We stayed at The RuMa Hotel and Residences for two nights when we visited Kuala Lumpur at the end of December 2022. We settled on this property for the trip as we wanted to stay at a hotel with a good view of the Petronas Twin Towers and The RuMa Hotel and Residences seem like a great choice.
The RuMa Hotel and Residences Stay Details
Table of Contents
Hotel Background and Information
The RuMa, which means home in the Malay language, opened in 2018 with part of the development being luxury residences. The property is being managed by Urban Resort Concepts, which counts two other luxury hotels in Shanghai and Beijing as part of its portfolio. The RuMa Hotel and Residences is the first member of The Leading Hotels of the World in Kuala Lumpur.
The hotel has 253 rooms, with the breakdown of the room types as follows:
The hotel is centrally located in Kuala Lumpur and is within walking distance from a number of the city’s attractions. Pavilion Shopping Mall, the city’s high-end mall in Bukit Bintang, the main shopping area, is just a few minutes away on foot. Guests also have easy access to plenty of food options within the hotel’s vicinity.
Monorail stations that are near the hotel:
- Raja Chulan (8 mins walk) – KL Monorail Line (MR7)
Tourist attractions that are near the hotel:
- Aquaria KLCC (3 mins walk)
- KLCC Park (3 mins walk)
- Petronas Twin Towers (11 mins walk)
- KL Tower (8 mins drive)
- Petaling Street Market; Chinatown (8 mins drive)
Nearby Malls:
- Pavilion Kuala Lumpur (9 mins walk) – Large high-end mall with all the major luxury brands.
- Suria KLCC (10 mins walk) – Another large high-end mall located just beneath the Petronas Twin Towers.
Booking Process and Pricing
We booked this property more than six months out as it was a super peak period during the time of our stay.
There wasn’t any particular offer when we booked and after comparing the flexible rate (which came with Virtuoso benefits when booked through a luxury travel advisor) against several OTAs, we decided that we were better off going with the OTAs in this case.
As Trip.com happened to offer the lowest rate at that time, we made our booking with the site.
As a side note, we did email the hotel before we made our booking as we had some queries but the hotel did not respond to our email. A quick check on TripAdvisor revealed that the hotel doesn’t have a great track record of replying to emails.
Check-in & Lobby
We reached the hotel at around 12:45 pm and the lobby was not very busy. As we walked toward the front desk, a member of the staff approached us to assist. After learning that we were checking in, we were ushered to a seat in the lobby for the check-in formalities.
While waiting for the paperwork to be completed, we were offered a welcome drink as well as two alcoholic sanitizing wipes. The welcome drink was sour plum soda which was refreshing.
Check-in formalities were completed within ten minutes and the front desk staff gave us our welcome letter and went through the various facilities as part of the process.
All rooms at The RuMa Hotel and Residences come with complimentary minibar which is replenished daily if the guest is staying a minimum of two nights.
Suite guests are entitled to the following additional benefits:
- Daily breakfast for two at the restaurant, or in the room.
- Guaranteed early check-in at 1100 hrs and late check-out at 1800 hrs.
- Daily evening cocktail and canapes from 1730 hrs to 1930 hrs.
- Complimentary laundry and pressing services of up to five pieces a day.
- 2-hour boardroom usage.
We feel that most of the additional benefits for suite guests are valuable, with the guaranteed late check-out being particularly useful as we had a late flight.
We appreciated the option to have breakfast in-room as well, and the daily evening cocktail and canapes were sufficient as a dinner replacement (more on that below) though it does get boring after two days as the menu doesn’t change.
We were then given our card keys and off we went to our assigned suite.
Room: Deluxe Suite
The development is 40 stories tall with the hotel occupying the first 18 floors. We were given a suite on the 13th floor which is a corner unit with views of the Petronas Twin Towers. The Deluxe Suite we had booked measures 60 sqm (646 Sqft) with separate living and bedroom.
Entering the suite, there is a small foyer where the minibar is found on the right of the entrance, while the switches are on the left.
The minibar area takes the form of a half-height wooden cabinet with a stone top.
On the minibar, there are six bottles of house-branded water placed beside a Nespresso machine.
A teapot set is found next to the Nespresso machine should you be in the mood for some tea.
Next in line are the complimentary snacks which consist of local snacks such as fish muruku (crackers), haw flakes (sweets made of hawthorn fruit), salted almonds, cashew nuts, and macadamias. It is uncommon for hotels to provide a range of snacks when the minibar is complementary and this is something commendable.
A hygiene kit is also provided and counts a hand sanitizer and two face masks as part of the package.
Kept in the drawers of the minibar are three complimentary tea bags from Harney & Sons, six Nespresso coffee capsules, cutlery, crockery, and a kettle.
The minibar fridge is stocked with two bottles of water, juices, soft drinks, beer, and cider, all of which are complimentary and replenished daily. Similar to the snacks, again there is a good range of different drinks available which even included two types of beer which we appreciate.
Separated by a half-partition wall from the foyer is the suite’s living room. The small but cozy living has a daybed, a rather large oval coffee table, a ceiling fan, a dining table with two chairs, and a television.
The daybed is great for lounging and a perfect corner for watching television or a reading a book.
There is also a power outlet located beside the daybed if there is a need to charge your electronic devices.
Across the room from the day bed is a round dining table with two chairs that could double up as a work desk though the chairs do not look comfortable for prolonged seating.
Mounted on the wall and close to the dining table are two universal power outlets and two USB-A outlets for your electronic devices charging needs.
Guests enjoy complimentary WIFI and we did a test on the WIFI speed as follows:
The 40-inch Samsung television is placed on a console by the window. There is a phone, a pot of flowers, and some writing materials. A room service breakfast menu is also placed on the television console for guests to request in-room breakfast.
With the hotel being surrounded by several tall buildings, there is not much of a view from the living room.
The bedroom is separated from the living room by a sliding door.
On either side of the sliding door is the switch to control the living room’s electronic blinds and the controls for the air-conditioner as well as the bedroom light dimmer.
The light dimmer is the only type of lighting control in the room and it was a hassle to use as we had to toggle through the different modes each time we wanted to switch the lights off.
The control for the air-conditioner was not immediately obvious as the temperature was not displayed when in ‘sleep mode’. The temperature only shows up on the display when the buttons are pressed.
The bedroom of the suite is much larger than the living room and is made up of a sleeping area, and a sitting area.
In the sleeping area of the bedroom is a King Koil king-sized bed which was on the soft side in our opinion. The pillows weren’t particularly comfortable either and we had to request another pillow from the pillow menu.
In case anyone is interested, the pillow menu reads as follows:
There are no bedside tables in the bedroom though there is a ledge behind the headboard where the switches and power outlets are built-in.
The lack of beside tables means that there is limited space to put our stuff and there was only enough space for our phones, two bottles of water, and two glasses.
Each side of the bed has a set of identical power outlets with one universal 230V power outlet as well as two USB-A outlets.
The blackout blinds of the bedroom are controlled by switches on the ledge while the Venetian blinds are raised and lowered manually (a hassle to lower or raise).
Below is what the bedroom looks like with the blinds lowered:
Moving on to the sitting area in the bedroom, there is a three-seater sofa, an armchair, a coffee table, a ceiling fan, and a 40-inch television in this area.
We did find the television to be on the small side and the place where the television was positioned meant that it was not possible to watch TV from the bed.
Having said that, this is a nice area to chill in with an excellent view of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers.
The bathroom can be accessed by the two sliding doors on either side of the bed and has a long rectangular layout with a wardrobe in the middle flanked by a single vanity on either side. The toilet and the shower and bathtub area are at opposite ends of the bathroom.
The wardrobe has two sections, the left section is where the drawers are, which is also where the laundry bag, safe, and bedroom slippers are found.
The bedroom slippers come in two different sizes.
As mentioned earlier, suite guests are entitled to five pieces of complimentary laundry/ pressing daily and these are non-cumulative (you are not allowed to bring over the previous day’s entitlement to the next day if you did not use it).
We used the laundry service on the first day and only got back our clothes at around 9 pm the next day as the service is outsourced.
This meant that we could not use the laundry service on our last day as we would not be able to get our clothes back before we left even with the 6 pm late checkout. This is a point to take into consideration if you are planning to send some clothes for laundry especially if you are only staying for a night.
For non-suite guests, laundry is chargeable and the price list reads as follows:
The right section of the wardrobe has several hangers as well as an umbrella, a torch, an iron, and an ironing board.
We did not notice this during our stay but after reviewing the pictures we realized that the iron wasn’t in the room when we first arrived, it was only placed in the wardrobe subsequently.
On either side of the wardrobe is a single vanity with slightly different toiletries placed in the drawers.
The vanity on the right side has a small countertop mirror which is not found on the left side.
There is a hairdryer, a bottle of house-branded body lotion, a toothbrush, AME toothpaste, a comb, a shaving kit, a nail file, a shower cap, and a vanity kit in the drawer. On the countertop was a glass and a house-branded hand soap.
The vanity on the left side had a rather empty countertop which had only a glass and a house-branded hand soap.
In the left vanity drawer, there is a remote control for the bathroom TV, a toothbrush, AME toothpaste, a nail file, a comb, a shaving kit, a shower cap, cotton buds, a box of tissue, a sewing kit, and a bottle of house-branded body lotion.
Next to the right vanity is the enclosed toilet which is separated from the rest of the bathroom via a glass partition.
The toilet does not have a bidet but does have a handheld spray.
Opposite the toilet at the far end of the bathroom is the enclosed shower area which is also where the bathtub is placed.
We prefer the shower to be next to the bathtub in the same enclosed area as the one in our suite as that would mean that we need not track across the bathroom and wet the floor in the process after using the bathtub.
The shower is made up of a rainshower and a handheld shower. Water pressure was strong and consistent and that goes for the water temperature as well.
The shower mixer tap is easy to use which is a plus point though there are stains on the mixer (and also on the rainshower head) as seen from the picture. Black bathroom accessories might look slick but they are hard to maintain.
Next to the shower is a freestanding bathtub which is large enough to fit two.
There are some toiletries placed around the bathtub and these include house-branded shampoo, body wash, conditioner, a pack of bath salts, and a loofah.
There is a bathroom television installed but if you are not in the mood for TV, the view of the Petronas Twin Towers would not be a bad substitute.
Facilities
The RuMa Hotel and Residences is equipped with the following facilities:
There is an outdoor infinity pool located on level 6 of the hotel.
There were several people in the pool the first time we dropped by shortly after breakfast on a weekend. There was almost nobody in the pool when we visited a second time the following day sometime in the afternoon.
The pool had a rectangular trapezium-like shape which meant that it wasn’t very big. It did seem long enough for some short laps though.
At 1.2m deep, the pool seems shallow though we are unsure if this is the depth across the entire pool.
A small kids’ pool can be found at one end of the pool.
There are very few loungers around the immediate area of the pool and you probably couldn’t get a tan on one of these since they are under the shelter.
Having said that, more loungers can be found opposite the gym and these are unsheltered.
The Petronas Twin Towers can also be seen from the pool deck, though it is less clear if the towers can be seen from the pool as we did not use the pool.
The hotel’s gym is also located on the same level as the pool.
The gym is not very big, but despite that, it does have the basics which include weights, bench presses, and treadmills to name a few.
There is a fridge that has complimentary water and isotonic drink.
There is also a weighing scale and some yoga mats available for use.
On the same level as the pool and the gym is the spa which we did not visit.
Restaurants, Breakfast & The Librari
There are three dining outlets and a lounge in The RuMa Hotel and Residences.
SEVEN lobby bar serves drinks and bar snacks and is located on the ground floor opposite the check-in desks.
SANTAI poll bar and lounge is on level 6 right beside the pool.
The Librari is the hotel’s afternoon tea and evening cocktails venue and is located on the ground floor, beside SEVEN lobby bar.
As suite guests, we were entitled to daily evening cocktails and canapes from 1730 hrs to 1930 hrs as part of our suite benefit.
We went to The Librari at around 6 pm on both evenings and the venue was about three-quarters full on the first evening while it was almost empty on the second. Upon arrival, we were quickly seated and handed the menu.
The menu is the same on both days and is as follows:
There are two mains, several snacks, desserts, and a selection of drinks available, and these can serve as a dinner replacement.
Once we were ready to order, it was not difficult to get the attention of the service staff as the venue was not at capacity. Service, however, was slow and it took quite a while for all our food and drinks to arrive.
Across two evenings, we managed to try all the food items on the menu and several drinks. Most of the items were of average quality but the chicken satay was very good. We liked it so much that we ordered it a few times.
The hotel’s all-day dining restaurant, ATAS is located on the second level and serves modern Euro-Asian cuisine. The restaurant is also the breakfast venue that we visited on the first morning of our stay.
We dropped by for breakfast at around 0930 hrs and as per the notice below, the restaurant was rather full. Despite that, we were attended to shortly and seated after only a short wait.
Once we were seated, our drinks order was taken and we were handed a menu for the egg items.
The buffet line had a large number of items for selection. Among the hot items was a variety of local food as well as a live noodle station.
There were also cereals, cheese, and cold cuts on offer.
And there was a wide range of pastries, bread, milk, fruits, and juice.
We felt that the food on offer generally tasted good and we liked the fact that there was a wide range of options.
Other than having breakfast in the restaurant, suite guests can also opt to have breakfast in-room, as part of the suite benefits. We feel that this is a great move by the hotel as it can not only alleviate the overcrowding situation at the restaurant in the morning, but the option is also customer-centric as it provides flexibility for breakfast.
As we wanted to find out how this option compares to that in the restaurant, we chose this option on the second morning for breakfast.
To place our order for breakfast, we had to fill in a breakfast menu card that is placed in-room. Once completed, the card has to be hung outside the door before 0200 hrs each day.
The in-room breakfast menu is as follows:
In case anyone is interested, we have also included the full room service menu below:
We request for breakfast to be delivered at 0930 hrs the next morning and we are pleased to report that the breakfast was delivered at 0932 hrs, almost at the time we requested for.
We ordered items from both the western and Asian sections of the menu and felt that the food was reasonably good. The amount of food was more than we could finish so in terms of the quantity we weren’t losing out as compared to having breakfast in the restaurant.
Variety-wise, in-room dining obviously cannot be compared to the options available at the buffet, but we did notice that certain items on the room service breakfast menu are not available at the buffet so it is still worth trying out the in-room breakfast at least once if you have a multiple nights stay.
Overall Impression
We had a great stay at The RuMa Hotel and Residences despite encountering some minor issues.
To sum things up:
The suite we stayed in at The RuMa Hotel and Residences had an unobstructed view of the Petronas Twin Towers which we loved.
The property has a central location and we could walk to a number of the city’s attractions such as KLCC Park and the Petronas Twin Towers. The hotel is also a short walk away from Bukit Bintang, the city’s shopping and entertainment district which made it convenient for shopping or to dine out.
The guaranteed 1800 hrs late check-out, complimentary minibar, and evening cocktails are also major plus points for us which we very much appreciate.
We will return to The RuMa Hotel and Residences and would recommend the property to those looking to stay at a centrally located hotel.
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