Opened up in 2018, the W Kuala Lumpur is shiny, new and ironed out ready to entertain the W fans out there. With the whole property fully operational, I was ecstatic for my two night stay at the W Kuala Lumpur using my Suite Night Award upgrades via Marriott Bonvoy. Does this property deserve the “W” or should it be taken out for the “L”?
In this review, I’ll explain why I enjoyed this property and the room I stayed in (Marvelous Suite), and cover things like breakfast, gym, Platinum happy hour (WIP access), WET Deck, and service.
Table of Contents
Booking the W Kuala Lumpur
I had two promotions attached to my account, both of which earned me double points. I ended up booking the Wonderful Room 1 King (base room) a few days out for around $190 USD with taxes a night. The total I paid was around $508 USD with drinks and snacks from the WET Bar.
That isn’t bad knowing I got double points with two promotions. The total amount of points earned was 21,798 points (11,092 is from the two double points promotions).
With only one double points promotion, I would have gotten only 5,546 extra points, but with the two double points promotions, I got a few free nights from this one stay. You can see the breakdown below. (“Extra” is with the two double points promotion plus the 1,000 points Platinum gift.)
As I booked the room before two days of check-in, I used two Suite Night Awards (SNAs) and was confirmed into the Marvelous Suite the same day. The Marvelous Suite usually goes for $450+ a night, not a bad upgrade.
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W Kuala Lumpur location overview
Located within a short walking distance that takes about 5 minutes, you can find yourself at Petronas Twin Towers. And let me tell you, the views are amazing. Both from our suite and the WET Deck you can see the beautiful Twin Towers in the day and night.
There are food options near the W in the Twin Towers or around it and a few malls nearby. If you prefer hawker-style food stalls for cheap and good eats, you can find vendors a few buildings down from the W on the main road.
If you venture out for a 5-minute Grab Car ride, you can go to street food destinations like Jalan Alor, Tapak Urban Street Dining, or Petaling Street Market.
Kuala Lumpur is a city that is mostly clean, yet doesn’t break the bank to neighboring South East Asia cities like Singapore or Bangkok. You can easily eat a meal for less than $5 USD in a nice environment. (You could also get cheaper eats or snacks that are still delicious.) Plus, if you like spice, Malaysia is a good introduction to spice, but still mild compared to Indonesia.
Getting to W Kuala Lumpur
We flew Malindo Air 737 business class from Jakarta, Indonesia to Kuala Lumpur. Overall the flight was somewhat confusing, as the service offered was distant and not very welcoming, but the food was alright. For a two hour business class flight that costed no more than $150 USD, I would say it was still a good value.
Once we got through customs and grabbed my companion’s bag from the baggage claim, we ordered a Grab Car from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to W Kuala Lumpur. The ride costed around $20 to the hotel. Not that cheap, as we got a Grab Car and not a premium car, but the drive is an hour.
If only I had a free airport transfer like Daniel did in a Rolls-Royce.
Check-in
From the entrance lobby, we had to take one elevator to the main lobby which holds the front desk, concierge, and Woobar. On the same floor, you can find their flagship Chinese restaurant called YEN and another restaurant called the Flock.
Check-in was smooth at the front desk. I was Platinum at that time (now Ambassador) and the fabulous front desk agent explained how breakfast is located in the Flock, 1000 points or local amenity for the welcome gift, and Platinum happy hour (WIP Access) is hosted at the Woobar between 6:30 and 7:30 pm every day.
After all the check-in procedures, we were given a key for our room on the 18th floor.
The Marvelous Suite
Our room number was 1801 and wow, the room is one of my favorites.
First of all, I love the design of W properties, shiny and colorful. I really love this property’s color scheme. It could be said that this W design is one of my favorites. It’s bright, colorful, shiny, mature, and practical.
It’s practical as the living room, bedroom, and bathroom all have what you need without funny business. The layout isn’t too much and incorporates shiny surfaces in a less intrusive way than other W properties. Plus, the furniture is useable and not just for show.
Plus, as a corner suite, you can have some awesome views.
For the tour of the living room, you will find the bar stocked with premium full-sized bottles, high top table with power outlets in the middle of it, couch, lounge chair, a TV.
At the bar, you can find snacks and drinks. You can also find other goodies that aren’t food-related, like power converters or a stress relief ball. In the bar area, you can find your coffee machine, glasses, tea, ice bucket, and also hot water kettle.
Located right next to the bar and front door, you will find a half bath. The half bath is super small, but having a half bath is always a treat.
The high top table in the living room is interesting, I love how the table has multiple outlets in the center so you can utilize the table as a desk for you or multiple people. Yes, the seats might be nice, but being a high top table it comes with the disadvantage for shorter people not having an easy time to in or getting out of the chair. (Luckily, there is an actual desk in the bedroom that I will show later.)
Towards the back of the living room, you can find the TV and couch. The TV includes a stereo system that you can connect your device via BlueTooth. The couch was comfy enough and was useable, unlike other couches that are meant as decorations. This couch was fine to sit or lie down on. It’s not the best couch, maybe just good, but doesn’t have major bad qualities.
The living room gives you full control over lights and automatic blinds from the wall touchpad. The thermostat only controls the living room and not the bedroom.
When you make your way to the bedroom, there is more seating, the king-size bed, desk, and two end tables. The bedroom is situated in the corner of the building where you can see both north and east views. The bedroom also has its own thermostat.
At the end tables, you can find controls to the room lights, blinds, and preset moods. There is also universal outlets at each end of the bed.
There are two things I should note about the bedroom. One positive, the TV does have a stereo system just like the living room and you can connect your device via BlueTooth. One negative, most of the room has universal power outlets, but for some reason, the desk only has British outlets built into the desk. I am not sure what they were thinkings about the difference in outlets at the desk.
From the bedroom, you can access one of my favorite rooms in this whole suite: the master bath. On the way to the master bath, you walk through the closet, which to me seems pretty small compared to other closets offered at luxury or premium hotels in this region.
The master bath is accessible to both the living room and bedroom. Both entrances have a solid door to close if you desire.
You can find the dual vanity sinks, dual shower, bathtub, toilet, and TV in the master bath.
At the dual vanity sinks, you can find almost everything you need like dental kits, lotions, sewing kit, face wash, mouthwash, etc. I should also note, the faucets and washbasin are beautiful. I love the material the washbasins are made of and I am glad they used it for the bathtub too as it’s not cold to the touch.
Then you have the master bath throne, which sadly has no Japanese toilet seat on it. For a luxury hotel in South East Asia, you come to expect a Japanese toilet seat. This to me is a negative.
Why is not having a Japanese fancy toilet seat a negative?
While one doesn’t need it, these toilet seats are cheap to buy and install, around $50 for a decent one. Hotels throughout Japan have them, even hotels that cost $50 a night. So, one would expect it at a luxury hotel. (Yes, I lived and this toilet still has a manual bidet on it.)
On my way to my favorite part of the master bath, you are greeted with floor to ceiling windows (just like the rest of the suite). You can also notice the TV and bathtub with the infinity mirrors.
Here is my favorite part of the master bath, the dual showers. Yes, you heard it here, dual shower for two people and the size of the shower is big enough for two people with extra room.
There was one issue with one of the showers though, the left rain shower wasn’t working properly without proper water pressure. Water came out of it, but both the rain shower light and water coming out of it were faulty and super weak.
The handheld wall shower head didn’t have any faults, only the left rain shower had faults. Water pressure from the right rain shower and both handheld wall showerheads were perfect. Powerful, but not too powerful and easy to control.
The oversized bathtub is situated next to the shower with the view of the WET Deck down below and TV. If you are seated in the tub a certain way, you could see the Twin Towers.
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W Kuala Lumpur dining
There are six dining options at the W Kuala Lumpur, two of which are privately managed and owned.
The W owned and managed dining options are as follows. They have the YEN a fine-dining flagship Chinese restaurant. Then there is the Flock, which is an Australian inspired restaurant that serves breakfast. You also have other options like the WET Deck and Woobar. Both offer a full beverage menu, but the WET Deck has a more proper dining menu than the Woobar.
Out of the four dining options, I didn’t try the YEN.
Flock (breakfast)
Breakfast is served at the Flock from 6:30 to 10:30am. Marriott Bonvoy Platinum and above are entitled to the full free breakfast buffet and table menu.
The breakfast was big, many different options. The taste was good but offers nothing spicy. The sambal isn’t spicy at all. If they had spicier options, it would have been great.
You can find many made to order stations like noodles, eggs, and smoothies. You can even find a station for getting a whole coconut. Plus, a live sushi station!
Service was good, waitresses and waiters were welcoming. They served dishes directly to your table, which is a plus.
There was one negative about the whole breakfast experience. When a buffet dish ran low they would take the dish to replenish it. However, this usually took 10 to 15 minutes. I once waited 15+ minutes for Dim Sum to come back out. It just seemed like they forgot after some time and had to make a fresh batch without being proactive.
Without further ado, here is a video of the breakfast buffet. Below the video, you will find the table side menu, which is free.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QeAfY6Curo[/embedyt]
As I love eggs benedict, I had to try what the W Kuala Lumpur eggs benedict. The eggs benedict was good and the chef made them with excitement. The eggs were also runny when I cut into them. The hollandaise sauce was on the lighter side, but adequate for the egg, salmon, and bread ratio.
WET Deck (day)
Located on the roof with the pool, you can access the WET Deck during the day or night. We visited it during both times. During the day it’s super laid back and during the night it is more like a lounge club. Comparing the WET Deck with other W WET Decks, this is one of the better ones that actually is popular.
During our day visit, we got a Milo cocktail, satay, and a panini sandwich with sweet potato fries. The cocktail wasn’t good but wasn’t bad. Just okay. It was the inconsistency of the drink going from too strong to too weak. To my surprise, the satay was huge. The flavor of the satay was good and tender. The panini sandwich was alright as the taste seemed to be missing from the sandwich. Just tasted like bread. At least the sweet potato fries were excellent.
WET Deck (night)
During our night visit, which makes the WET Deck into a club, we were surprised how crowded it was. When we arrived the WET Deck employee asked if we had a reservation, I said no and then she asked if we are a hotel guest staying at the W. After we said yes, the WET Deck employee escorted us to the last lounge chair outside. Even the inside was full of people and had a few people standing as seats weren’t available. We were so lucky!
We ended up getting a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne, which wasn’t overly priced with my 20% dining discount (described below). We also got french fries and enjoyed the view of the Twin Towers from our lounge chair drinking the whole bottle of champagne.
I would like to mention about WET Deck service at night. They were somewhat rude. I understand that they have to deal with many drunks, but when I asked a question about the menu our waiter refused to answer saying I should know… I am sorry, but how would I know when I have never been here.
Does that make the WET Deck bad? No, we still had a fun time and maybe I caught the waiter at a bad moment. I would return, but won’t be asking any questions next time.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HImZKh2InjQ[/embedyt]
Woobar
We were only at the Woobar during WIP Access (6:30 to 7:30pm). WIP Access is Platinum Elite happy hour. You can order as many drinks or small plates of food as you want. Waiters and waitresses were cool with you having two drinks at once, even when it was the last call for WIP Access.
The drinks and food WIP Access menu is limited but found my favorite drink called Perfect GT. Out of all the other cocktails (aka mixes), Perfect GT was my favorite. For the food, we had satay, much smaller in size, but still good.
Discount on dining
The Asia Pacific region has an awesome dining program. Marriott Bonvoy members and elites can get a discount on their dining bill at specific properties located in the Asia Pacific region.
Some hotels participate while others don’t, but most will participate in South East Asia. It’s also a plus that alcohol can be discounted as some properties in countries will not allow discounted alcohol. W Kuala Lumpur allows discounts on alcohol.
As a Platinum member, I received the 20% dining discount on every drink and food item I purchased from one of the W managed restaurants or bars, including the WET Deck.
Fun fact, you don’t have to stay at the property to receive the dining discount. Just notify the waitress or waiter to apply the discount and earn points.
W Kuala Lumpur Fit (gym)
I don’t workout, but you probably noticed from one of the photos above where you could see my not so muscular body. That being said, I cannot judge this gym in a similar fashion as Daniel does. So, take what I say about the gym with a grain of salt.
Fit, aka the gym, is alright. When I checked it out, I noticed the size being pretty small. Not many of the same machines, and with a few other people in it, it felt a little claustrophobic.
You could find towels, drinks, and a few other small amenities around Fit, but still seemed to be a disappointing gym. I will allow the pictures to do the rest of the talking.
W Kuala Lumpur WET Deck (Pool)
The WET Deck, aka pool, is situated on the rooftop with plenty of seating, views, drinks, food, and free ice cream. Oh yeah, don’t forget the inflatable pool toys!
To me, the pool was a selling point. I love the views and we spent hours being stupid while swimming in the hot Kuala Lumpur sun.
W Kuala Lumpur service
Service, for the most part, was excellent. From check-in to check-out, the employees really shined and cared. The WET Deck employees at night are somewhat rude and makes you feel like you’re intruding on their space, but otherwise, every other employee at the W Kuala Lumpur went above and beyond.
Even when they made a super minor mistake, they went beyond what they were supposed to do.
After check-in, an employee brought a beautiful welcome gift that is all chocolate, but it wasn’t meant for us and the same employee came back to take it away.
Once he took it away he then gave me this…
I was somewhat surprised they took away the one they gave us. It was like they were teasing us. Giving candy to a baby and taking it away. At that moment I posted to my Instagram story and said how I was about to eat the original welcome gift that was so beautiful, but they took it away. After some time, they brought up another welcome gift…
Isn’t that beautiful?! Isn’t that so unnecessary?!
I felt bad after they sent this up, but wow this shows how they really didn’t mean to mess up and felt sorry about taking the chocolate away from me. I did thank them a lot saying how they didn’t need to give us anything this amazing, but they still gave it to us. Really amazing follow through!
Then we had leftover pizza from the night before. We wanted to heat it up, but we didn’t have a microwave. So, we asked the staff if they could heat up the pizza for us and give us some chili sauce. They did without hesitation. WOW! They went the extra mile to warm up our pizza without charging us. It felt like we were at home as a kid asking our mom to warm up food for us. Really welcoming.
W Kuala Lumpur FAQ
Prices may vary based on the type of room and season but you can find standard room redemptions for as low as 35,000 points.
You can find the following restaurants:
Flock
Yen
Wet Deck
Woobar
The hotel is approximately 44 minutes from Kuala Lumpur International Airport by car.
The pool is open from 6:30 AM to 8 PM.
The gym is open from 6:30 AM to 8 PM.
The phone number for W Kuala Lumpur is +60327868888.
Final word
I would stay again in a heartbeat. W Kuala Lumpur really shines in both design and service, except WET Deck at night, but still a fun and amazing stay. Heck, it was an experience. Even with minor maintenance issues with one of the showers, it still doesn’t bother me as the rest of our stay was fabulous.
W Kuala Lumpur strengths:
- Service
- WIP Access
- WET Deck
- Marvelous Suite
- Master bath
- Stereo
- Design
- Views
Thank you W Kuala Lumpur and hope to stay again!
This article was originally published by Steve Smith.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.