Millennium Hotel Jakarta

The Millennium Hotel is located in Sirih which is behind Thamrim, very close to EX, Grand Indonesia, McDonalds and is a mid town priced hotel.

It has 15 floors and the most popular appears to be the 13th floor. All the rooms have great views over the city and are fairly big.
The bed is comfy and the TV is excellent with a good range of channels. The room itself is not the biggest I have stayed in nor the smallest but for the 2 nights I was here, it was very relaxing and quiet. My room was facing out to the east so the think lined curtains needed to be drawn for the sun rise.

The bathroom was fairly small as was the bathtub but it did have a bathtub and plenty of hot water as well which was great, however the shower was not great with limited pressure.

The towels were changed daily and the room made up. There was even a call by someone to see if I needed any laundry done, which I never.

No free Internet access in the room that I could discover. The telephone signal was good however and the 3g was no problem. The AC works far too well and it did get cold at night if you did not change the settings to warm it up a little.

I paid 600,000 rupiah a night through Agoda and there was no fuss at all with the checking in or out.

The breakfast time is between 6 and 10 and there is a good range of breads, fruit, Indonesia and Japanese food. Limited western options but still enough choice to fill you up. The coffee was slow to be refilled but it did arrive.

So overall the hotel is good to stay at and once they have finished the renovations I am sure it will be even better. I would consider staying here again because of the views, the ease of getting to places and the peace and quiet.

links

www.agoda.com
http://www.millenniumhotels.com/

Borburdor

Staying at the Hotel Boroburdur was a nice and pleasant experience, but like I was told it was a good looking place but as soon as you started to look you could see things were broken or did not work as well as perhaps they should.
Located near the Monas and Gambir railway station, Hotel Borobudur has a reputation as the safest hotel in Jakarta in relation to terrorist attacks. This is probably down to the fact that there is tighter security to get in than the airport but once you are in then it is pretty easy to wander around the whole place unmolested or questioned as no one likes to question a western person as they might be important.
The hotel is plush and a 4 star place and could 5 star but I think it would need to be even more luxurious than it is now. Standard rooms start at $100 dollars and go up.
There are many and I mean many staff available the service is pretty good. However I would say the staff are nervous of westerners and also Asians a like and so are a little coy and quiet.
I stayed there for a conference and the rooms were good and the facilities were great. The additional service of constant coffee, water and snacks and food was amazing.
The room I was in was a twin and it had 2 good sized twin beds, a very good ac, the fridge was locked (maybe they know of my reputation) and the usual slippers and robes were available.
The bathroom was neat and not too small and there was a bath tub with shower curtain and a big flat shower head. Sadly I am taller than the shower so I had to bend down to wash.
The soap and things cam in little dispensers shaped like the hotels name, the bells champbers at Boroburdur.
But i felt they looked more sexual and so commented on that.
There was 2 bottles of drinking water provided and after that you had to pay for extra. A pot of tea was 50000 or $5.
So I liked the room. I liked the hotel it is long and tall and huge with lots of conference areas and meetings.
Dripping fans in the Cafe Bogor was not great and slow to refill breakfast items also not great but the food was overall great.

The grounds were big and there was a pool and it looked good. It was raining while we were there and really never had the time.
There is a great big model of the Boroburdur temple in the grounds as well.

I would like to stay there again I think as it could be a good place to chill out over a weekend, it is right in the middle of the city and there are always taxis avaiable. The rooms are very comfortable and the service as I have already mentioned was very good.

By far this is the nicest hotel I have stayed in in Indonesia and one of the best I have been in through out the world (Twin Towers Bangkok, Millenium New York, Somewhere is Cardiff and a  lovely coutnry Estate just outside Bath) and so that is good.

My last thought, floor 7 where I stayed has a corridor that just screams 'the shining'...."Come and play with us. Come and play with us. Forever... and ever... and ever"

Ibis Hotel Tamarin Jakarta

Living in Jakarta has its drawbacks, one being during new year the city fills with traffic and so you cant get anywhere and you spend your time in a car while the new year approaches. So the easiest option for me is to stay in a hotel for a night in the city and then it makes the access and speed to places far easier and faster.
I choose for the 3rd tine the Ibis Hotel in Tamarin. Now in the same street there are 2 Ibis. Why? I dont really know. The Arcadia is the other one and it is smaller and has no pool etc but is equally as comfortable.
The room rate was 600,000 rupiah for the night and this was seasonally inflated of course but still it was ok.
The hotel offers breakfast at another 60,000k and I never took that option as I had no desire to be up and alive before the check out time of 12 noon.
The rooms are small but well laid out with a nice sized double bed which is very comfy and great to sleep in. The TV has lots of channels and there is a lot of information to read.
The bathroom is compact with a big shower cubicle and a fair sized sink area which is well lit. The water was not the fastest but it was hot and the towels are big and very clean.
There is a mini bar which was empty and you are provided with a kettle and water and tea and coffee. They also put some candy in the room also.
The rooms are spotlessly clean.

I used the hotel just for its location and it was well priced amongst other hotels in the area and so did not really expect much apart from what I have already written.

I will use Ibis again as they are both simple and located in key parts of the city.