I did not enjoy my recent stay at Kuching's four points. I usually don't post comments, but this hotel deserves a long list of warnings to its potential customers. I would sort my disappointment in three categories: location, finishing, maintenance and cleanliness. With one suspicious exception (The pool is lovely and has fastastic view where we can enjoy sunset of Kuching: the pool is actually facing south, is enclosed by a wall, on the other side of which is a truck park...), even the positive comments on this page agree on those shortcomings.
Location
The hotel is remote from the city, which I knew, but instead of the resort-like retreat in the middle of lush green promised by the web site, it is actually a non-descript office building in the middle of an equally non-descript suburb squeezed between a highway interchange and a truck park. The only green to be seen around are the hotel colored windows and the metallic roofs of the shop houses across the road.
Any discount you can get will be spent on taxis getting in and out.
Finishing
The minute I stepped in the lobby, I felt this building was only a decor for the entertainment of the local notability. As a matter of fact, I later learned from one of my taxi drivers that the owner (and builder...) of the hotel has done this only for the wedding of his son in December 2008.
The finishing is horrible. Anything that should be aligned is slanted, often by more than 15 degrees: the tab cover in the shower, the door hinges in the shower, the power plug covers in the lobby, etc. The ceiling was obviously painted after the room was finished, there are paint drops on the walls, and even on the armchair! There are very visible shock marks on the bath tube and on the table below the sink. The plastic protecting sheets on the very few hanging knobs in the bathroom have not been removed. Some floor titles are dented.
By taking delivery of such poor construction (and apparently by delivering such poor construction, as it appears that the owner of the hotel is also its builder...), the management has clearly indicated the low level of quality it has set for itself.
Maintenance and cleanliness
Obviously, the same low level of quality applies on the day to day management.
When we reached our room, the sink was clogged and had obviously not been cleaned before our arrival. Dust had accumulated on every single horizontal surface. The desk was sticky. The bed sheets were itchy the first night. A fresh change on the second night still sported stains on the pillows. Tea marks on the titled floor stayed for three nights. Although I only managed to attenuate them on the last morning with water and a towel, I am sure that a few drops of bleach would have taken them away. A few treads torn from an old short on the morning were still on the carpet in the evening...
The rain shower worked only once after insisting that someone fixed it, but the next shower it was not working again. The hand shower only let a small dripping out of the shower head, fluctuating suddenly between cold and boiling. On the other hand, the toilet flush abundantly leaked for the whole stay.
Stools are stored below the side tables, and have never been drawn out for a vacuum cleaning, as the accumulated dust testified.
The corridor to the swimming pool was flooded. A guest who ventured there through the restaurant told me that the water was not clean and that the garden was not finished, just a big patch of mud.
On the plus side:
Comfortable bed if you ignore the uncleanliness of the sheets.
High ceilings that make the rooms very airy.
Excellent equipment in the gym (although the staff does not really know how to open the door and the entertainment does not work).
Quite friendly staff if not industrious.
Tellingly, the clerk did not ask if we had a nice stay upon check-out. They know how their hotel is run and don't really want to hear about it.