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.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

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.

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.