Monday, March 19, 2007

Puteri Pacific

Just about two days before the course, only did I received the confirmation letter from the director's office. So, I had to make a hotel booking quickly.

The Puteri Pacific Hotel is located just beside the Persada Johor International Convention Centre, where the venue of the course was. This is supposingly a four-to-five star hotel, which means my accomodation claim would not fully cover the expenses. I then managed to find a partner to share.

He made a call to the hotel but unfortunately was told there was no more room available. This time I thought it could be very troublesome that we might have to find other hotels to stay. I called a friend in JB and was given a list of 'affordable' and nearer hotels, but all they seemed were not within the walking distance.

In the evening, I called the hotel's toll-free line again, but was again dissapointedly told they were fully booked.

I then logged into the internet and was surprised to find there was room available through an agent. I quickly made an online booking. Thereafter, I noticed there were several agents more with different prices.

I was still very sceptical about the online thing not until we reached there, and was delighted that we finally got the room.

The room rate was quoted RM 239.20 (including taxes). I enquired whether if there was discount for government servant and was told it cost RM 195 nett, but unfortunately that was not applicable to us because we had booked the room through agent.
Nevertheless, it was still the best deal considering the course venue was just next door and within walking distance.
Despite some negative reviews in the internet forum, we didn't encounter anything unsatisfactory. Upon check-out, we were allow to split the bill, which cost us only RM119.60/night per person, by the way, was within our budget.

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