KNO Hotel Review: Grand Swiss-Bel Hotel

Sometime in June last year, I trotted to the West Island of Indonesia, Sumatra – the city of Medan – with 2 of my friends to visit the world’s largest crater lake (Lake Toba). If you’re interested in reading up, click here. If not… About 8 months down the road, I went back to Medan again – this time for work, not leisure. The last time that I went to Medan, I didn't have time to visit the city centre. So, I was pretty excited to be back at the city centre.  However, reality failed to live up to my expectations. I’m not really sure what is the reason behind, but there seems to be a hidden slogan among the Medanese. I heard from my local colleagues, “Medanese are Loud and Proud”. Or something along these lines. And they are indeed loud. Everywhere in the city, you can hear cars honking at one another, getting irritated with one another for cutting lanes (as if that isn’t what you see in Indonesia everyday)…

I was really quite turn off by the way people handled traffic there. However, the people there were still pretty friendly. 

My main purpose there was for the preparation and the opening of Uniqlo’s first store in Medan City – the one and only at this point in time (2018). Yes, I went back twice and both times, I stayed at a nearby hotel. About a 5-10mins ride away (depending on the traffic).

Each time I checked into the hotel, there was a welcome drink. It tasted a lot like lemon grass cooked with a lot of sugar and water and steeped with ginger because the drink was rather ‘spicy’. According to the staff at the check-in counter, I was given an upgrade during my stay from February 22-23 but it didn’t really feel like an upgrade.

Besides the extra walkway space, since it was a corner room, it look similar as the images I saw online… Well, maybe for the additional sqm then.

But the second time I stayed there from March 14-16... Now this is what I call an upgrade! Hahaha.

I got upgraded to the business floor of the hotel, that comes with a bathtub! Awesome~! But the sad thing came, the bathtub was leaky. And I didn't know about it. So, after my bath, I found the flooded floor. Thankfully the bathroom door has a raised floor gap so the water doesn't flow out. Called housekeeping and they mentioned they will take a look the next morning but when I returned and bathed, it was still the same. Well, I had my bath, I felt good and I was already checking out the next day. So, frankly. I didn't bother anymore.

Random Lunch photo at the Mall

Aside from the leaky bathtub, my experience with Grand Swiss-Bel was rather decent. Then again, I’m pretty easy to satisfy I think. All I ask for is a clean bed with good pillows (preferably firm), clean towels, and a pair of indoor slippers. And if they would like to pamper me more, they can throw in a tub – which they did, albeit leaky! The only downside is that because this hotel is in the city centre, there is quite a lot of traffic even at night, and it can get a wee bit too noisy for comfort.