Luxury Hotels

Yet another stunning new KL luxury hotel

Colour in the lobby

One thing needs to be pointed about Kuala Lumpur.  All three of its new luxury hotels are within a few minutes’ walk of the Twin Towers and adjacent KLCC park. The next thing to remember is that this city has grown out of all recognition. Only a few years ago you could, and did, easily walk around all the central areas. Now the authorities have made it well nigh impossible to walk at street level: there are just about enough overhead walkways but if you are not exactly au fait with the city’s geography you might, as the gal did, end up in a shopping mall rather than back in a street. The moral?  If you are staying a hotel stay put, and enjoy simply being there, particularly if it has a lobby as colourful as that of W Kuala Lumpur.

The Woobar

And as is company standard, there is a multi-colour Woobar. This 150-room hotel opened August 2018, a full seven years after the contract was signed. It is owned by Tan Sri Dato’ Tan Chee Sing, whose sons apparently are fervent enthusiasts of the W hotels they know in Hong Kong and Taipei.  For this hotel, the owners chose Australian designer Nic Graham, who had actually done W Hong Kong, as well as W Brisbane, and Indigo Taipei. In Hong Kong, he had a 76th floor rooftop pool to play with.  Here, at W Kuala Lumpur, the Wet Deck, as it is called, is magnet for many guests and local visitors – the day I called by for lunch with the GM, Christian Metzner (above, by the pool) a coterie of ladies belonging to the Malaysia-South American Association, or similar, were having lunch, and a hilarious time taking poolside selfies.

Tiffin dishes for breads

Another pool, a 10-metre private pool, goes with the 520 sq m Extreme Wow Suite.  Not surprisingly it was booked when I was there, so I need to go back to see it.  I also need, or rather want, to return to eat here. The hotel’s Culinary Director, Richard Millar, is from Melbourne and he is passionate about farm to table.  He has cultivated a female farmer in the Cameron Highlands who grows about 30 items exclusively for the hotel: they are picked the previous night, placed in a truck to leave at four a.m., for arrival at the hotel at 10 a.m.  Millar works with another farm growing his herbs, and he has close relations with a chicken farm, and a cheese maker right here in Kuala Lumpur.  About 50% of the hotel’s produce is thus this fresh. Yes, costs are slightly higher but the flavour and freshness are incomparable, say both culinarian and GM.  And customers love it.

Salmon atop a healthy salad

The W brand has always been about partying but now, says Christian Metzner, it stresses fuel – for which read ‘good food’ – and fashion. It could also extend to favourite.  As with all W hotels, this luxury place has W Insiders, or concierges.  The hotel has deliberately chosen two switched-on females. One is a practising musician, who knows all about the best concerts in town. The other is more into fashion, and sounds like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to openings and sales, and between them they even seem to be able to identify the best graffiti and more. But, as I said earlier, it might just make sense not to go anywhere, just stay put inside this fun luxury hotel.