T RIED AND TE ST E D H OT E L
BE ST FOR ... JW Marriott Hong Kong
Its spacious and well-catered new executive lounge.
D ON’ T MI S S...
Choosing from six diff erent pillows from the hotel’s “pillow menu”.
P R ICE
Internet rates for a king bed Executive room with executive lounge access and “harbour view” in
mid-May start from HK$3,784 (US$482) per night.
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B A C KGROUND The JW Marriott Hong Kong, which opened in February 1989, renovated all of its 608 guestrooms and suites between March and September 2018. The hotel also opened its new executive lounge in June 2018. The fitness centre is undergoing refurbishment for three months from March 1, reopening on June 1.
WHERE IS IT ? The hotel is one of four luxury hotels clustered around the Swire- owned Pacific Place shopping centre, which sits atop Admiralty MTR station. This MTR station is great for connectivity, being on three diff erent lines: the Island Line, Tsuen Wan Line and South Island Line. If it’s raining, there’s no need to go outside as the hotel connects directly to the shopping centre and MTR station below.
WHAT ’S IT LIKE? I arrived at a spacious fourth-floor lobby that’s well lit with natural light from the huge windows. There was no wait for check-in. The receptionist off ered to have three English-language newspapers posted to my room in the morning.
ROOMS I stayed in an Executive room with a king-size bed and harbour view. The Executive rooms are located on levels 28 to 29 and 31 to 35, and measure from 33 to 37 sqm. Within seconds of entering the room, a staff member arrived to pour my “welcome tea", which was Iron Buddha. Fruits were also provided, as well as two snack dumplings and Chinese-style biscuits. The exquisite Sealy mattress makes up for the relatively small room size. The pillows are equally comfortable, but if for whatever
AP RIL 20 19
The refurbishment has given the rooms a fresher feel; the new lounge is excellent
reason they aren’t to your liking, you can select a new one from a list of six from the “pillow menu”. Despite room 3307’s harbour view, the hotel is a fair way back from the harbour, so you get more of a mix of harbour and skyscrapers. I could still hear sirens blaring and the nails-on-a-blackboard-esque screech of trams plying the route between Central and Wan Chai, despite being on the 33rd floor. The noise was muted and infrequent, though, and I wouldn’t consider it a major disturbance. Two power adaptors are provided in the room, handy if, like me, you usually forget yours. The bathroom isn’t enormous by
international standards, but it comes with a nice selection of toiletries. The standalone shower had good water pressure, but fans of rainfall showers will have to go elsewhere.
E XECUTIVE LOU NGE Located on the fifth floor, this huge lounge used to be a steakhouse and seafood bar called Flint, and the new lounge has kept that name. The old executive lounge was on the 33rd and 34th floors, meaning that food had to be brought up from downstairs, but the new lounge has its own in-built kitchen. A wide selection of food and drinks is available, and the so-called hors d’oeuvres are so plentiful you could easily make them into a light dinner.
FOOD AND DRINK Man Ho Chinese Restaurant is on level three and off ers Cantonese cuisine, including dim sum. The
C ONT A C T
marriott.com
Lounge, also on level three, has a strong focus on its tea selection from Canton Tea Company. It also off ers Sunday lunch buff ets, afternoon tea buff ets, and supper buff ets on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Bar Q88, which reopened following a 2016 makeover, has a band playing every night except Sundays. JW Cafe is an all-day dining restaurant, somewhat more upscale than The Lounge. Outside by the pool on level seven is Fish Bar, which serves fish and seafood, as well as cocktails and snacks.
L EIS U RE The LG floor Health Club began a three-month renovation in March. Previously, there was a good amount of equipment, but packed into a slightly too small space. Sadly, the pool was closed for maintenance during my stay.
MEE TING S The LG floor business centre off ers four bookable meeting rooms at varying prices.
VERDIC T It’s diff icult to find much to fault with this hotel. The refurbishment has given the guestrooms a fresher feel and the new executive lounge is truly excellent. The beds are really comfortable and I got a great night’s sleep. If this hotel is within your budget, you are going to want to weigh up staying here versus other similar properties of its calibre in the city, but if you do pick the JW Marriott Hong Kong, I doubt you will be disappointed. Michael Allen
bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
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