Ritz
Carlton Mega Kuningan
Unwelcoming Fortress Hotel
(Jakarta, Indonesia Series 12)
(Jakarta, Indonesia Series 12)
The ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies (AFES)
congress was held in Ritz
Carlton- Mega Kuningan from
November 13 to 16 and I initially reserved in this
hotel,
...but most of their bigger rooms were booked, so we
finally
settled at the nearby Manhattan Hotel as there was
a bigger Mars
and Venus Suite available for my family.
Ritz Carlton Mega Kunignan is a little bit old but just like
any other upscale facility, it was well maintained,
...the lobby was opulent,
...and the meeting rooms were
beautiful and comfortable.
Since this was the base hotel for the convention,
most of the package tours that we booked departs
from Ritz Carlton , so my family had to take
the taxi
from Manhattan Hotel to meet me up at the lobby.
I didn’t get to see the rooms in Ritz Carlton so this blog
is not about staying in this hotel, but how inconvenient
it is to enter the hotel just to get into the meeting rooms.
Ritz Carlton is a highly reinforced hotel, with a heavily secured
steel
barricaded gates. where vehicles are stopped,
inspected ,
sniffed by trained bomb- sniffing dogs and passengers are checked.
To get into the lobby, all hand carried items, bags,
phones,cameras, wallets and everything that you have
in your pockets had to pass by an x- ray machine,
...and the guests would be asked to pass by metal detectors
and searched manually when they hear that stressing beep.
I was lucky as I always attend the early morning sessions
at 7 AM so I am in earlier, and the line is
not that long.
The problem comes during peak hours where the
car traffic
by the gate and the queue at the lobby
gets so long that it causes so much inconvenience
to the hotel guests and the convention delegates.
There was one instance I tried to take photos, with
the hotel in the background, the security politely
stopped me from
doing so and informed us that
picture taking was allowed in front of the hotel.
Unbelievable! I reckoned.
It is normal for tourists to take pictures of the places
they
visit and I think this is the only hotel in the world
that does not allow picture taking at the entrance
hall.
My family had been to so many places in the world,
...and we had been taking photos in front of the hotels that
we stayed in the past but nobody stopped us from
doing so.
Ritz Carlton Mega Kuningan is the very first luxury hotel
The hotel should be aware that they are hosting
the biggest ASEAN gathering of endocrinologists-
and while I appreciate the safety measures and
strict security that the hotel is giving to their patrons,
and while I appreciate the safety measures and
strict security that the hotel is giving to their patrons,
... but these safety measures, though may cause inconvenience,
should not cause any discomfort to hotel guests, much more
to the thousands of delegates attending the convention.
I wish that the Ritz Carton staff should know
how to differentiate terrorists from
endocrinologists.
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I think they still can't get over the tragedy on 2009. Did you know that Ritz Carlton Mega Kuningan Jakarta were hit by terrorist bombings only 5 minutes after JW Marriot blast back then. It was only few days before English Premiere Club Manchester United suppose to stay in that hotel.
ReplyDeleteAfter that, Jakarta security check was never the same again :(
Yes, that's what we learned.
DeleteThe staff are still very polite on asking the guests not to take photos.
The queue getting in was okay in the morning but really the car traffic at the gate and the people at the entrance during peak hours was almost, I would say, intolerable.
Maybe they should have opened another entrance or added more x- ray machines when they accepted being the host of the convention.
Had it not been for the convention, getting into the hotel would have been okay.
Otherwise, our stay in Jakarta was very pleasant.