ViiA Residences in KL Eco City, Five Senses

The place is nice for a weekend of chilling, with plenty of lounge areas. The pool stayed open until 9:30 pm, and both the sauna and steam room worked well. The rooms were nice, although my Stay by Five Sense room could have been cleaner: there were food crumbs on the floor when I checked in. Facilities were good, and there’s a 7 Eleven nearby, plus it’s a three minute walk to Mid Valley and Abdullah Hukum station (LRT). Finding the residence was confusing, and mobile network coverage in the area was pretty poor. The staff were the biggest problem. The receptionist kept forgetting information and couldn’t answer questions about the facilities, while the supervisor beside them laughed things off instead of guiding them. When I got stuck in the lift, they responded quickly, but after I managed to get out myself, the staff looked unhappy, as if they thought I was joking. Nightmare staff, though it’s still a nice place to relax on the weekend.

Getting around is easy from here: Abdullah Hukum LRT station connects by link bridge, and Grab cars are easy to find at any hour. The staff were efficient and helpful too, and the air conditioning gets properly cold, which you need in KL’s humidity. The apartment is spacious and well kept, with a generous living room and a kitchen stocked with a microwave, fridge, induction cooker, pots, crockery, and cutlery. The Gardens and Mid Valley Megamall are next door via link bridges and covered walkways, so with all that food close by, I doubt many guests will cook. The gym is basic but fine for working off a big meal. You can swim laps or float in the pool while watching the sunset. There’s an outdoor jacuzzi, plus a sauna and steam room whose operating status was a bit unclear, so I’d treat those as a possible extra. ViiA Residence is a practical, comfortable place with plenty of space and a lot of good food nearby.

Customer service was good: when I asked, the staff promptly brought a replacement pot. Still, several of the problems should have been caught while preparing the room. We’ve stayed here many times for the convenience and the quality we’d come to expect, but on our latest visit the cleanliness and preparation fell short. The bathroom floor felt sticky and waxy, as though soapy water hadn’t been rinsed off. It got dangerously slippery when wet, so we had to wash it ourselves. There were dusty, water-marked glasses on the table, and on another stay a cup still had lipstick on its rim. One pot had a visibly peeling inner coating even after rinsing, and the AC remote arrived without batteries, so it couldn’t be used. It was still a decent stay, but the cleaning standard seems to have slipped, with basic checks missing despite the mandatory cleaning fee. I hope they address this, since this has been our go-to place.

The third room faced the street right beside the LRT line. From evening until 3 am, motorcycles and cars with loud exhausts raced past, then the trains started again early in the morning along with more motorcycles. I didn’t sleep a minute. That was the worst room, but I changed rooms three times and each one was worse than the last. The hotel wouldn’t refund or cancel the remaining nights, and offered no apology or solution. In the first room, the washing machine was dirty. Staff came to clean it, but it still wasn’t clean, so I bought cleaner myself. The dryer stopped after half an hour, leaving my clothes soaking wet and smelling moldy. That room was noisy too, with a dirty stovetop, blocked shower drain, and broken toilet paper holder. In the second room, the toilet had uncleaned feces stains. ViiA Residences by Five Senses was the worst hotel experience of my life. Dirty, broken facilities, and no sleep. Avoid this place.