Hotel Equatorial Penang

This is an excellent hotel with a beautiful design. The rooms are well appointed (I stayed in a newly renovated room and it was really perfect). The lobby is gorgeous with a tropical garden growing into the hotel. Really lovely place, large, with 4 restaurants - Japanese, French fine dining and a general eatery they call a "coffee shop" plus a small coffee shop where you can get coffee and snacks, plus a bar, conference facilities, ballroom - it's an impressive property, 20 years old but in great shape. The food is fairly expensive in the hotel but good quality. The pool area is lovely with man made cave and waterfall. Adjacent golf course, close to airport. The only detractions are: location is in a residential area, far from any shops or restaurants, so difficult to leave the hotel. They offer a free shuttle to work around this, but the shuttle scheduling is awkward - they arrange it so you will end up staying in your destination for 10 minutes or 3 hours if you want the return shuttle. The only complaint I have for the hotel is that they charge huge fees for internet - 50 ringits for day, which is a lot. Free internet is the international standard today and they should not be charging. Internet is no different from TV - it doesn't cost the hotel extra to give free internet. I'd say cable TV is likely more expensive than internet, and a modern hotel can't operate without internet, so why is there a charge for something the hotel already has to pay for? It's simply an extra charge so they can make more money. At the high price of the room, I don't want to be charged extra for necessities. Yes - today internet is a necessity. I suggest the hotel stop delivering free newspapers and start providing free wifi. It will be less costly for them and less wasteful of paper.

No free wi-fi at the public areas of this hotel. Unsmiling and sad service staff at hand.
Otherwise, the hotel is newly refurbished. Make sure you get the renovated part of the hotel. The steam room, sauna and jacuzzi still in it's 80s state. So don't bother to venture into it for now.

Feeling a bit dissapointed as we need to help ourself to get the welcoming drink from one of the restaurant as other five star hotel will served it when we check-in. Also dissapoint that there is no breakfast for the room.