Penang Travel Tips Hotel Reviews

B. Melayu

"I am coming to Penang, which hotel do you recommend?"
"I am planning to book a room at Hotel X. What do you think of this hotel?"

The above are just some examples of email questions I received at Penang Travel Tips. Of all the people in Penang, I believe I receive such questions more than anybody else. It shows that people trust the opinion of Penang Travel Tips, and I need to respond to such questions by providing honest, trustworthy opinion.

To be trusted is flattering, and it's a role I take seriously. To recommend, or not recommend a hotel, I cannot rely on hearsay, or the glossy photos from the hotel's own brochures. If I did that, what good am I to the prospective hotel guests?

In order to provide readers of Penang Travel Tips trustworthy opinion, I embarked on a quest to visit the hotels and get to know each of them. I would contact the hotels and request to do a room and facilities review, and if they are willing, a room stay and food review too.

On a hotel review, I am not just looking at room size or swimming pool length, I am also determining hospitality. For hotels are after all in the hospitality industry. While room size and swimming pool lengths can be measured, but hospitality has to be experienced. The frontliner in this regard is the hotel's Marcom team. If the Marcom personnel could not demonstrate hospitality to me, and make a poor impression, it reflects badly on the hotel's image - like a pretty woman with a bad mouth.

Most hotels have never undergone an unbiased review. It's not surprising, for the industry is built to flatter itself and not be judged with an unbiased eye. They just expect guests to take their word, to believe every single word and every glossy photo of their brochures. So when I contact the hotels and say I would like to review them, what I discover was a most uneven landscape. In many hotels, my name has preceded me. If hotel contact gets excited and starts rambling on that he has known Penang Travel Tips for years and years, then I know my job is going to be easy.

With these hotels, it is a breeze to ask for a room and facilities tour. Often I get treated like VIP, for they know what issues from me will be read by would-be guests from the world over. Most of these hotels also offer me a review stay, so that I could experience a stay, as though I were a paying guest. I am mindful that the treatment I receive is going probably superior to that of the actual guest. I suppose I would never be able to mimic an actual hotel experience, but what I have done is as close as it gets.

And then there are hotels that have never heard of me. I have been a major web presence for over a decade. When almost every Penang-related Google search brings up Penang Travel Tips, and you still haven't known me, it's more telling of you than of me. With such hotels, the encounter could be downright unpleasant. They would ask for my web statistics, question the purpose of a room and facilities review, and so on. Some want me to use their professionally taken glossy photos. I will use some, on condition that the majority of photos are taken by me, and photos provided by the hotels are clearly labelled as such. Some do not even respond to my request. They think I am doing this just to get free room stays and free food. Excuse me, but it is a privilege to them, if I deigned to stay at their hotel. If they do not know that I am their ultimate (and free) publicity machine, it is not my lost if I do not review them.

With that in mind, I will only be recommending hotels which I have previously done a room and facilities reviews. The reason is clear: if you don't give me an opportunity to see you inside out, I would neither be able to showcase you to the world, nor recommend you to anyone. Penang Travel Tips does not recommend base on hearsay or glossy brochure pictures. Demonstrate your hospitality to me, so that when I speak of it, people know it is based on actual experience.

So far, I have visited quite a number of hotels in Penang, and will be contacting those I have yet to visit. Those which can see the value of showcasing themselves to me will be highlighted and recommended, those which are unresponsive will be ignored.

List of Hotels in Penang and Hotels in Malaysia

Private Guided Tours of Penang

If you are seeking private guided tours of Penang, message Penang Tour Guides at penangtourguides@gmail.com and enquire with them.

 Buy, rent or sell properties in Penang

Do you have a property for sale or to rent out? Are you looking to buy or rent a property? Get in touch with me. WhatsApp me (Timothy Tye) at 012 429 9844, and I will assign one of my property agents to serve you. I will choose the agent for you, according to your property needs. So when you message me, provide me some details of what you need, whether to sell, to buy, to rent or to rent out, and what type of property, is it condo, apartment, house, shop, office or land.

Adakah anda mempunyai hartanah untuk dijual atau disewakan? Adakah anda ingin membeli atau menyewa hartanah? Hubungi saya. WhatsApp saya (Timothy Tye) di 012 429 9844, dan saya akan menugaskan salah seorang ejen hartanah saya untuk berkhidmat kepada anda. Saya akan pilih ejen untuk anda, mengikut keperluan hartanah anda. Oleh itu, apabila anda menghantar mesej kepada saya, berikan saya beberapa butiran tentang apa yang anda perlukan, sama ada untuk menjual, untuk membeli, untuk disewakan atau untuk disewakan, dan jenis hartanah apakah itu kondo, pangsapuri, rumah, kedai, pejabat atau tanah.

您有待出售或出租的房产吗？ 您想购买或租赁房产吗？ 与我联系。 WhatsApp 我 (Timothy Tye) 012 429 9844，我将指派一名房地产经纪人为您服务。 我会根据您的房产需求，为您选择代理。 因此，当您给我发消息时，请向我提供一些您需要的详细信息，无论是出售、购买、出租还是出租，以及房产类型，是公寓、公寓、房屋、商店、办公室还是土地。

 New Properties in Penang

Looking to buy property in Penang? Get the e-brochures right here without having to visit or contact individual developers.

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Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

Discover with Timothy

Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Songs about Penang

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.