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About
3.5
#37 of 66 hostels in George Town
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Value
YMCA of Penang has just completed refurbishing their guest rooms on the East Wing & ready for the year end Christmas season. Room guest can now look forward to the well appointed room with brand- new appearance; bedding & mattresses, lighting, en-suite bathroom; now appear chic and modern looking. In-room amenities also feature flat screen TV with USB charging port for your devices apart from kettle for coffee making use & guest's convenience.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Business
Family
Languages Spoken
English, Chinese, Malay
Location
211 Macalister Road, George Town, Penang Island 10400 Malaysia
YMCA Penang
85 reviews
Getting there
Somewhat walkable
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
It is not hotel, it is hostel. The amenities only soap and towel, no refrigerator at the room. Quite standard hostel but with the price of 232 RM per night for family room, I think we can find a better 3 star hotel with that price. But if you want to go to the Island Hospital. Yes this is the best nearest place to stay just really opposite of the hospital
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Date of stay: April 2024Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The room are very outdated. Although it is very close to penang island hospital which most of the guest will go if they book there. They have new premium room available but limited. The checkin process was a painfull process. Everything was just so slow. The room are not clean at all. Found hairs on clean towel. Lots of them.
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Date of stay: August 2018Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Quest32906715204, Manager at YMCA Penang
Responded 30 Nov 2018
Dear Rahardjo Thank you for staying with us recently and your feedbacks, this will definitely help us to improve moving forward. By the way, we have just completed another round of room upgrading exercise for our East Wing guest rooms. You can be sure ALL our rooms (Deluxe & Premium) are now refurbished and given a more contemporary look with modern features built-in & chic appearance. Do Check us out! Hostel Team
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Stayed in the hostel for 3 days 2 nights for a workshop. The hostel lived up to its motto “Your Home Away from Home”. Staff friendly and helpful especially the receptionists. Free tourist leaflets on Penang Island are readily available. Free Wifi though slow. Rooms spartan – air con; hot/cold shower; bath towels provided; TV facilities - all in working order. Car park for guests – free; quite a challenge to find a parking space if there is a big function going on at YMCA.
Breakfast included in the room rate and is at YCafe at Level 2. Spartan breakfast with a choice of either fried noodles or toasted bread with tea/coffee included in both cases. For lunch & dinner you have a choice of YMCA’s Chinese restaurant [Hau Hau Yu Restaurant] serving Western and Oriental food or the café at Island Hospital (just diagonally opposite YMCA). If you prefer vegetarian food then Annalakshmi Temple of Fine Arts at Barrack Road (10 minutes’ walk from YMCA) which serves Indian food ( buffet lunch; Monday closed) will be your choice. Both the food at Hau Hau Yu Restaurant and Annalakshmi Temple of Fine Arts are delicious. Have not tried the food in Island Hospital.
YMCA distance from town centre –about twenty minutes by car (depending on the traffic); waiting taxi readily available at entrance of YMCA; bus stand about 10 minutes’ walk from YMCA.
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Date of stay: September 2014
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled on business
Room Tip:Do not get a room facing the main road. Traffic can be heavy till late night.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Clean and good respons from the worker. They ready to help us. The restaurant they have in 1st floor is quite delicious too. Maybe the breakfast menu need more variant so the visitor who stays for 3 or more days still can enjoy it.
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Date of stay: January 2020Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The hotel had the best location as it was just accross Island Hospital. If you or your family have to visit Island Hospital, then YMCA is the perfect choice. I and my wife stayed here for about 1 week for medical assessment in Island Hospital. It's a 2 star hotel and therefore you need to manage your expectation as it would definetely not a marriot or ritz experience. The building was quite old and so are the rooms. Basic needs were fulfilled: warm water, good and clean beds, towels, simple breakfasts and of course helpfull staffs. The price they offerred was really a value for money. They have now 2 types of rooms: the renovated ones and the old ones. We were lucky as we could experience both types of rooms. The renovated ones were Ibis styles: budget but modern styles. The old ones (which is cheaper) were 1980s styles but stillacceptable. Although there were not many options for meals but the restaurant and cafe in Island Hospital is accessible during working hour and there was also 7-eleven in about 5 minutes walking distance.
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Date of stay: May 2018
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Quest32906715204, Manager at YMCA Penang
Responded 30 Nov 2018
Dear DimsumA362, Glad to have you staying with us recently in May and appreciate your feedbacks given, we will definitely take that into consideration for improvement in near future. By the way, we have just completed another round of room upgrading exercise for our East Wing guest rooms. You can be sure ALL our rooms are now refurbished and given a more contemporary look with modern features built-in & chic appearance. Do Check us out! Hostel Team
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It was Christmas and I was doing my last minute booking. Everywhere I tried to find were all fully booked. Somehow Agoda got me on YMCA Penang. Though upon reaching at YMCA they had trouble looking for my reservation, but still the friendly reception allowed me for my room with my printout confirmation from Agoda.
My room is ok, but just a bit noisy during day time as we were on the same floor as their badminton courts.
Breakfasts are on simple ala-carte style. But for the price of the room, it doesn't bother me.
Other than that, overall is great for me. I definitely will stay there again on my next trip.
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Date of stay: December 2009
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of an individual traveller and not of Tripadvisor LLC nor of its partners. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I like the room, its really clean specially the bathroom. You can rate the room from the bathroom, if its good then you will have pleasant stay. But the place is very far from the tourism destination, take some time for public transport. Its not convience at all, coz the taxi there quite expensive and not using meters :(
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Date of stay: June 2009
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Check-In: Requested for early check-in when I book online. Turn up at 1.30 pm and was told that room was not ready and have to come back by 3.00 pm. Was charged $2.00 for car park even when I could not check-in.
Shower and toilet; Absolutely cramped. No space for brushing teeth. Toilet area was infested with tiny biting insects.
Air-con: Takes a long time to cool down and at night, it warms up rather than cool down.
Breakfast: One of the staff rudely shouts at patrons. Advertised as continental but definitely not it. There are no ingredients in the fried noodles, fried rice etc except for one hard boiled egg. It was supposed to be free breakfast but the staff was hawking off the ingredients by telling patrons to pay for it at extravagant prices - a plastic cup of papaya for $6.00 when you get it outside for $1.50 etc.
The only staff that are courteous and friendly are the cleaners and security guards. All other staff are pretty rude and unhelpful.
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Date of stay: February 2019
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled solo
Room Tip:Go somewhere else. Do not bother even to look at this place.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from YMCAPenangManagement, Manager at YMCA Penang
Responded 7 May 2019
Dear CheeKYong, Greeting from YMCA of Penang! Thank you very much for taking time to share your experience during your recent stay with us. We valued your feedback and please accept our sincere apologies for the inconveniences you had experienced and alerting us to the problems. We assure you that we had address this issue with improvement solution. Thank you again for your kind understanding and look forward to welcoming you back in the future! Best Regards, Hostel Department Team
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The Hotel located near Island hospital which is a very good place to stay when you visited Island Hospital. Breakfast is standard. You can choose between Noodle/kwetiau and Bread with ham/jam. There is a taxi in front of the hotel so it is easy to go everywhere.
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Date of stay: July 2018
Rooms
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Quest32906715204, Manager at YMCA Penang
Responded 30 Nov 2018
Dear TentenKezia, Thank you for staying with us recently and your review. By the way, we have just completed another round of room upgrading exercise for our East Wing guest rooms. You can be sure ALL our rooms are now refurbished and given a more contemporary look with modern features built-in & chic appearance. Do Check us out! Hostel Team
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
The property itself is nothing to shout about. A pretty bland building that takes you back to the 1980s. But the rooms were impressive. Very clean rooms with basic facilities. The bathroom was big and had a shower cubicle. A really good deal for RM 130 per night.
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Date of stay: January 2018
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are more places to choose from in the George Town area.
PRICE RANGE
RM 134 - RM 165 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
ymca international hostel penang hotel penang island
LOCATION
MalaysiaPenangPenang IslandGeorge Town
NUMBER OF ROOMS
71
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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