Very basic hotel with several restaurants and swimming pool. The hotel staff was quite friendly. One thing you have to know that you cannot drink water from the tap in Jakarta and hotel does not have bottle water.

Secure compound amist luxury homes in the area. Security guards check all visitors at the entrance and a metal detector is installed in the lobby of the Hotel. There is a very comfortable waiting lounge at the front desk that can seat 30 people easily. Check in is very quick and pleasant. I stayed in a 3 bedroom Suite. The living room was VERY big and kitchen is up to US Standards in terms of size. Since its a serviced apartment it was equiped with dishes, microwave, refrig and oven/range. One bedroom overlooked the pool and also what seemed to be luxury homes (very large). The other 2 bedrooms had no windows and were rather dark. There were 4 air conditioners which was great. TV had all english channels and also NHK in Japanese. The bathroom needs a bit of upgrading but it was very bright and easy to use. Apart from the nice view the breakfast was amazing! There were western foods, Indonesian foods, juice bar and a great selection of fruits. I had pancakes, sausage and eggs. Then i went for some Indonesian soup. Juice bar was freshly squeezed and i couldnt get enough of the Papaya fruit. Overall the experience was very positive.

This apartment styled hotel is located near Pondok Indah, an exclusive housing estated. The so called one bedroom suite is really a studio room with a seperate galley kitchen.

My room only housed a Queen size bed not a King size.

The corridor at every room level is long and a little spooky (you could imagine how lightings can do so much psychologically).

The other spooky thing is, 5 to 6 long knifes for different usage laid out nicely on the bench top of a very very small galley kitchen. Alfred Hitchcock came straight to mind... :-)

The window's rubber lining to seal off noise from the street has disintegrated thus noise is very evident, though not as bad as Palace hotel in Ho Chih Minh.

The grouting in the bathroom needs serious cleaning...a reflection of general house keeping of the hotel and not just the room.

The first time I have stayed at the Kristal, it came highly recomended by the ex-pat community here in Jakarta.
I had an excellent 1 bedroom suit with small kitchette [didn't use]
The hotel facilities are excellent and there is a very popular bar/resturant the Satu Lagi beware on Tuesdays & Thursdays they are ladies nights and it can be a bit of a zoo.
The Business center offers excellent facilities and for a medium priced hotel it offers good all round value for money.