trust me. The remote...had no battery! Oh gosh! Then, we were like wanted to put our bottles of water into the mini fridge (we assumed it was there). When we opened the door...nothing!!! no mini fridge? What's the use of this wardrobe (is it correct)? So i ran to the receptionist to tell these things and get the battery installed. I asked the bellboy "mana fridge nya ah? andang nada kah?" his reply? "hmm...ada kali nanti ih" I mean, what does he mean by "ada kali nanti?" Back to my room, i pressed the button on the remote again...yes, it is working. channel 1...channel 2...channel 3...until channel 19...all of them showing blue screen. Luckily i brought my own lappy, so my kids won't be bored.

What's the point here? The point is, personally, i don't think they were even prepared well to open the hotel to the public. for BND108, i think the centrepoint hotel could offer better services just for the deluxe room BND100. I've been to a number of hotels, budget ones, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars and even 5 stars. Even the budget hotel were serving on par with their reputation, and i have no complain about that, but this one? Bogey...double bogey...or even triple bogey. I am not condemning here, just criticizing and voice out my experience which is supposed to be a nice one, and turned out to be a not so nice one. come on, what's the use of remote without the battery, and what's the use of slim tv without the channel installed. btw, did i mention that the telephone in my room also does not work?

of course, not everything is bad about them, just majority of them are bad (to me). the swimming pool is considered good, the pricing is quite okay for most people (i don't really recommend the room+balcony ones. for one, they are digging more money and for two, the view/scenery? What's there to watch? Padang Kebajikan? It is even blocked by another building!). The staffs were quite friendly (though some of the bellboys need more training), the food for breakfast is nice and my fav part? The shop! they are just downstairs! yay!!!

so, the verdict? sorry to say this, but out of 5 stars, i will just give it a 3.