TuneHotels.com Downtown Penang Review

*If you're not interested in the long winded complaint, you might want to scroll down for disgusting pictures first and then, that might triggered your interest to read the whole post!

Just very recently, I stayed with TuneHotels in downtown Penang. I remember writing a very positive review for this hotel sometime back.

I love the hotel cause it provides me what I wanted when I travel - cleanliness and simplicity. I mean when we travel, we don't actually spent 24 hours in there. All we need was a place to lay our tired bodies after spending the whole day discovering a new culture.

So, last week was my convocation. Penang was a transit for us and knowing that we will only be in Penang for few hours for two stops, I booked the hotel. It wasn't exactly cheap but I like the hotel cause I stayed there multiple times.

For the first night I had accidentally booked the rooms for the wrong dates - it was supposed to be 2 rooms for the 2nd of October and 1 room for the 4th of October. Turns out I was booking all 3 rooms to be checked in on 4th of October.

The receptionist show no empathy or any courtesy at all but I was pretty cool with that - I mean, what do I expect? This is not a full service hotel.

However I just wish there was a slight flexibility - I made it clear to her " i don't mind the payment for the room being forfeited, can I just have the towels that I paid for that room on 4th of October, since I'm not taking the room after all." She gave no explanation but push me to dead end with a 'no.period' reply.

Of course, the main point for this post is not about me not given the towel that I paid. I returned two days later for another pit stop before I return to KL the next two days.

This time tho, was a horror of all. I arrived after a very tiring day of my convocation - I woke up at 3.30 am in the morning. Such an early morning and the day only ended 8.30 p.m - with no rest in between , when I arrive at 10.00 pm, needless to say I was exhausted.

I was given a room that made me feel like my car is a better place to sleep.

The toilet reeks of urine the moment I open the glass door , the toilet roll look like it has been re-rolled (if you get what I meant - you know, the fall off and the worker re-roll them) and the whole shower place was with yellow stain. I didn't take a picture of that cause I was really tired and the next day I just couldn't wait to check out!

And then after taking my bath, I also discovered one of the ugliest side. I don't mind the room not being maintained, scrapes of old paints - accepted. But the fact that the previous guest had spilled water and it leaves such an ugly stain and they didn't even bother to clean up just make me questioned the hygiene of the hotel. If they didn't care - one may wonder if they even wash the bed sheets!

My parents room on the other side had this leaking roof top - which we brush off the thought that it might be from the toilet above our room. This was like a night mare for all of us.

At that point of time, I seriously questioning why was I paying RM 180+ for Tune Hotels when that is exactly the same price Cititel - a prominent 3 star hotel in Penang is charging. Not to mention everything cost me more than RM 250 as I had another unoccupied room due to wrong booking. To begin with, I did not book the place cause it was cheap. I could afford a better place - heck I was bunking in a suite the night before! I book the place cause I like the hotel but these experience totally screw up everything.

I'm gonna be honest here. While I sound very frustrated since the beginning of this post - the only point why it triggers me to write this was the receptionist. I told the receptionist what happen to the room I was given, not only he did not respond to me, he did not even look at me! The quote 'talk to my hand' totally applies here.

Just typing this and just thinking back of the facial reaction of that receptionist make my blood boils! A quick check in tripadvisor.com shows that a guest experience the same of what I felt. Exact quote "Humanity is therefore kept neutral or none if you call it. Hopefully it can be improved - basic courtesy."

I tweeted, and the manager of TuneHotels.com called me two hours or so later. I didn't think the complaint ends from that call because that call was merely addressing my complaint, there was no solution nor an apology. I do not expect compensation of any sort but just by calling me to ask me 'what I have tweeted' is not the solution.

And, I am still waiting for the solution. My only conclusion for now is that the hotel is only good for stay when it's still new.I just recently stayed the one in Bintulu and it was beautiful cause it was still very new, but hell no will I be staying there another year later!