Gurney Bay Hotel

Gurney Bay Hotel - Penang

- November 13, 2024

The Gurney Bay Hotel is located at Gurney Drive, just opposite the Gurney Bay Park. Gurney Paragon Mall and Gurney Plaza are both easily accessible on foot from the hotel. The gurney hawker center is also within walking distance. We arrived at the hotel at approximately 4.45pm, and my partner made a last-minute booking through Agoda.com, which required us to wait at least an hour for the hotel to obtain confirmation from Agoda.

Finally we managed to check in at 6pm. We stayed two nights in a superior room that comes with a king-size bed, a TV with limited channels (only Cinemax available for a movie channel), an in-room safe, a mini fridge, four complimentary bottles of mineral water, coffee or tea-making facilities, complimentary fruits, an iron, an ironing board, a wall-mounted hair dryer, two pairs of disposable slippers, a working desk, air conditioning with individual temperature control, complimentary Wi-Fi (slow connection) and basic toiletries.

The room is spacious and clean. However, the hotel and room look a bit old. The bathroom is very spacious and comes with a bathtub, but the toilet bowl is flaking and appears to be old. Apart from that, the basin drains slowly. Shower water is hot, but the pressure is low. On one of the nights when I bathed, there was no water halfway through, and when it came back a few minutes later, it was quite slow at first before returning to normal. Bathing isn't as relaxing as it appears in this hotel.

The hotel bed is comfy and the air conditioning is very cold. There are only a few power plugs, and most of them are located near the floor. There is only one power plug on their working desk, which is used for the table light. Since we have the connecting room, we can hear the guests talking or coughing in the room next to us.

When we stay in a hotel, we always request daily housekeeping, but their service is really poor. We requested a room makeover at 8.50am before heading out for breakfast and when we returned, they had not done it. The housekeeping came knocking on our room door at 11am, but because we were inside, we asked them to come back at 1pm. Luckily, it was done when we returned after lunch.

The hotel facilities include a fitness centre, a kid's club, a swimming pool (no lifeguard on duty), a tennis court, a jacuzzi and a sauna. Dry & steam saunas and hot & cold jacuzzis are separate facilities for male and female guests. The facilities are located on the 2nd floor. A room key card is required for access to the guest room floor but not the facilities floor. Complimentary parking is available at the hotel's multilevel car park for in-house guests.

Check in time: 2pm

Check out time: 12pm

Room rate - RM 243 per night excluding breakfast