Review: Four Points by Sheraton Surabaya, Pakuwon Indah (Junior Suite)

What benefits to expect when you stay at Four Points by Sheraton Surabaya, Pakuwon Indah as a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium or Platinum Elite member?

Four Points by Sheraton Surabaya, Pakuwon Indah opened in 2019 with a total of 317 rooms. It is a Category 1 Marriott Bonvoy property requiring 5,000 to 10,000 points per night for award stays.

We see this property as a Marriott Bonvoy sweet spot and a fantastic use of your points, especially when staying at least 5 nights, as the fifth night will be free.

Here are some photos posted on our Instagram page:

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Location

The hotel is located in the West of Surabaya. Although it is away from the city-centre, there is a MASSIVE mall attached directly to the property!

This hotel is also directly connected to The Westin Surabaya (read my review).

• 1 min walk to Pakuwon Mall
• 1 min walk to The Westin Surabaya
• 35 mins drive to city centre
• 35 mins drive to Juanda International Airport (SUB)

Arrival

Upon arrival, we had our temperatures taken and were assisted with our luggages before being directed to the reception.

I had booked the base room and was pre-upgraded to the Junior Suite a day before arrival. This is fantastic Elite Member Recognition as the hotels with the Four Points brand do not have to upgrade Platinum members (and above) to suites!

Junior Suite

Room 1602 is 38sqm / 409sqft in size.

The suite looked fresh and bright and furnishing was great, what you’d expect from a new property.

It is really small to be called a “suite” but I enjoyed the upgrade nonetheless.

I found that the better Junior Suites, with curved panoramic windows, are rooms numbered xx31 and xx32 (see floor plan below). If you are lucky enough to have a suite upgrade at this property, you may try to request for those Junior Suites.

Here’s a video tour posted on our Instagram page:

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Internet speed

The WiFi was good, as compared to other Indonesian hotels that I have stayed in.

Breakfast

Breakfast is complimentary for Platinum members and above and was served as assisted buffet at Djaman Doeloe Restaurant, from 6.30am to 10.30am.

Food quality and variety was great for a hotel at this price point. There was even a live acoustic band on some days!

Other facilities

As the hotel is directly attached to the higher-end sister property, The Westin Surabaya, some facilities like swimming pools and gym are shared.

Lack of compliance with Do Not Disturb sign

Generally, I do not care much for VIP treatment on my hotel stays but what I value most is peace and quiet.

Unfortunately, the hotel stepped on my toes really hard on one occasion and it left a sour note in my experience.

Here’s a quick summary of what happened:

I had the “do not disturb” sign on the room for 2 days because I do not usually require room cleaning every single day on longer stays. However, I would still call the operator to request for bottles of water or fresh towels daily.

On the third day, someone knocked on the door really hard (although the DND sign was on) and opened the door with a master key 3 seconds later. The staff wanted to “check if everything was okay” as I had my DND sign on for 2 days, as reported by the housekeeping team.

There were a few things wrong with what happened here:

• The staff disrespected the DND sign and my privacy
• The staff did not wait long enough before forcing open the door like entering a murder scene; a security guard was there too!
• The housekeeping staff did not report that I had requested for daily amenities
• The hotel could have called my room beforehand
• The hotel could have called my phone beforehand
• The hotel could have sent me a message on the Marriott Bonvoy app beforehand

So, I thought that it might have been an honest mistake by a new staff. However, I was shocked to find out that it was the Front Office Manager who forced open my door!

Was it a one-time lapse of judgement? Obviously not, as it was done by an experienced Front Office Manager and I am pretty sure that the person has been doing it to other guests for a long time.

Also, I met a friend who checked in the day after that and told me that a staff knocked on his door when the DND sign was turned on for his room, to deliver welcome amenities.

My ratings

Bottom line

It was a great stay with a serious dent in the “soft product”. The silver lining is that bad service and operational standards can be fixed a lot easier with retraining.

While I appreciated the fantastic Elite member recognition, I hope that retraining is done to the team of front office and housekeeping staff so that other guests do not have to go through that ugly experience.