Goodbye Desaru, hello JB. Every year, we follow the same ritual. First comes IRONMAN in Desaru. Then we squeeze in a short getaway in Johor Bahru before heading home to Singapore. This year, hubby booked Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre for our JB leg. He thought I wanted to stay near Old Town. I didn’t mind one bit.
Fair warning: this stay didn’t go to plan. I spent most of it in bed, battling the worst stomach bug of my life. I’ll get to that. For now, here’s everything you need to know about Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre, the good bits and the not-so-good bits.
Getting to Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre
We left Hard Rock Hotel Desaru Coast at 11am and pulled up at Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre around 12.15pm. Easy drive.
The drop-off point surprised me. It isn’t a proper, exclusive drop-off bay. It’s basically a regular two-lane road, and other cars still use it to get to the other side.
- Check behind you before you open your car door. Make sure the left lane is clear first.
- This same spot doubles as the pick-up point for Grab rides and food deliveries.
Checking In at Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre
Take the lift to the 8th floor. That’s where you’ll find the front desk. A few guests stood in the queue ahead of us, so we waited a while. A staff member brought over chilled iced lemon tea as a welcome drink. Lovely on a hot JB afternoon.
Once our turn came, check-in moved quickly. As IHG members, we also received a welcome gift: a container of cookies. Nice touch.
The front desk assigned us room 2607 on the 26th floor.
The Lift Situation
Here’s the thing about this hotel. The 8th floor works as a transfer hub. You switch lifts here to go up to the guest rooms or down to the ground floor. The guest room lifts need your key card to work.
The Room at Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre
Walk in and you need to slot your key card into the power slot. The hotel only gives you two keys.
Pro tip: slot in any old card instead. We used an expired arcade card and it worked perfectly. That way, you keep both keys and your room stays cool when you head out.
Wardrobe and Mini Bar
An open wardrobe sits on the right. You’ll find:
- Two bathrobes and extra hangers
- A safe
- Drawers below the safe holding the hairdryer, iron and slippers
- An ironing board hidden behind a cupboard door (ours looked stained, to be honest)
Next to the wardrobe, the mini bar area has a mini fridge below. On top, you get two bottles of drinking water (housekeeping replenishes them daily), a kettle, coffee sachets, Dilmah tea bags and drinkware.
The Bathroom
A full-length mirror and the bathroom sit on the opposite side. Here’s what you get:
- Toilet with a manual bidet
- Single wash basin with hand wash, body lotion, dental kits, a vanity kit and a shower cap
- Shampoo, conditioner and body wash in the shower
- A basket under the basin for used towels you want replaced
Need a comb or a disposable razor? You’ll have to call and ask.
The shower only has a handheld head. No rain shower. But the water pressure? Excellent. Proper strong.
One annoying flaw. After every shower, water leaks through the gap by the door hinges and wets the floor outside.
Aircon for Polar Bears
The aircon goes down to 18°C. And it actually gets cold. I never once felt hot in the room. In fact, it got pretty freezing, which I loved. I’m a polar bear, what can I say. Haha!
The Bed and Living Space
We had a king-size bed with two soft pillows and two firm ones. A small label on the top right corner of each pillowcase tells you which is which. Thoughtful.
Except the “firm” pillow isn’t very firm. It felt pretty flat. I had to stack both for decent head and neck support. No pillow menu either, sadly.
The room has plenty of space to work or eat:
- A round table with one chair (slightly wobbly)
- A sofa with cushions and a small round side table
The View and Lighting
Our window faced the city centre. Amari on the left. Sheraton and Capri by Fraser on the right. An open-air carpark and lots of buildings around. Not exactly postcard material.
But the daylight! Sunlight floods the room during the day, and I loved that. The lighting at night works well too. Thank goodness, because the Hard Rock Hotel Desaru Coast we stayed at the week before felt so dim.
Wi-Fi and TV
- Wi-Fi: Fine. No issues with speed or connection.
- TV: Local channels, Singapore channels, news, sports and a couple of international ones. No HBO or Cinemax, so bring your own Netflix.
Housekeeping: A Tale of Two Housekeepers
Need an extra towel? Call housekeeping. They respond fast and deliver to your door in no time.
The daily room cleaning, though, felt inconsistent.
On day one, the housekeeper forgot the bathroom floor mat. They made the bed, emptied the bins and swapped the towels. That’s it. We had left bathrobes strewn over the sofa as makeshift seat covers, with the cushions all out of place. They left that corner exactly as it was.
On our second-last day? Totally different story. The housekeeper hung the bathrobes neatly back in the wardrobe. Fluffed and arranged the sofa cushions. Left extra tissue boxes in the bathroom and by the sofa. Even gave us four bottles of water instead of two.
I suspect different housekeepers worked those shifts. Obviously, we preferred the second one. They anticipated what we needed and showed real initiative. More of that, please.
Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre Breakfast
The restaurant sits on Level 8, next to the lobby. It has two sections.
The buffet side covers the usual suspects:
- Sausages, baked beans, salad bar, pastries, fruit, cereals and juices
- Local favourites like nasi lemak and roti canai
- Congee with condiments
- An egg station and a noodle station
The other side has individual stations for local specialities: teh tarik, soy beancurd with you tiao, curry chee cheong fun, putu mayam and Malay kueh.
Make your own fresh fruit and vegetable juice!
Freshly cooked noodles, made to order! 🍜
The congee station, complete with condiments.
Putu mayam served with brown sugar and grated coconut.
My verdict? An average spread with so-so flavours. The only thing I genuinely enjoyed was the plain congee, thanks to the sambal ikan bilis and fried dace on the side.
The Food Poisoning Saga
On day one, I spotted smoked salmon and made myself a salad with it. That afternoon, severe food poisoning symptoms hit me hard. That breakfast was the only thing I ate all day.
Now, I can’t say for sure what caused it. Hubby ate everything I did except the salmon, and he felt fine. But it could just as easily have been a virus. I honestly don’t know.
What I do know: gastroenteritis knocked me out for over a week. I stayed in the room for the rest of our JB trip. The diarrhoea and vomiting got worse, so I saw my GP back in Singapore. Even my doctor said I got unlucky. It’s the first time I’ve ever fallen this ill while travelling.
Lessons learnt the hard way:
- Skip raw food at buffets, especially anything left out in the open.
- Always pack diarrhoea medicine. You never know when you’ll need it.
Should You Add Breakfast?
Honestly? Unless you love a mediocre buffet, I wouldn’t pay extra for it. The area has loads of cafés and places to eat. Spend your ringgit there instead.
Nearby food spots worth checking out include Padi Kopitiam, Tian Xin Lou, Roast & Coffee and Ah Ma Teochew Kuih.
The Lobby Lounge
Right next to the restaurant, the lobby lounge serves coffee, tea and pastries. It has plenty of seating too. Handy if you want a workspace outside your room.
Pool and Gym on Level 32
You’ll find the pool and gym up on Level 32. The pool area feels small, but it faces Singapore. Nice view.
The gym looks decent at first glance: cardio machines, weights and a corner with yoga mats for stretching. But it felt stuffy, like the aircon couldn’t keep up. The equipment also looked dated. I only went once for the treadmill. It just didn’t feel inviting.
The Carpark Trick
The carpark entrance sits on the 7th floor. From the lobby on Level 8, you can take the stairs down. Our driver met us here for the ride back to Singapore. So much easier for loading a bike and luggage than that awkward ground-floor drop-off.
Got bulky luggage or bikes? Arrange your pick-up at the 7th-floor carpark entrance.
Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre Location: Convenient but Hectic
Head down to the ground floor and the entrance to Komtar JBCC sits right next to the lift lobby. Cross the zebra crossing and you reach City Square. Old Town is a short walk away too.
The entrance to Komtar JBCC is on the left, while the hotel entrance is on the right.
The catch? The RTS Link construction makes the whole area feel busy, congested and hectic. City Square is also under renovation, and most of its shops have closed. Komtar JBCC doesn’t excite much either.
Is Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre Worth It?
I’ve gone back and forth on how to rate this stay. Being ill for three-quarters of the trip definitely coloured my mood. And I still can’t say whether the breakfast caused it.
So let me put that aside.
The good:
- Bright, spacious room with great natural light
- Ice-cold aircon
- Strong shower pressure
- Fast, responsive housekeeping requests
- Walking distance to Old Town
The not-so-good:
- Signs of ageing for a property just under six years old: dirty grout lines and corners in the bathroom, stained furniture, and holes in the curtains that make the blackout curtains a lot less blackout
- Inconsistent daily housekeeping
- Flat pillows and a forgettable breakfast
- A tired gym and a chaotic area thanks to RTS works
We paid about S$135 a night. For that price, I still think Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre is worth it, as long as you want to be near Old Town. If not, the traffic and construction might wear you down.
Funny thing: hubby likes this hotel far more than Amari Johor Bahru, where we stayed last year. I laughed out loud when he said it. He’s already banned Amari for good.
As for next year? We’ll try one of the newer hotels in town. And I’ll stay well away from the smoked salmon.
