Amari SPICE Penang

The best hotel ever

The hotel itself is very new and hence why it looks good and clean. But there are too many instances that the hospitality severely lacked maturity and polish: 1) No porter for heavy bags despite calling in advance upon arrival, the reception lady struggled with the bags herself instead-felt bad and hence offered to do it myself. Porter eventually came only much later. 2)Hotel staff's failure to validate my car plate for parking means often getting stuck at the parking or getting unnecessarily charged. Error happened multiple times to the point I got frustrated and I just paid for a 3 day Valet in advance. The parking company staff dealt with this situation better than the hotel staff themselves. 3) Lack of communication between Valet and Security staff. Despite taking pictures of car and plate, security proceeded to hush me away as i was driving a more "economy" car without listening that I have paid in advance and actually didn't believe when I mentioned I have paid for 3 days of Valet in advance and urged me to park underground instead. Their reasoning was a change of staff shift. But this happened 2 days in a row with the same staff rotation. 4) My king bed is basically 2 super singles pushed together, so the middle of the bed is firm and juts out which was quite painful. 5) Dirty dishes in when dining in for breakfast at the cereal station. Visible dirt in the bowls, and bowls stained fingers with sticky substance when picked up from the bottom. Was a big turn-off. 6) There were a few exceptional staff who made my day much better, but they got swamped by the dissappinting lack of attention to detail a majority of their staff. 7) Hospitality can make or break a stay. Once glitz and glamour of a new place wears off, the staff working behind the scenes are arguably more important than the building itself. There are hotels I've stayed in Penang which are significantly older (and cheaper) but were lifted significantly by excellent Hospitality. Unfortunately, this has not been the case got Amari Spice Penang.

What’s not to love about Amari Spice? The spacious rooms and wide variety of food selections are fantastic, and they even offer kuih raya! Most importantly, the staff is super friendly and makes you feel at home. I want to give a special shout-out to Syafiqah for her patience in taking several photos for me and her upbeat personality! I also appreciate Amira for kindly offering me a discount on the buffet when I ran out of cash. 🥹