Operating acclaimed hotels like The PuLi in Shanghai, Urban Resort Concepts brought its design-oriented hotel concept to the Malaysian capital with the opening of The RuMa Hotel and Residences. Opened in 2018, the 250-room hotel is the first foreign foray of the China-based hotel management company. Keeping a low profile, the hotel has quietly made its name as one of Kuala Lumpur’s most acclaimed luxury hotels.

Booking The RuMa

As my stay coincided with the New Year, it was no surprise to see some wildly inflated hotel prices. While I was close to booking the similarly priced JW Marriott, I decided to book The RuMa after much deliberation. I reserved a Grand Room via LHW.com* for an average nightly rate of MYR 1099 (~USD 250, GBP 195). While obviously pricier than non-holiday dates, this was much more reasonable than a lot of other branded hotels. Plus the rate includes breakfast and a complimentary minibar, which is always appreciated.

*note that The RuMa has recently left Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) in favour of Preferred Hotels.

Location

The RuMa is located on Jalan Kia Peng, tucked in a rather secluded residential area in Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC). While not smack bang in the city centre, it remains within walking distance of both the Petronas Twin Towers and the Bukit Bintang shopping belt. Specifically, both spots can be reached within a leisurely 12-minute walk. If you don’t fancy walking under the Malaysian sun, you also can cross over to the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre; there you’ll find an air-conditioned pedestrian bridge that links to the upmarket Pavilion Shopping Mall.

Check-in

After leaving Amari Kuala Lumpur in Bangsar, I headed north towards Kuala Lumpur City Centre by Grab Ride. After a roughly 20 minute ride, I reached the entrance of The RuMa, just off the intersection of Jalan Pinang and Jalan Kia Peng. I was then greeted by a friendly porter, who took care of my luggage and directed me to the lobby.

Once I reached the flamboyantly decorated lobby – which was understandably busy over this period – was invited to take a seat in one of the sofas by the reception. As I waited to be checked in, I was offered a carbonated sour plum welcome drink. Soon enough, a reception associate came to me and promptly checked me in. In an instant after filling out a registration form, I was finally issued my room keys.

I quickly awed at the lobby’s unusual copper ceiling before heading to the antique-adorned lift lobby. While I remained quite impressed so far, I was slightly disappointed that the hotel only has three guest lifts. This meant having significant wait times for the lift, especially during peak season.

The setting is similarly elegant and understated as I arrived on the 12th floor, where my room was located. Beautiful!

Grand Room

For this stay, I was booked in a Grand Room which is one step above the entry-level Deluxe Room. Sized at a lavish 45 sqm (484 sqft), I found the room to be splendidly appointed with wooden floors and teak and rattan furnishing.

In particular, I liked that Andy Hall incorporated various Malaysian-inspired cues into the room’s aesthetics. This is particularly apparent in both the weaved rattan headboard and the Peranakan-inspired ceiling lamp by the window. Moreover, I also liked the addition of a ceiling fan, which ingrained a tropical feel to the room.

Arranged by the window is the room’s living arrangement, which includes both a teak table and a chaise longue. While modern and beautiful, I didn’t find either to be especially practical or comfortable. For one, the chair is too reclined to be easily used with the desk. Meanwhile, the end of the chaise longue goes under the desk, thus potentially constraining one’s feet when in use.

Conversely, I found the beds to be comfortable despite their low-slung position. Combining the plush bedding with the moody lighting and cold air-conditioning, I had no trouble falling asleep. I’ll also note that during turndown, bookmarks are placed on the beds, which is always a cute touch.

What was less impressive, however, were the metal Venetian blinds, which were hard to operate. While it was easy enough to open and close, it was very difficult to pull up and retract. This as such limits the room’s view towards the neighbouring skyscrapers on Jalan Pinang.

Minibar

As I mentioned earlier, the room features a complimentary minibar, alongside its Nespresso set up. While alcoholic beverages are unsurprisingly not included, the minibar was still nicely stocked with soft drinks and a lot of water. In addition, I also found the teaware and two jars containing Malaysian snacks to be a cute local touch.

Bathroom

Placed right across the bedroom is the marble-clad bathroom, which stretches the entire length of the room – similar to the set-up at Rumah Luwih Bali. While rather narrow as a result, the bathroom also features views of the nearby skyscrapers thanks to this design choice.

Separating the toilet area and the bath area are two beautiful copper sinks, which itself is divided by a vanity table. Next to that, on the interior end is the toilet, encased in a frosted glass cubicle. The toilet is complemented by a hand-held bidet, which is unsurprising given how this is Malaysia after all.

On the opposite end is the wet room, which houses the rain and handheld shower, as well as the window-adjacent standalone bathtub. While the bathtub was beautiful, its shape meant that it wasn’t very comfortable for longer baths. At the very least, I found both the water pressure and temperature to be fine.

In addition, I’ll note that the provided bath amenities are house-branded. Despite being so, I found the vaguely floral-scented amenities to be pretty good in terms of quality.

Amenities

Located on Level 6 are the hotel’s leisure facilities, including its outdoor swimming pool, fitness centre, in-house barber, as well as UR Spa. In addition, you’ll also find the SANTAI Bar located next to the pool, which also runs an ice cream cart in the same area.

Swimming Pool

The RuMa has an cantilevered infinity pool perched over the hotel’s car park. Surrounded by tropical plants and views of the neighbouring skyscrapers, the green mosaic-clad pool surely has an impressive and unusual feel to it. When swimming, it does feel as if you are on a platform suspended the middle of Kuala Lumpur’s city centre.

However, I do admit that the infinity pool’s views lacked a wow factor, owing to the mid-level location of the pool deck. In such a sense, it isn’t as impressive as the vistas you get at infinity pools at the Mandarin Oriental and Four Seasons, for instance. Still, there’s something very special about swimming in the midst of towering skyscrapers.

In addition, there is also a small and fittingly shallow children’s pool on the shorter end of the right triangle-shaped pool. Next to this is also a sun deck with chaise longues exposed to the sunlight.

Gym

Located at the far end of the pool, by the sun deck, is the fitness centre, which is accessible 24 hours by hotel keycard. While small, the gymnasium features a complete set of both cardio and weight equipment in a wood-clad room. As the hotel is still relatively new, I wasn’t surprised to see that the Technogym equipment was still modern and well-maintained.

Breakfast

The hotel’s breakfast is served between 06:30 to 10:30 each morning at the hotel’s sole restaurant, ATAS. Located on the Mezzanine Level, the appropriately named ATAS (lit. above or elevated in Malay) features a beautiful dining room in an elegant open kitchen theatre-style setting.

À la carte

After being seated, I was handed an à la carte menu. As it turns out the breakfast at ATAS comprises a combination of table service and a buffet spread, as is all the rage at many upmarket hotels nowadays.

Buffet spread

In addition to the à la carte menu, a much wider selection of food is available with the buffet spread in the open kitchen area. The selection includes a range of Malaysian, Asian, and Continental items. Much like the à la carte items, however, I didn’t find the food taste of quality to be really good. While a few uncommon things like the smoked tenggiri pepper stood out as nice, everything else I sampled was merely above average. Given the large selection of food, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Service

For one, I found the staff at The RuMa to be very warm and friendly throughout my stay. That said, I feel that that is the expected standard from any upmarket hotel in Kuala Lumpur. In that sense, while the service was good, it neither felt phenomenal nor very proactive. For instance, I’ll note that the concierge wasn’t very helpful when I needed assistance to contact the Malaysia Airlines baggage office. After trying to call the online listed number, he just sort of gave up and told me that they weren’t picking up. He didn’t proactively offer other ways to help, either, so there was that.

Overall

Let me put it this way: I really liked The RuMa and had a pleasant stay. Between its beautifully decorated interiors and carefully curated furnishing, it also has the makings of a luxury hotel. However, it just falls short in terms of its merely decent service, dining, and location. That is not to say that they were bad, no; on the contrary, the hotel still does very well in those regards. However, these offerings just don’t impress relative to other 5-star hotels in Kuala Lumpur. I’d argue that even the entry-level Sheraton Imperial could deliver the same levels of service.

These are the very things that elevate a ‘luxury hotel’ to a luxury hotel and sadly, The RuMa isn’t quite there yet. The hotel might be good in all of its aspects, but isn’t the best in any of them, either. To conclude, I’ll say that The RuMa is an excellent Kuala Lumpur luxury hotel, although unfortunately not the best there is.

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