We spent the first and last night of a 4-week tour of Indonesia at the Mandarin Oriental, Jakarta.
We were most impressed with the beautiful lobby, great bar, and nice restaurant, but really taken aback by our room : looking so old and dusty and outdated. But affter a 25-hour journey from home, I did not feel like not going to bed right away -which was excellent, by the way.
On the last night, we were greeted back by the staff which was surprising. At checking-in, I made it clear that I wanted to stay in a refurbished room, as the previous one was really wrong. THey tried to sell me the executive floor, for which I did not care. We were showed to the exact sale one as the first time. There i got dawn to the Manager on duty, and explained her that it was really wrong, so disappointing, and in any case, not up to the Mandarin standards anywhere else.
She explained that the hottel was being refuirbished, and "old" rooms were attributed to customers having booked through tour operators, but I got a free upgrade a a "new" room, which was the same, except it was new. It made all the difference.
We spent a great deal of time waiting for departure time at the swimming pool, attended to by hugely attentive staff, and we were mostly alone there.
This is supposed to be THE place in Jakarta. It is true it is very nice. For Jakarta.