Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

View of Petronas Towers from Tower View Room, Traders Hotel

The past 12 months have been my busiest ever in terms of traveling; 6 countries and 8 cities – all within Asia.  When you do so much traveling, you really do appreciate staying at a nice hotel and  generally five star hotels in Asia are great value.

Noodlies, Sydney food and travel blog has stayed in so many hotels that I fear I’m starting to get a little discerning, dare I say more demanding.  It’s more obvious when staff just aren’t trying or even worse – they haven’t been trained properly. My other pet hate are charges are outrageously high for essentials like internet.

Because I’m often on a sponsored writing assignment I generally stay only a few days in one city at a time – there’s not a moment to waste and a good location is a must.

I decided on Traders Hotel for the Kuala Lumpur leg of our Malaysian visit.  Traders is part of the Shangri-La group and caters for the more modern, relaxed business clientele – they offer all the comfort and service without the stuffiness.  The brand previously traded as Traders by Shangri-La, but has since developed such as loyal following that the ‘Shangri-La’ slowly dropped off their branding.

There’s plenty to about Traders:

Complimentary internet: As far as I’m concerned twitter, wordpress, instagram, email and facebook are essential ways to engage with noodlies’ audience. And that interaction needs to happen frequently.  Internet is essential and in my opinion, it should be free. Yet many hotels, especially the five stars, still charge exorbitant daily rates for internet.  Traders offers free wifi across the hotel, public areas as well as guest rooms.  Hooray!  Though a word of caution, internet can be noticeably slow when many guests are online.

Location: Arguably, KL’s most famous landmark is the Petronas twin towers, looming large over the horizon.  Underneath the towers, the up-market Suria KLCC Shopping Centre occupies six floors.   Both are an easy stroll from Traders or minutes via the complimentary shuttle service  (see the noodlies video above).

Get a Twin Towers room – the view is jaw-droppingly impressive – the pic above is taken from my room without camera zoom.  It’s literally minutes from Bukit Bintang, another KL shopping haven.  Chinatown and Little India are only around 10 minutes by taxi and costs about A$3.

SkyBar & Pool at the Traders Hotel

SkyBar & Pool: On the 33rd floor, this pool by day cum nightclub by night affords stunning, panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur.  Friends of twitter rated SkyBar highly and it didn’t disappoint. We were there most afternoons cooling down in the pool and soaking up that spectacular view.  Watch the SkyBar transform from day to night with the help of narration by the lovely Theresa Goh from Traders Hotel.

Warm glow from Traders Hotel bathroom

Gourmet muffins to welcome guests at Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Room: I’m out researching most of the day, when I’m back at the hotel, I need comfort.  The king size bed at Traders is one of the most comfortable I’ve experienced, the bed was firm but comfortable and matched with fluffy generous pillows.  I’m used to Hong Kong, where the rooms are tiny – here, it’s roomy without being over the top huge.  The bathroom was especially spacious, separate bath and shower with unique back lit orange marble look basin.

Friendly, helpful staff: teh tarik anyone?

Service: I’m super impressed by the young and enthusiastic staff.  The greetings were genuinely warm and they really did seem to want you to have a good time.  After three days in Langkawi, we came back to Traders, the check in as well as restaurant staff still remembered us.  I was super impressed that one waiter who even remembered our usual breakfast coffee order.

Freshly made pastries for breakfast at Gobo Chit Chat

Breakfast: at Gobo Chit Chat was delicious and generous at Traders; cook to order eggs, soups, freshly made roti, sushi and pastries as well as an amazing selection of juices.  Read the noodlies review here.

Traders comes highly recommended by my twitter friends and now also by noodlies.  A few suggestions if you do decide to stay at Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur:

• Note, the lobby is on the fifth floor, you’ll arrive at ground floor and staff will help you to get your luggage up to the lobby to check in.  Once on the fifth floor, there’s several ‘roving’ staff to direct guests to check in and answer any questions.
• It’s worth booking a Twin Towers room, the Petronas Towers are stunning especially at night.
• If your budget stretches, book a room on the Traders Club floor (25-31) and you’ll get access to the Traders Lounge on th3 32nd floor, where you can check in and out, access complimentary beverages all day and coktails between 5pm – 7pm.
• Try their buffet breakfast at Gobo Chit Chat – the freshly made roti with Malaysia curry is highly recommended as is their home made roti and Malaysian curries.  Full review here.
• Visit the SkyBar pool before 3pm and enjoy stunning views before it starts to get crowded.
• Stroll to Suria KLCC shopping centre via the Convention Centre, it’s not much further and it’s airconditioned.

Traders Hotel
Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088, Malaysia
Tel (60 3) 2332 9888

Noodlies, Sydney food and travel blog and friend were guests of Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

Noodlies Malaysian posts were done with my super light, compact but powerful Lenovo X220 laptop – I call it “Junior” we’re inseparable these days, with thanks to Lenovo Australia and New Zealand.