My parents are enjoying their holidays in Malaysia, well, till they came back to the same hotel for 3rd visit this year (and after a few other visits the past years). All to the same hotel, but now a clerk behind the counter thought it was nice to charge RM5000 for a 5 day stay at the Radius hotel, while this might not sound a lot, you should know this is normally only RM210 a night per room per day. Okay they have an extra bed RM57, second room and a RM25 booking fee but that does not make it RM 5000. After some calls and questions where we where spoken to VERY rude by the clerk, he told us it was just a check if there was enough credit and that the prices where correct and this would be charged at the end of their stay.
Now i can understand they want to be sure the customers have the money to stay in the room, our internet bookings for the same hotel did essentially the same but just for the amount we would have to pay at the end of our stay, not about the the double amount.
We where having our suspicion already when booking, the internet site stopped working for bookings after 31-1-2008 and the reachability of the hotel by phone was a complete nightmare.
To make a long story short; avoid the Radius International Hotel in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia as the plague from now on, we where planning for a trip end of April, but we at least know which hotel will not be in our list anymore.
You all have been warned!
Have a view at their website while they still exist: http://www.radius-international.com/kul/ and know where NOT to go.
Update: after the payment after the last day VISA called Radius hotel at once the payment was made and ask them how they could have charged such a high amount beforehand and only ask payment for less as the half of it; they got an official warning from VISA that this was not allowed. In the meantime Radius hotel (personal or friends) is trying to write a nice review at this website; for obvious reasons we do NOT publish these cheap commercials here and only tell our story as it happend. While the post did confirm there is a change in management it is certainly not for the good. We did stay from overseas at Radius at different occasions for multiple times and always have been happy with their service till this year!
In short:
– Reachability ; try to call them for information 1 point out of 10
– Website emails ; try to mail them for information 1 point out of 10
– Try booking a hotel room online; 2 bookings did go well ; 1 booking didnt go trough; in all cases a 3rd bed was calculated EXTRA while the website clearly stated a 3persons bedroom while ordering ; thus 2 out of 10 points here.
– Charging the VISA ; dared to process RM 5000 for a 3 day stay for security purposes on a VISA gold card. 1 out of 10.
– Friendly personnel ; at the desk 1 out of 10, many fights with customers are made by the person behind the desk; hello those customers pay your salary !! other personnel seems to be professional and kind 9 out of 10. Management was not to be seen or did not want to attend angry clients. Apparently there is no higher management after 21:30 (even while they still walk around the front desk is telling they are not around).
My advise; stay away from this hotel till they learn how to threat customers and value their stay.
Overall rating for Radius International Hotel Kuala Lumpur : 1 point out of 10