Hyatt’s two new London Stratford hotels are open

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• Lewis says:

  29 Apr29 April 04:30

  Thailand scrapping testing from 1st May too FYI!

• Jon says:

  29 Apr29 April 05:46

  Singapore did on April 26th also.

• Mike says:

  29 Apr29 April 07:36

  “ Rhys is heading down to Malaysia with Malaysia Airlines next week” – great news. Could you remind him to put back on his reality goggles when it comes to economic perspective as we are not all London centric bankers.

  • qrfan says:

    29 Apr29 April 08:08

    I’m looking forward to reading more of his “budget friendly” hotel reviews. Maybe a four seasons or two?

    • Rob says:

      29 Apr29 April 08:49

      I believe other travel websites are available.

  • Rob says:

    29 Apr29 April 08:50

    It’s Malaysia. Can you get cheaper luxury hotels?

    You also miss the point. This is the most successful site of its type outside the US. The reason for that is that there is a laser sharp focus on a certain demographic and, inside that demographic, we have huge penetration which is very attractive to commercial partners.

    Here’s an example. If someone books a £2k Virgin Upper Class flight we get around £35. If someone books a £250 Virgin economy flight we get around 80p. It’s quite clear which market to target and indeed allows us to pay our £2,500 per week of overheads.

    • Michael C says:

      29 Apr29 April 09:01

      Quite – must be some of the best-value luxury hotels in the world?

      • qrfan says:

        29 Apr29 April 09:31

        The Hilton in KL is the best Hilton I’ve ever stayed at, anywhere. Should be a Waldorf Astoria.

        • Rob says:

          29 Apr29 April 09:47

          Agreed, it is very good – and next to the airport train station.

  • dougzz99 says:

    29 Apr29 April 09:45

    Feisty crowd today.

  • numpty says:

    29 Apr29 April 12:58

    The value for money is Malaysia is excellent, better than Thailand. Service standards however are a bit wobbly. Stayed 2 weeks ago in The Westin KL and found the food (in both lounge and breakfast) to be below the standards most would expect in KL – where they took food very seriously.

    KL is the only place where i seriously did consider staying in the Ritz Carlton due to VFM, but went for the Westin Suite which was huge.

    • Tom says:

      29 Apr29 April 14:18

      The RC in KL always looked a bit dodgy to me, like something a bit cheaper that managed to get a RC flag. I like the St. Regis (seems to divine opinion but great suites with a private massage room) and the W if you are keen to stay with Marriott. Whatever you do avoid the JW Marriott, one of the worst experiences at a supposed 5 star hotel I’ve ever had – terrible service and room design, mediocre lounge, no upgrade.

      • Tom says:

        29 Apr29 April 14:18

        Divide, obviously!

• Richard says:

  29 Apr29 April 08:24

  “Stratford will also have a Crossrail link to Heathrow very soon”
  If by ‘very soon’ you mean May 2023 (assuming no more delays). The Shenfield branch (which includes Stratford) will be the very last to get direct services to Heathrow.

  • Rob says:

    29 Apr29 April 08:48

    Didn’t say it was a direct link 🙂

    • lumma says:

      29 Apr29 April 09:38

      In that case, it’s already got one. Central line to Holborn, then change to the Piccadilly line or Central line to Ealing Broadway then TFL rail.

      • John says:

        29 Apr29 April 11:16

        … or cross-platform all the way via Mile End and Barons Court (also less claustrophobic and squeaky but slower)

        • David says:

          29 Apr29 April 12:28

          This has been one of the most interesting and informative little threads of the year so far. Thank you all 🚇

    • Richard says:

      29 Apr29 April 23:15

      Quite right. I wouldn’t care as much if we hadn’t just lost Zipcar to T5!

• Gavin454 says:

  29 Apr29 April 08:26

  Hong Kong is actually moving towards reopening faster than Japan, surprisingly – from 1st May, tourists are allowed to enter HK again, albeit with a 1 week quarantine (down from 3 weeks quarantine and only open for residents). The quarantine will surely be reduced and dropped in the not too distant future. Japan continues to completely ban tourism and has made no indications about when they plan to reopen.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    29 Apr29 April 09:41

    a 1 week quarantine

    What tourist is going to do that!

    • Gavin454 says:

      29 Apr29 April 10:57

      They won’t, but it’s a big step in the right direction. Japan isn’t even taking any steps towards reopening for international tourism.

  • marcw says:

    29 Apr29 April 10:09

    Must be “mental” to visit Hong Kong atm.

• Alex says:

  29 Apr29 April 08:36

  I have been told some bad experiences recently on Malaysian. Cancelled flights with no contact and no reasonable replacement, expenses, compensation or even refund offered! And been difficult to get in touch too to even discuss it.

  I hope Rhys has a smooth flight!

  • Cranzle says:

    29 Apr29 April 10:06

    Sounds just like BA

  • Tom says:

    29 Apr29 April 14:27

    Malaysian was like that pre-COVID and got even worse during COVID. They clearly give HfP enough freebies that Rob / Rhys writes nice things about them but I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole from either an operational or safety perspective, personally. The ultimate state vanity project that needs scrapping entirely and starting again. Two crashes in quick succession resulting in everyone onboard dying didn’t happen by accident. Last time I flew them on LGK-KUL (fortunately connecting to a different airline) the crew didn’t even bother to secure the cabin before landing and I had to just hold on to my glasses so they didn’t smash over the head of the person in front of me.

    • YC says:

      29 Apr29 April 18:49

      Flown them dozens of times. Agree customer service can definitely improve. But on onboard service and food Is excellent and miles better than BA or any European airline… on safety, one plane was shot down by a missile.

• Polly says:

  29 Apr29 April 09:07

  Hoping HKG will be fully open by November, as we are using a new BA 241 voucher to fly home in J one way, following a cruise that ends in Singapore! We had booked that cruise before my Singapore adventure of last November. We must love risk, us…
  Plus we have MAS J flights up from DPS via KUL, so it all could go horribly wrong. Think l will get back up MAS flights now too, just in case of cancs……

• PGW says:

  29 Apr29 April 10:56

  Pre-pandemic we used to holiday in Malaysia every February. We’d like to return but next February seems a very long time away. Any experiences weather-wise of going October/November/December would be welcome.

  • SamG says:

    29 Apr29 April 11:15

    Depends where you go – west coast so Langkawi and Penang will be better at that time – the east coast will be wet

    • PGW says:

      29 Apr29 April 12:38

      Thanks – much appreciated!

  • numpty says:

    29 Apr29 April 13:06

    Yup, that’s monsoon season on the east coast (i.e. Club Med at Cherating beach closes around then due to monsoon). In other areas you might still get a mid afternoon thunder storm – but you can see the clouds coming and plan accordingly.

    Just back from a trip – KL is all pretty normal, Penang was very quiet. No traffic jams, very few people in the shopping malls, but hawker stalls/food courts pretty busy – although not all were open.

  • Jen says:

    29 Apr29 April 13:15

    tbh as a Malaysian I never found the monsoon weather to be a foil to any plans, just flooding every December, but it does depend on what activities you are doing throughout your trip.

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