Short review
Value for money: 5/5 – Very reasonable price for such a great hotel
Services: 5/5 – Outstanding service from all the staff; the best feature of the hotel
Bedroom: 4/5 – Very spacious bedroom
Bathroom: 5/5 – Luxurious
Breakfast: 5/5 – A wide variety of dishes made breakfast enjoyable
Facilities and amenities: 4.5/5 – Excellent facilities and amenities
Pros
- Spacious room
- Beautiful colonial design
- Personalised service from the hotel staff
- Excellent massage services
Cons
- Ants in the room on the first few days
Long Review
My family and I stayed 2 weeks in Hotel Majapahit Surabaya again. I said ‘again’ because this is our third time staying in this heritage luxury hotel in Surabaya, Indonesia. I encourage you to read my previous review here, which provides more details about this wonderful hotel. In this review, I will mainly focus on differences that we experienced and observed.
It’s great to see familiar faces when we arrived in the hotel. The welcome from the staff was warm and friendly. One staff also helped me park my car in the car park, so I didn’t need to do it myself. He also brought my mobile phone into the reception which I left in the car. Thank you for the attention. Much appreciated.
We were allocated in the same room as previous stays. This is a Majapahit Legendary Suite room, a very spacious 97 sqm one-bedroom suite. The open plan living space takes about half the room size and it has an office corner, a living area, and a dining area. The other half is taken by a massive bedroom and a spacious bathroom. In the previous trip, there was an outdoor space with a kitchenette. The kitchenette has now been removed, making this space practically useless. The loss of the microwave which used to be here was a pity. I appreciated the bedtime stories provided on the bed because they knew that my 20-month old daughter, Josie, was staying with us.
Generally, we were very happy with this spacious room. The only annoyance was that we found ants marching on a long line from outside into the dining and living areas. They were persistent for a few days before disappearing.
Now let’s review the facilities and amenities outside the room. As usual, there are many beautiful spots for taking photos in this unique colonial design hotel. The well-trimmed gardens were famous for taking wedding photos, while the ballroom has hosted many events and celebrations.
There is a new addition in the lobby which was decorated in red due to the impending Chinese New Year. It’s a lift! This is a welcome addition and increase the accessibility around the hotel, particularly to access the Sarkies Restaurant in the first floor which was only accessible by stairs previously. The bakery was moved to the lobby area to accommodate the lift, which I think improves the layout of the hotel.
Since we are talking about Sarkies, there are two restaurants in the hotel. Sarkies is a Chinese fine dining restaurant. In my opinion, the yang chow fried rice was outstanding; very delicious. The second restaurant is Indigo, which serves a fusion of Western and Indonesia dishes. The fried oxtail and soup was perhaps the best dish in Indigo, while I suggest avoiding the vegan risotto. Overall, my family and I enjoyed many delicious dishes in both restaurants (either eat in or through room service). I must say that the prices are very reasonable. More people should definitely try these two restaurants.
Breakfast was an enjoyable daily occasion. Last year, breakfast was served in the terrace area, which had both indoor and outdoor spaces. This area was being renovated when we were there, so breakfast was served in Indigo instead. The layout here is I think better than that in the terrace, although it does not offer an outdoor space (it’s way too warm for us anyway). Indigo does offer a view of one of the main streets in Surabaya though. The variety of dishes was good, a bit better than last year due to the introduction of new dishes. They also offered 4 unique egg dishes.
Other facilities in the hotel include a swimming pool, a gym, and the Majapahit Spa by Martha Tilaar. The swimming pool was clean and big enough for doing several laps. It also has a small paddle kiddie pool, which was fun for Josie. I noticed that the gym now has new equipment, which was good. I’ve been commenting on this in the past 2 years. The massage offered in the Majapahit Spa was very enjoyable as usual. I must add that this time, they also have a babysitting service if needed.
The best thing about staying in this hotel is the outstanding services from all the staff. I’ve told you in the beginning about a staff who helped me park my car. Other staff helped us calm Josie when she was fussy during breakfast or lunch or dinner by offering a colouring book and pastel. We could also order a room service from both Indigo and Sarkies, while the room service menu only showed dishes from Indigo. We could even order a bowl of rice porridge, which was not shown in any menu since Josie was sick one time. The cleaning staff also did a good job in cleaning our room diligently every morning and evening. All the staff were friendly and warm and made us feel welcome. No wonder Hotel Majapahit was awarded the best 5-star hotel in East Java from the Governor of East Java recently. Well deserved!
For Hotel Majapahit staff, thank you for hosting us again. I wish you all the best. I hope we’ll be back again in the near future.
By the way, I actually booked 2 rooms in this trip. The other one is a smaller Heritage Suite at 57 sqm. Photos of this suite are below.
