Stay Report: Radisson Hotel Brunei Darussalam (Brunei - September 2019)

Stay Report: Radisson Hotel Brunei Darussalam

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I was traveling to Brunei's capital and largest city, Bandar Seri Bagawan, and everyone recommends the Radisson Hotel as the place to stay.  Since I was only going to be there for one night, I wanted to stay in the heart of the city so that I could walk or have access to all the main sights and the Radisson fit this bill.  This would be my first time staying at a Radisson so I had no idea what to expect.  I had booked the hotel through an third-party website but then contacted the hotel to 1) ensure that my booking was valid and to get the Radisson reference number and 2) see if they could arrange for airport pick-up and drop-off.  The hotel does not run an airport shuttle so you can either arrange transport with the hotel, take a taxi, or arrange your own transportation.  I decided to go with the hotel as it was more convenient and their prices seemed to be competitive with what other travelers had said about taxi prices in Brunei.  


I had provided my flight information to the hotel so that when I exited immigration with my luggage, there was already someone waiting for me to take me to the hotel; which took about 30 minutes to reach.  From the outside the hotel looked a bit older, as if it was built in the 60's or 70's.  The hotel was shaped in a long and narrow square with rooms either facing the city and the street or away from it (more on this later).  The car pulled up to the main entrance and I walked up to the lobby.  As the hotel is not very deep, the lobby was also not very grand and large.  The check-in and concierge desks were to the left as well as the business center, in front was the tourist shop, and to the right was the restaurant where breakfast was available, and Indian restaurant inside the hotel, and a small waiting area.  The elevators were right in front along with the stair entrance to the pool and gym, which were located on the second floor.  

When I arrived there was only one check-in attendant and she was already helping someone else but after about 2 minutes another attendant came in from the office and assisted in checking me in.  When booking through the third-party, I had already prepaid for my room but I had an option to upgrade.  As I said earlier, the hotel is long width wise but not depth so the rooms are laid out either facing the street or the facing the other side, and the ones facing the street are considered 'deluxe rooms'.  My original booking was for a regular room, which faced away from the street, but the upgrade promotion was breakfast plus upgraded to the deluxe room.  While I was not interested in the room upgrade, I decided to go with the promotion for the breakfast (a decision I would regret later on, more on that below).  I received my key and went to elevator to go up to my room.

As you get out of the elevator, the rooms are down a long hallway either to your left or right.  As I had upgraded, I was in a deluxe room which looked as follows:  as you enter the room, on right is a sliding closet with slippers, a safe, and lots of storage area.  On the left was the bathroom which contained a sink, a walk-in shower, and a nice toilet that was very Japanese style as it had a built in bidet.  The toilet also contained toiletries such as lotion, shampoo and body wash - while it was a nice gesture, I did not enjoy the smell nor texture of the toiletries.  Further into the room, on the left was the queen size bed with a night stand on either side.  On the right hand side, next to the closet was a stand to put your luggage, and then a TV on the wall, a desk, and then a large window which faced out onto the street (which was not soundproof as at night you could hear the call to prayer as well as car traffic in the room).  The room was very nice, large, well decorated, looked and felt updated, and the bed was comfortable and provided a good nights sleep.  There were two complimentary bottles of water on the nightstand, but the water, the extra space, and the street view were the only indications that this was a deluxe room.  

The hotel is a full-service hotel so there are many facilities for the guests to enjoy including a gym, pool, breakfast area, a restaurant, business center, tourist shop, as well as wifi.  The wifi is complimentary was decent enough for checking email and watching YouTube; the gym was a decent size, not too big but had enough machines for a decent workout; the business center had 4 computer stations and complimentary printing; and the pool was a decent size.  My upgrade also came with complimentary breakfast so in the morning I went down to try that - and it was a sever disappointment.  It was a breakfast buffet and it had a little selection of many things but it was not comprehensive of anything and the selections were not that great; to me, it was not indicative of 4-5 star that the hotel is trying to be, but rather the buffet and the options provided were decent for a 2-3 star hotel (and definitely not worth the price of upgrading).  The hotel also provided a complimentary shuttle to another part of town which had the biggest mall as well as the night market, and this was a nice gesture by the hotel; the shuttle ran on timings throughout the day so you had to wait for the shuttle. 

Overall, it was a decent stay at the Radisson.  The hotel was centrally located so that within 10-15 minutes I could walk to most of the major sights, restaurants, and shops.  The airport pickup and dropoff went smoothly and the beds provided a nice and comfortable rest.  The only disappointment was the breakfast buffet, which in my mind did not meet the standards in terms of selection and quality to what the hotel was trying to achieve.  In my opinion, do not choose the upgrade but instead enjoy the standard room and get breakfast from a local coffee shop.