Grand Inna Medan

The location is perfect: at night the street is car-free and peaceful, and it’s convenient in the daytime too. Sundays are car-free as well. Gran Inna Hotel looks like a four-star hotel on Google, but it has an old and a new building. The old one seemed closed, so only the new building was in use. The lobby is grand, and check-in went very smoothly. I did call to say I’d arrive late, otherwise they might have marked me as a no-show. I called twice to confirm they’d checked my WhatsApp, but nobody had. That was annoying. The photos make the inside look modern, but the furniture is old: sliding doors, cupboards that seem close to falling apart, and noisy AC. The shower worked fine, and breakfast was good. The roti jala with curry was really tasty. During our stay, the road in front of the hotel was closed until 11 am for an event outside, the HUT TNI celebration for the 80th anniversary. We could only check out at 11:45.

It’s an old-fashioned, charming hotel, and may not suit people who like postmodern millennial gray minimalism. Some of the furniture is a bit damaged, including a headboard full of pencil holes, apparently poked by some kid. My favorite detail was the tiles by the elevators, to the left of the lobby. They preserve fossils, including what looks like a whole coral reef. Utterly beautiful, 10/10. The location is very good, opposite the old post office, now shops and cafes, and near the train station. You can walk to the old Dutch street and Tjong A Fie mansion.

The staff made this a lovely return for us. Pak Rheza at the front desk always tried his best to help, Pak Pardomuan was cheerful and friendly and helped with our bags and other things, and Bu Parista, the F&B supervisor, packed breakfast for our 8:30 am flight to Kuala Lumpur. We got to eat at the airport before boarding. Such a thoughtful gesture. We stayed six nights because of my uncle’s funeral in Petisah. Grand Inna was my late dad’s favorite hotel, partly because it has a small mosque at the back and a superb location. We’d stayed twice before, in 2009 and 2012, before the renovation, and it brought back fond memories. The buffet breakfast was good, I think the best among the other three- or four-star hotels in Medan. Our deluxe room had two super single beds and plenty of pillows. They were very comfortable, the air conditioning worked well, and we slept soundly. The rainforest hot shower had comforting water pressure. Housekeeping cleaned daily and sprayed room perfume, so it smelled nice. My son also loved the swimming pool, which has salty water. The hot water stopped working on the second night. I told Pak Rheza, and technicians Pak Indra and Pak Joko fixed it right away. Thank you, Grand Inna, for the great hospitality. See you again.

I stayed one night in transit. The hotel is near the train station, but for the train to Kualanamu Airport you need to enter from the east side of the tracks. That means getting a ride or using the pedestrian crossing midway down Merdeka Walk Park. At 7 am there were lots of runners in the park, and police were pretending to enforce the pedestrian crossing by the hotel while drivers still threatened people’s lives. The hotel has an old original section from de Boers, but most rooms are in a newer adjoining building with a basic 1960s feel. Some walls seemed to be thin plywood. It took ten minutes to get my door card working, though the maintenance technician was attentive. I couldn’t find a switch to turn off the entry light, so I tried unscrewing the bulb. It was hanging loose by wires in the socket. It eventually went out, though it was still tight in the socket, so the wiring seemed sketchy. I couldn’t sleep with the lamp shining.