Penang recently welcome its newest 5-star residence hotel and a new luxury brand to its shore – the Ascott Gurney Penang. Located along the famed Gurney Drive, it took over the previous Gurney Hotel, fully renovated in and then also introduced the Gurney Walk right on its property. The Ascott Residence is the “World’s Leading Serviced Apartment Brand” recognized recently at the prestigious World Travel Awards 2021.
As you walk into this brand new property, you will be greeted with a large grand dual-volume lobby with a nice lobby bar on its side and a grand staircase up to its all-day dining facility. There is also a small art gallery to showcase some local and international artist’s work.
Check-ins are easy, you are greeted by a hostess and led to a personalized check-in table where your documents are all prepared for you to sign and after a RM 200 deposit, you are on your way to your room.
Ascott Gurney Penang has 4 different room types – the Studio Deluxe, Studio Premier, the 1-bedroom Premier and the 2-bedroom Premier. We wanted to get the 2-bedroom Premier but unfortunately it was not available, so we went for one Studio Deluxe and one Studio Premier instead. The 2-bedroom apparently is very limited as they only have one unit each on each floor and is always in high demand especially over the weekends, so do you bookings early if you wanna have that family getaway.
Both the Studio Twin and Studio Premier are similar in size at 44 sqm and the layout only differs slightly with the Studio Premier featuring a fully equipped kitchenette and a small walk-in closet while the Studio Twin bedroom is slightly more spacious without the full kitchenette and the small walk in closet. Both rooms comes with coffee and tea making facilities, electric kettle, mini refrigerator and a water dispenser while the Studio Premier comes with induction cooker, a microwave oven, toaster half-size refrigerator, full set of glassware, cutlery, crockery and utensils. You can even request for a rice cooker (upon availability).
The rooms are spacious and comfortable and nicely decorated in contemporary design with the use of warm-tones. You will find a pair of armed chair and a round table in the room and a long work-station.
The bath design are modern, practical and comes with exclusive eco-friendly APPELLES bath amenities from Australia. It has separated shower stalls with rain shower and for the 2-bedrooms, I heard it comes with a nice sea-facing bathtub.
With its room size being almost 45 sqm, you really feel the spaciousness and would be ideal for a weekend’s getaway or a longer business-trip stay. For entertainment, you get a large (I think 50″ or above) Smart LED TV in the room with a good range of cable channels.
Complimentary high-speed WIFI is provided in the rooms and a lovely buffet breakfast is served daily at Level 1 in its all-day dining outlet.
This residence hotel boast a fully-equipped fitness center and a yoga room and comes with two swimming pools – an infinity pool overlooking the Andaman Sea with ample loungers and a fun and sheltered kids play pool with slides.
There is also a kid’s play-room to keep the young ones entertained.
Ascott Gurney Penang is located strategically in the heart of Georgetown on Gurney Drive which gives you easy accessibility to shopping, food and sight seeing. The main shopping mall in the city – Gurney Plaza (and Gurney Paragon) are about a km away from the hotel while the historical UNESCO World Heritage Site is a mere kilometer and a half away from the hotel.
Food wise, there are plenty available within walking distance from the hotel (if you are looking for fabulous street food of Penang) along Gurney Drive or Burmah Road or Pulau Tikus is just a short 5-minutes Grab ride away.
Complimentary parking is available for the hotel guests at its multi-storey parking lot or there are paid-curb side parking along Gurney Drive if you are not one that likes to turn 4-storeys up to the parking garages.
The hotel also does have MICE and banquet facilities but we did not check it out as it was occupied during our visit.
A little nice welcome gesture from the hotel was a box of Penang’s famous Ban Heang Tau Sar Pneah – nicely laid out in the room with a welcome card. This I believe would be a first among the many hotels I have stayed in Penang.
Currently Ascott Gurney Penang is still running its Opening Promotions where you can get the Studio Deluxe with one breakfast at RM388++ and if you join the Ascott Star Rewards Program which is FREE to join, you get an additional 10% off the best available rates and you do get to collect points which can be used for future stay within the Ascott Group of Hotels.
Ascott Gurney Penang
No 18, Persiaran Gurney
Georgetown, Penang
Tel: +604-3707000
Website: https://www.discoverasr.com/en/ascott-the-residence/malaysia/ascott-gurney-penang
Email: enquiry.penang@the-ascott.com
