Continuing on my Accor Platinum rush heh.

With a short getaway with the family in mind, I stumbled upon an (in my opinion) unbelievable rate for a Raffles property so no fight it is, especially with a special occasion happening.

Address – Ciputra World 1, Jl Prof Dr Satrio Kav 3 5, 12940 Jakarta, Indonesia. Website.

Contact – Tel: +62 21 29880888. Email: jakarta@raffles.com.

Location – the property hotel forms part of the splendid Ciputra World 1 complex, next to the Ciputra Artpreneur gallery and theatre, where the Raffles Art Concierge offers a walking tour of the premises and a visit to an attached museum dedicated to the Indonesian maestro. We didn’t end up taking this tour but we did enjoy the direct connection to the Lotte Mall which offered us plenty of walking options and of course F&B (not that we need more).

Price – an average of IDR3,021,075++ per night booked for a base room (Raffles Twin / Raffles King) via Hotelux which includes a USD100 hotel credit per room to use per stay. I also added a IDR1,500,000++ per 2pax per night for Raffles Club access which I thought was a reasonable upcharge as its so rare to find a Raffles Hotel with a club lounge so of course we must try!

Pre-arrival – I was pleasantly surprised to receive via watsapp a welcome text from the Raffles Butler 1 week ahead of my stay. I used this service to make spa and restaurant reservations, and it was facilitated without hiccups.

1 day prior to arrival, I also received a text from the Raffles Concierge with my airport pick up confirmation as well some arrival customs advisory – I appreciate this very much as I otherwise wouldn’t have known we needed to fill in 2x separate online forms!

Getting there – Since there were 4 of us and arriving ahead of the standard check in time, we decided to splurge on being picked up by the hotel’s 5-Seater Limousine for IDR 868,000nett. Not the cheapest but surely the most fuss-free. I received a WhatsApp from the staff who was already waiting for us at the arrival hall area and 5mins later we were on our way to the hotel in comfort.

Check In – A number of staff were at the driveway when we turned in, and we were greeted by our assigned Butler who was interestingly a different person than the one I communicated with but nonetheless very warm and welcoming! The arrival lobby was really nice, with the artist theme peppered throughout the property. I loved the high ceiling and the spacious layout, with a few comfy seating areas.

We were ushered directly to our rooms to complete the check in procedures – and was so happy to find out that we’ve been upgraded to the Artist King Suite connecting to a Twin Room. YAYYYYYYY.

The in-room check in took a while to complete as our Butler brought us through the process verbally. This was a nice personal touch of course but I was surprised that everything was verbal – printed letters with property and Raffles Club info would be good? In fact, the Butler did not mention anything about Raffles Club until I asked.

After the formal procedures were finally completed, the Butler went off and returned quickly with property’s signature welcome drink which was a refreshingly tasty concoction of hawthorn / plum I think.

Room – Our Artist King Suite (97SqM), 2509, was such a lovely space and pictures don’t the decor and space enough justice but I will try!

The door opens up to a spacious walkway, with the closet and wardrobe space to the right and the half bathroom to the left.

The living area of the Suite was living room-esque, decked out really nice, with plenty of spots for 4pax to chillax in, and offered a work desk in one corner where a single charging port was. So while the space was super relaxing, the fight to charge electronics may not be.

On the living room table was a stash of welcome amenities laid out – fruits, chocolates, and a tart in a covered dome, accompanied by a welcome note. Very generous of the property and all were quite tasty.

The master bedroom holds a king bed, a work desk, and additional chilling area for 1pax.

The master bathroom was huge! Double vanity, bathtub, separate shower and toilet space, and includes some fancy bathrobes for in-stay wear as well. Toiletries are provided in hotel-branded pump size bottles so while I don’t know what brand they actually are, it was very decent.

Our Raffles Twin (63SqM), 2508, was a condensed version of the Suite, but for an entry level room, the space is actually awesome. The presence of a dressing table at the walkway entrance was a welcome addition as it provided a separate space for hair dryer matters.

The twin beds were crazy comfortable – cushy yet firm~

The living area, even though smaller than the Suites, was still a good space for 2-seater sofa + work desk. In fact, I think the room configuration could have been a Junior Suite. There were more chocolates and fruits on this side too, accompanied by a welcome note.

The mini bar in both rooms is the same set up – the Nespresso, tea bags etc are complimentary, alongside drinking water in the form of a dispenser (very easy to use!). Otherwise, the rest is chargeable but looks very tempting indeed.

One small gripe is the lack of powerpoints both by the bedside and in the common areas for example, there is no powerpoints at all near the work desk in the Twin Room, and the bedside ones are not universal. USB/USBC ports are nowhere to be found as well. I mean I know it’s an old property but for the Raffles brand, I’d thought the property would try harder to bridge this technology gap?

So bring your adapters!

But otherwise, completely no issues with housekeeping who also did turndown for us and even had a morning routine where they refresh the fruit plate in the room – the kind staff even asked if we liked more of any particular fruit which they’d be happy to replenish more of.

Raffles Club (website) – located on 12th floor and opened from 6:00am-10:00pm, the club offers all-day service of premium tea, coffee, soft drinks and juice. On the official site, the below are benefits of having club access but none were informed during our stay, so boo on this part.

• Complimentary daily 3 pieces ironing service.
• Complimentary shoes shine service.
• Complimentary local telephone calls.
• Complimentary daily 10 pages printing, black and white or color.
• Complimentary 2 hours usage of Raffles Club Boardroom

The space itself is not a big space but certainly very pretty (love those floral motifs at the entrance), though I felt they could have put in more cosy table seating so the space feels like its maximized. There is a staffed counter and a staff is on hand to help during opening hours, just not sure if they process check in and outs.

We didn’t try breakfast here as Arts Cafe was the obvious choice. Off-hours, you can find a small selection of sweets are available, as well as of course coffee/tea/soft drinks etc.

3:00pm-5:00pm – Afternoon Tea

This saw an okay selection of rather dainty bites but those scones were amazing and service plus for the staff as he offered to heat up scones if you’d like one.

6:00-9:00pm – Evening Cocktails and Hors d’oeuvres

This was a great selection of international dishes enough for dinner including hot foods, salads, cheeses, canapes, desserts, and fruits, although the selection remained largely the same for both nights. A highlight for me was the sashimi and cheeses – protein score! It was also appreciated that the desserts feature a selection of cakes from their Patisserie.

Speaking of proteins, we were initially disappointed to find no meat selection amongst the buffet but turns out, there was an ala carte menu up for ordering, with a decent selection of meats. There is no rotation for this menu though – both evenings saw the same selection.

We tried the Barramundi, the Coq au vin, and the Ossobuco – the fish was the clear winner!

In terms of drinks, there were 4x red and 4x white on a wine dispenser but the staff is more than happy to serve you or recommend any if unsure. I was disappointed that there were no champagne and even for a Chandon sparkling wine, I only knew it was available after I asked. Same goes for the beers – only available when asked instead of offered. And boo to no cocktails, and even simple spirits.

Plus, I wish they had a printed list of the drinks on offer – wouldn’t that be easier than us having to ask choice by choice?

Breakfast – served at Arts Cafe on level 1 from 6:00am – 10:30am, the restaurant quite impressed us with its fancy decor and mostly great service – definitely one of the nicest hotel breakfast restaurants I’ve been to. The set up also creates a sense of space even when crowded which is important as some breakfast scenes can be pretty hectic.

The spread was very impressive and showcases tons of local flavours, alongside Western, Middle Eastern Chinese, and Indian. There is even a dedicated patisserie section offering cakes and sugar enough for an elephant. Too many to try for 2 mornings!

What truly impressed us was the presence of an ala carte menu featuring made to order dishes ranging from a Japanese bar (Sashimi for breakfast!) and a “show kitchen” taking charge of dishes like steak and eggs, and souffle pancakes – I’ve never seen this much ala carte variety at a hotel breakfast!

I do have to give a shoutout to their special coffee and tea – the Raffles Jakarta Coffee Blend was an excellent cup of strong black coffee to start my mornings, and their The Tea Maker’s Private Reserve teas are definitely worth trying if you are tea lover as they are apparently uncommon to find elsewhere.

Other F&B – As an Accor Gold member, we were given a drink coupon for welcome drinks redeemable at Writer’s Bar on lobby level. It was actually a really nice space and I can see myself chillaxing here even without welcome drinks to redeem.

Printed lists of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks were handed to us, and we quite enjoyed those free drinks in the peaceful environment.

Facilities – I’m glad that I had the time to enjoy most of the property’s facilities during my short stay except for the Swimming Pool (12pm-5:00pm) – looks pretty, very palmy, but blazing hot. The addition of an outdoor jacuzzi was a nice touch though.

The Fitness Centre is shared with the connected Raffles Residences and hence that why it is bigger than I thought. The space is full of natural lighting and holds quite an excellent array of equipment – plus it has a rower! I thought some parts of the design was also interesting eg the towel and refreshment area and the ‘hidden’ door design from the inside of the gym. They also seem to offer a selection of paid and complimentary classes for in-house guests based on the schedule I saw.

For those who hate feeling like gym rats, I was told that there is a 300-m outdoor running track right beside the fitness centre, around the circumference of a huge green sphere. Very green indeed!

Raffles Spa – we had a total of USD200 hotel credits to use and in-house guests get a 15% off all spa treatments, so we thought we’d splurge a little. The space is expectedly very classy, clean, and offers a handful of experiences for in-house guests even without a spa treatment eg steam room, heated lounge chairs, and shower experiences (never found out what that is).

I tried the 30mins Express Body Scrub (420,000) + 560mins Oriental Foot Reviver (650,000 IDR) and they were executed by a rather competent masseur who was flexi enough to let me use my later 60mins for a combi of back and foot. It was super relaxing!

I also tried the 60mins Traditional Hair Creambath (480,000IDR) which is a “popular Indonesian head, neck and shoulder massage improves the blood circulation and revitalizes your hair & scalp, leaving them feeling healthy and fresh. A special steamer session allows the rich hair-cream to penetrate your hair fibers, nourish and revitalize them prior to wash and blow dry” – it was so relaxing especially when it included a massage of not just the scalp, and shoulder but also the arms and neck. And my hair was awesome for the next 24hrs hah.

Service – we came in expecting high service standards for a Raffles brand and to be fair, it mostly did. But there were 2 particulars incidents which I thought could have been handled better, plus a few process improvements to be made, to be more aligned with the Raffles brand.

1) The jackfruit incident – the hotel is directly connected to Lotte Mall on level 1 beside Arts Cafe but this meant there is security screening for incoming guests. Coming back from the mall’s supermarket, we were flagged by the security for having a pack of cling-wrapped jackfruit with us. The guard seemed a little inexperienced but he refused to let us go even though we said fine, we’ll toss it out then. Instead, he made us wait with him while he had a conversation with his supervisor to confirm if it was indeed a banned item, take pics to send on etc. It was a good 20mins before a front desk staff arrived to confirm what we already knew by then – the item was not allowed to be consumed within the property. We were offered for it to be kept in the hotel freezer and passed to us on our day of depart but we declined as we just wanted to enjoy it in our room so that kind of defeats the purpose. We were finally allowed to leave thereafter. I do have to say at no point was the interaction rude or impolite and in fact actually quite apologetic but it was still an unnecessary wait – they should have just let us go earlier and reach out to us thereafter if need be as we already gave our room numbers for identification. And if something that is being sold at the connected supermarket is not allowed on property, please please have a written notice to inform guests!

2) Welcome drink issue – I mentioned earlier that we redeemed our welcome drinks at Writer’s bar but that wasn’t without hiccups. When the butler passed me the voucher during the in-room check-in, I asked specifically if it is good for 4x drinks as the booking is for 4pax – I was told yes. So imagine my surprise when the staff at Writer’s Bar asked if I had a second voucher to cover 4x drinks as one voucher will only be entitled to 2x drinks. I said nope, the butler told me that this one voucher is good for four. We sat down, waited, and the same staff came back to convey her apologies that she has indeed confirmed with the front desk that we are only allowed 2x drinks – she explained that the entitlement is based on the name of the booking and since both rooms were under my name, we can only have 2x drinks. But that didn’t make sense as all four of our names were registered to the rooms? I then texted the Butler who has confirmed the entitlement with me at check in and was told that the correspondence was a “misunderstanding” and one voucher is really only for 2 drinks. So we said fine, and asked the Writer’s Bar staff to prepare 2x drinks for us, only for her to return to inform that her Director has now made an exception to let us have 4x drinks. While we appreciated the goodwill gesture, we can’t help but feel this process should have been handled much better.

3) Raffles Butler service process – so while I did appreciate the Raffles Butler reaching out via WhatsApp prior to arrival, I thought it would have been way better if I had been contacted by the same person throughout the pre-arrival process, instead of receiving separate texts from the Concierge and the staff at the arrival airport. Small matter but nonetheless feels a little not-so-streamlined especially for the brand.

4) Nonexistent welcome letters – Maybe I am old fashioned but it would have been so much easier if I had printed copies of a welcome letter, some Raffles Club info, as well as Club Lounge offerings. Maybe its their way of forcing you to engage with the butler but as a guest, I’d rather have the info handy than having to reach out for a single question, or struggle to remember the verbally-furnished info.

Check Out – I had requested to review my folio prior to check out and that was done quite efficiently by the butler. We also asked for the hotel to arrange a taxi for us for IDR620,000 for a more seamless departure process and the vehicle was on standby earlier than the arranged timing.

In summary,

A fantastic choice of property to clock my Accor points in the city – no regrets despite the bumps that occurred during the stay. The property is actually super well maintained and once they improve on the above, will be an excellent Accor choice in the city.