Citrus Hotel, Sour As It Is

Was working in Johor Bahru on Thursday and I took the opportunities to visit my mother in law and families in Johor, visit and meet clients in Singapore.  I needed a simple lodging, instead of troubling my mother in law, I read the comments in TripAdvisor for places to stay.  I choose Citrus Hotel over Silka and others, as the rest were fully booked for the date I wanted.

Citrus Hotel is right in the middle of the Johor Bahru city centre, and next to the City Square and walking distance from the new Custom, Immigration & Quarantine building.  Let’s talk about the benefits of staying here.

It is convenient – if you are planning to head to Singapore, this is the among closest hotels, you may find many food choices there (I did not eat around that area, because of bad experience when I was there with Retna 12 years ago).

Let’s talk about the inconvenience and dissatisfaction you would have if you choose to stay here. 

The cleanliness.  The bed sheet comes with lipstick stain.  So I am not sure what happened to the bed and bed sheet prior to my arrival.  Leave it to your imagination.  The bathroom is also dirty, plumbing a flaw which water not able to flow well.

Smoking sir?  I was booked and put into a non-smoking room.  Anyway, the room smells like any pub or night club smoking chimney smell.  Very bad until I have find a window to let the outside air circulate first.

Service sir?  What service?  Other than the hotel personnel non-stop greeting me whenever they see me, they serve you no further.  When I asked how to head to Singapore, they first told they have a taxi option which is RM30 day trip.  When I opted for that taxi ride, I was told, actually was a bus.  I have to wait for rest of the passengers to fill up the bus.  You know what?  I took the CausewayLink bus to Singapore for RM1 and came back for SGD0.80.  I spent less than RM4 for my ride to Singapore.

Service sir, again.  When I checked out on Friday morning, I asked the front office if I could take a shower at the hotel when I am back again during noon.  I was told no problem, with no extra charge.  When I came back at 2:30pm, the front desk personnel has been rotated and I was told no shower allowed unless I pay for another day.  RM138++ for a shower, never mind.  I remember while we were at Pantai Morib, the shower only costs RM5.

WiFi?  You better bring your own modem.  I used my iPhone hotspot while I was there.  The username and password given by the hotel only allowed simple web browsing.  I could not download my emails, don’t event think about Twitter, Facebook.  You won’t be able to do it.  When I asked the front office, I was given a different login, which allowed me to tweet (really slow) but not for me to download my emails.  Anyway, why bother asking the hotel again, I have my own connectivity.  This reminds me of WiFi at Sunway Pyramid and One Utama.

There are many other options out there with better pricing, cleaner room, better service hotels in Johor Bahru.  Avoid Citrus, I mean the hotel.  Not the fruits, it is filled with vitamin C.

 

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-)

What is 2 + 7 ?
Please leave these two fields as-is: