Four Seasons Jakarta (Indonesia)

Thank goodness for our experience at the mediocre Alila Jakarta (read the REVIEW) we moved to the once-again, well-proven, time-tested luxurious and comfortable Four Seasons Hotel, this one located in Jakarta.

The unassuming façade and entrance of this former Regent Hotel belies the understated elegance within. Lacking from the lobby area is the decadence found in some Asian hotels. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I recalled that the former Regent Hotel was owned by, among others, Adrian Zecha, the founder of the Amanresorts brand.

When we requested for a room away from the elevator and preferably a room at the end of the hallway (a corner room), by golly, we got it on both accounts (unlike our Alila experience). In the US, the Four Seasons room tend to be on the small side, but here at the Jakarta location, our room was quite spacious. There was plenty of space between the bed and the desk/TV armoire area and plenty of closet space. Four panels of French windows, equipped with wooden blinds, open out to a balcony, facing the Four Seasons Residence across the street.

When we reached the gym area, we saw a floor-to-ceiling wood carving, reminiscent of the decor at the lobby area of Amanusa (Nusa Dua, Bali), perhaps another proof of Mr. Zecha's vision. The gym, located by the pool, is well equipped and staffed. Just like the Four Seasons in Shanghai, the staff anticipates one's every need (towels, bottled water, etc.). The ozone pool (read: ultra clear down under) is great for lap swimming and is surrounded by the usual chaise-longues by the pair; one end of the pool is buttressed by an unpolished stonewall with falls.

The two-floor SPA is the gem of this hotel: each treatment room looks different and is equipped with different facilities as well: some has rain forest shower, some has bathtubs. The locker room with steam, sauna, and hot + cold dipping pool is a great place to unwind after a day's work (well, there is no need for any reasons). Cold towels and a jar of cold water with sliced oranges are available, a great respite from the dehydration that results from the use of the steam and sauna.


Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta
Jalan H.R. Rasuna Said
Jakarta 12920
Indonesia

Tel: +62 (21) 252-3456
Fax: +62 (21) 252-4480

Alila Jakarta (Indonesia)

A few years ago a couple of friends were heading for Bali and asked for recommendations on hotels. I gave them the Amanresorts, which had three properties in Bali (Amanusa in Nusa Dua, Amankila in Candi Dasa, and Amandari in Ubud), but eventually they settled for a hotel chain that at that time I was not aware of: Alila. There were two in Bali: Alila Manggis (close to the Amankila in Candi Dasa) and Alila Ubud (near the Amandari).

Fastforward to 2005 when I found myself taken by my cousins to the lobby and the lounge of Alila Jakarta after dinner elsewhere. At that time the hotel seemed to have just been opened: minimalist in its approach, but with a certain je ne sais quoi that was a bit off. Two years later, 2007, I finally found out what that je-ne-sais-quoi was . . .

Located in the one of the older sections of central Jakarta known as Pasar Baru, Alila Jakarta actually occupies a good site. From the hotel room one can see both the Istiqlal Mosque and the Cathedral in the not-so-far a distance. The Presidential Palace is not too far away, as is the National Monument. Late at night, after the shops in front of the hotels are closed for business, food vendors set up their shops and cooked their specialties for diners.

Entering the lobby area to check in, one turns to the left and chooses one of the three counters. The set up is done nicely, but the wood or finish looks rather cheap. The majority of the rooms is dedicated for smokers, and non-smokers are confined to 3-4 floors scattered in this high-rise hotels. Smokers rejoice; you have found an ally in this hotel (although in actuality, a lot of Indonesian hotels are still this way, perhaps, just like the Sheraton in Surabaya that only allocated 3-4 floors in its property, too). Check-in hits a snag only because they put the reservation under my first name. A week prior, I have informed them to put the reservation under my last name; I have asked for them to send an e-mail reservation confirmation; and I have requested a room away from the elevator, but as I would find out, none of those requests seemed to have been honored.

We were given the first room closest to the elevator. When I asked for a replacement, I was asked to wait for a long time and then reassigned to the second room closest of the elevator. All rooms had the same small size, but there were two different packages, one of which included a 24-hr Internet. King-size bedrooms appear to have been on the lower floors while the Double-size bedrooms are in the higher floors. Floor 14 seemed to be the highest non-smoking level there was (there was almost 30 floors to the hotel, I believe).

While waiting for the room reassignment, we ate at buzz, the restaurant cum coffee shop located at the lobby area. For a review of the restaurant, click HERE.

The pool would have been suffice to do laps, but unfortunately I did not get to use it. The gym seemed to be all right in terms of equipment, although we did not get to use any; instead, we did use the steam room and sauna room (both quite small, but functional) and took advantage of the Spa offering. My therapist had runny nose and I did not detect this early enough. While treating me, her right hand kept missing from my back to wipe her runny nose: yuck (more on this later). The massage room was tranquil with a separate shower area. Massage was just average.

We actually booked for four nights at the hotel but after one look at the room, we started browsing the Net for other hotels and eventually checked out after only one night. At check out time, a girl who was clearly sick handled my affairs. She was constantly coughing and wiping her nose (the hotel really should have a policy not to put sick people in charge of anything; remember the masseuse with the runny nose?). In addition, while processing my check-out, other clients who she happened to know well kept interrupting her work and bumping me from left and right. I was more than happy to leave the hotel and hopefully never to return.

Alila Jakarta attempts to fall within the likes of boutique hotels, which are usually minimalist in its approach and unique in its outlook, but minimalist does not mean skimming on the quality of furnishings. Minimalist also does not necessarily mean leaving areas empty for the sake of not cluttering them. At least Alila Jakarta has enough taste in not actually calling itself the Boutique Hotel Alila (on our way from the airport to Alila, we actually spotted one hotel whose name was Boutique Hotel something...). According to the hotel's website, Alila is Sanskrit for "surprise"; I could not have been more surprised to find how the hotel really was.


Alila Jakarta
Jalan Pecenongan Kav 7-17
Jakarta 10120
Indonesia
Tel: +62 21 231 6008
Fax: +62 21 231 6007
E-mail: jakarta@alilahotels.com

The W Hotel (San Francisco, California, USA)

I have wanted to stay at this place when it opened a few years back, but I was living in San Francisco at the time; and although it was not uncommon for anybody to stay in a hotel in a city where they lived, it was difficult to get a reservation because the hotel became really popular, not only with the younger crowd, but also with the attendees of the nearby Moscone Convention Center.

Having had my first ever W experience in Seattle only a week or so before, I was curious to see how this San Francisco branch would compare to its Seattle counterpart. W succeeded in creating similar ambients in at least these two locations: each having a dimly-lit lobby area with minimalist décor and a thumping beat of house music that got louder as the day gave way to the evening. The music did not stop there: at each floor in the elevator waiting area, house music kept on thumping. I was afraid that from my room, which unfortunately was not too far from that elevator area, I would be able to hear that noise, but luckily, I could not.

The room had a familiarity to it since I just stayed in the Seattle one: dark wood head-board, brown comforter cover, but this time with four elongated, slender pillows, the shape of which I had never seen before (and I have seen quite many different permutations of a pillow). Even the adjustable bed-lights and the twin lamps by the window seats were exactly how one would find them in the Seattle location. The only difference was the blind: this location used a "window-like" blind where you could actually open inward to reveal the view. The Seattle location used a top-bottom white, wooden draw blind.

So, let's get down to the nitty-gritty of this place. Much of my disappointment with this hotel came from the inconsistency of the housekeeping services. For this trip, I stayed long enough to observe the working habit from day to day. Regardless of who cleaned the room, there should be a check-list of what needed to be done every day. For example, there was only one day when the melted ice in the ice-bin was thrown away. At other times, I came home to find a bin with tepid water from last night's melted ice. There was also the stocking of towels, or lack thereof: twice I looked and found that the two missing bath towels were never replaced. Sure, there were still the other two, but at least even them out by moving one towel to the other stack. It was in such details that this San Francisco W housekeeping lacked.

For a hotel that strove to present itself as hip, the chain should have employed the use of flat screen or plasma televisions. Instead, in both of the locations where I have stayed, cathode-ray tubes were mounted on a pivotable-platform and enshrined in an entertainment center that could be closed up. How quaint!

There was a 24-hour gym, which worked great for late night sleeper like I was. There were about 5 or 6 treadmills and some Nautilus machines. Swimming pool was small and shallow, not that great for lap swimming. Pool was indoor, but directly adjacent to this area was an open-air area with private cabanas.

On the way to the gym one would pass by the in-house Spa with their trademark aquamarine palette (the walls, the uniforms, their products...). I went for the manicure pedicure, which facility lay directly next to the check-in area: noisy. One could don a head-set and listen to soothing music or tune to the selected videos or television programs. Treatment was not up to par. Even a chic salon (called Glow) in Surabaya (Indonesia) delivered a much better service and treatment in this department. I kid you not!

Overall, it was a pleasant stay. Personally, I felt slightly a bit too old for this crowd. W probably scores better among the 35 and under. Every night when I returned to the hotel, I had to fight my way through the dark lobby reverberating with house music and filled with the young crowd. Some nights I would hear noises coming from the hallway; noises that reminded me of drunken hallmates coming back from frat parties during my college days.


The W Hotel San Francisco
181 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
U.S.A.

Tel: (415) 777-5300

The Four Seasons Shanghai (China)

After four mediocre nights at the Portman Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, the Four Seasons Hotel in the same city restored my faith in high-class hotels. The most basic room in an excellent hotel must still reflect comfort and luxury, and in this case, the Four Seasons Shanghai really excels.

Starting with the reception area that was bathed in light, the hotel set a good tone for the rest of my two-night stay. Staff members were positioned in different areas of the lobby to greet guests as they proceeded to check in. My room was tucked in one corner of the 22nd floor (in the 36-floor hotel). I thought mine would have windows on two sides, but only one side provided the room with natural lighting. Another room was next to mine, but there was not a neighbor across my room. The room, albeit small, was designed really well, and the furnishings were excellent. The plush King-sized bed was topped with four King-sized pillows, all of them soft but very supportive to my back and neck. The lighting made everything glow, including my tired face. All of the light fixtures were equipped with dimmers. The accompanying image is taken from the Four Seasons website, but it resembles closely to my room. Basically WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and then some!

The bathroom was as big as the bed area. It reminded me of how a standard Ritz-Carlton bathroom usually would be (except the Portman R-C in Shanghai): a wide bathtub with chrome fixtures and an adjoining shower stall with glass windows; marble floor with plush white mat for the sink area. To complete this luxurious bath area were the amenities that were provided by the French company L’Occitane.

The work area consisted of a small desk with an extendable Ethernet cable and a small drawer that flipped to expose different adapters for many countries’ electrical plugs; very convenient, indeed! Open another drawer and one will find yet another universal adapter just in case one wants to work elsewhere in the room. Unlike at the Portman the Ritz-Carlton where I had to keep logging into the Internet once I disconnected, the Four Seasons’ Internet recognized my system for the next 24 hours. If I cleared off my desk in the morning and then started working again in the evening, I did not have to log in again. All I had to do was to plug in the Ethernet cable and to start working. If I had owned an AirPort Express, it would even be very convenient as I could work wirelessly in the room.

In addition, once I logged in, I got a code that would allow me to get wireless connection from other areas in the hotel for the next 24 hours. One disadvantage of this 24-hour contract was that you would be locked into this fee no matter how much connection you used in that period. The Portman R-C charged something like Y1.60/minute, or Y96.60 per 24 hours. If one goes by the minute but reaches the maximum of Y96.60, then one will be charged that maximum price for the entire 24-hours; the R-C option worked well for those who knew they would not be using the Internet for an extended period of time.

Completing the desk was the elegantly designed thick guest information book in the form of a binder. An armoire stood next to the desk, hiding a television set and a DVD player; the safety box; and drawers with Japanese Yukattas or room robes.

Not too long after entering my room, I heard a knock on my door. I must have forgotten to sign something, I thought, but it turned out that I found a gentleman on the other side of the door, carrying a small tray of teapot with two Chinese teacups and two small desserts. He placed the tray on the work desk, poured the tea into the two cups, and then excused himself after making sure that I did not want anything else.

What really distinguished this place from the other regular hotels in and out of Shanghai was how most of the staff had anticipated my every need and how each of them had met my expectation. At the gym, when my mind was thinking of grabbing a towel, someone had approached me with one. On my way to the elliptical machine, another staff presented me with a cold bottle of water and offered me a headphone with the listening device covered in thick white cloth. I was alone when I arrived at the pool area, but when I emerged from the pool, I saw that someone had already put a foot mat by my chaise longue plus bottled water and a glass on the table.

The gym was spacious and had plenty of aerobic machines (treadmills, stair-masters, and stationery bikes). A steam room and hot jacuzzi were located near the shower area, and adjacent to this area was a soothing, relaxing room with chaise-longue and selection of magazines or music to choose.

The massages I had were performed in the room at no extra charge (there was an option of having it done at the spa by the gym.) Those light dimmers came in handy as we dimmed the entire room to set a relaxing mood. The masseur arrived at the appointed time and delivered the deep tissue massage as advertised, which was rare. Some massage places that advertised deep tissue or acupressure massage usually ended up giving me a soft Swedish massage. The set-up and the clean up were very promptly done. Five minutes after the massage, he was already out of the door.

At the Si Ji Xuan Chinese restaurant on the second floor, the maitre d' and one wait staff gave their full attention to me, without being asked. It felt as if each table got its own private server. I was reading the newspaper and a book throughout one brunch, and every time I lifted up my head, my teacup was already refilled, and the pot replenished with hot water. The wait staff worked so efficiently and so flowingly that it seemed like a dance performance.

The morning room cleaning and the evening turndown service made me want to stay there forever. The room always looked very orderly and sparkling new every time I stepped in after a few hours away. And, oh yes, this was also the only hotel in a long time whose housekeeper wrote me a thank-you note for the tips I had left behind on the sink. I have always done this as a habit, but out of the many times I had stayed in hotels around the world, this marked only the second time that someone had scribbled a hand-written note thanking me for it. I left the money at the sink for some time, but it was never taken. Only after the fourth clean up did someone take it.

This hotel, located not entirely in a great area (the Portman Ritz-Carlton had the advantage of being in a more orderly and established area), made me feel as if I were in a resort, not in a hotel in a big city. Despite the location, I would love to return to this hotel when I will be in Shanghai again. In my opinion, this was one hotel whose services approached the level of perfection that I had found thus far only at the Amanresorts in Indonesia.

The Four Seasons Shanghai
500 Weihai Road
Shanghai 200041, China
Tel: +86 (21) 6256-8888
Fax: +86 (21) 6256-5678
http://fourseasons.com/shanghai/