Review: AC Hotel Kuala Lumpur (Deluxe Room)

What benefits to expect when you stay at AC Hotel Kuala Lumpur as a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium or Platinum Elite member?

The hotel originally opened in 1995 as Vistana Hotel and was last renovated in 2014. It was recently rebranded to AC Hotel in 2020 and has a total of 362 rooms.

You will typically need 5,000 to 15,000 points per night for award stays.

Location

The hotel is located in the old, Chow Kit area of Kuala Lumpur, close to the new sister hotel, Fairfield Kuala Lumpur Jalan Pahang. This old part of the city appear “rundown” in some parts and the area may not be nice to walk around in.

However, it is really easy to get a GrabCar to other parts of the city from the lobby and we never felt like security was an issue in the area outside the hotel, where there are convenience stores open 24 hours a day.

• 10 mins drive to Sunway Putra Mall
• 12 mins drive to KLCC
• 15 mins drive to KL Sentral train station
• 50 mins drive to Kuala Lumpur International Airport

Arrival

Upon check in, I was assigned a room on the highest floor and given a welcome note, offering complimentary tapas at AC Lounge.

Deluxe Room

Room 1419 is 28sqm/301sqft in size.

The room felt like a basic 4-star hotel room, just the kind you would expect from a hotel with this award rate, that was built in 1995.

All-day renovation noise

During my stay, I heared loud slamming noises till 11pm and it started at around 9am the next morning.

Upon checking with multiple front office staff the entire evening, one of them finally told me that the 15th floor (above my room) is undergoing renovation works.

It’s a shame that I was not told beforehand. The front office staff could have been honest about it from the start and moved us to a different floor.

I reached out to the management and was offered a full refund of 5,000 Marriott points as service recovery.

Welcome snack

Platinum members and above receive complimentary lamb prosciutto per stay that can consumed at AC Lounge from 5.30 to 7.30pm.

It is a fantastic gesture for a “lower-end” brand like AC Hotels to offer such an additional benefit for Elite members.

However, the tapas was hard and tasteless. The staff at AC Lounge were very unfriendly too. This “benefit” felt like a nice little trick to get Elite members to spend on a few drinks at the bar.

Other facilities

Breakfast is complimentary for Platinum members and above and it is held as a buffet at AC Kitchen. My partner and I skipped breakfast as we were having a headache from noise in the room.

My ratings

This is how I am rating my stay, after considering what I paid:

Bottom line

It wasn’t a memorable stay, to say the least. Without the noise, I think the hotel offers a fair value with an award rate starting at 5,000 points per night.

However, this hotel is not in North America. We have higher hotel standards in this part of the world! When a hotel is lacking, guests do not need to settle, as there are other great ones around.

I recommend staying at Fairfield Jalan Pahang or Four Points Chinatown, which have similar award rates, better location and overall quality.