This bright, modern, and design-led hotel in George Town's quiet CBD makes a refreshing change to the many heritage hotels in Penang - not that there's anything wrong with a heritage hotel, but not everyone might appreciate staying in a traditional terraced house with lots of heavy antique furniture. The Prestige presents an extremely appealing alternative to a classically decorated heritage hotel, looking instead towards much slicker, shinier, and more minimalist style of interior decorating.
My partner and I checked in for a long weekend at the start of April, and were generally very pleased with The Prestige. I booked a Premier Deluxe room - one of their larger room categories - and there certainly was enough space in the 42sqm room to open both our suitcases and lounge around in there.
First things first: the shower is a large transparent box in the centre of the open bathroom, and although blinds can be lowered within the shower for privacy, if you are a particularly shy/body-conscious couple or travelling with family/friends, this could get a little awkward, so please bear this in mind before you book. The toilet, thankfully, is much more discreetly located in a separate room close to the door, complete with fun banana leaf-print wallpaper inside.
I noticed that there wasn't that much space to store our clothes, with only a few drawers available, most of which already had hotel amenities in them. I did enjoy getting to use the very useful portable clothes steamer provided by The Prestige, along with the complimentary minibar items such as milk and juice in a fridge that was properly cold (unlike the average hotel mini-fridge!).
We did have some issues with our air con, which stopped working during the first evening and made the room incredibly still and uncomfortable. We had to ask twice at the reception desk before someone was sent to our room to get it working again, which was somewhat frustrating, but it was a relief once it was sorted out and the temperature finally dropped below a stuffy 26 degrees Centigrade once again.
The strongest points of the hotel for me were its central but quiet location (it turned out there were so many good restaurants and cafés within walking distance that we could visit, from Gen and Auntie Gaik Lean's to Norm Roastery and The Two Frenchies), the selection of little shops downstairs in the same building (ranging from a convenience store to a pharmacy), its surprisingly thoughtful and diverse selection of movies available on the in-room entertainment system, and the fact that The Prestige's carpark offers a BMW Wallbox electrical charging station - perfect for our little Mini hybrid!
The weak points: somewhat scratchy bedsheets, rushed housekeeping (I noticed that no one seemed to have mopped the bathroom floor close to the toilet for the duration of our three-night stay, which was...kind of icky), and some of the front desk staff being rather too relaxed, e.g. when dealing with our complaint about the aircon or presenting me with the bill on the final morning when I was actually trying to ask them to help re-validate my room keycard so I could head back upstairs to my room after breakfast. Also, the doors to the rooms are so thin that you can still hear traces of piped piano music drifting in from the corridors (I found the music quite unnecessary), so if you're particularly sound-sensitive, this might end up bothering you.
I definitely would consider booking a room at The Prestige again - I really liked the location, the availability of parking, the electrical BMW Wallbox charger, and the modern aesthetics - but I hope the air conditioning doesn't conk out while we're in the room during our return visit. And hopefully they'll have stopped playing that piano music in the corridors.
