The Mayflower, Jakarta - Marriott Executive Apartments

My husband had a business trip to Jakarta so it was the office that arranged for the hotel. The room was comfortable in the sense that there's a lot of space for just two people, but given a choice, I would book elsewhere. Here's why:

1. Breakfast is very basic and not great. I've had much better meals at smaller hotels that are not even part of an international chain.

2. We had dinner at the café one night and when we needed our bill, no one was around. I tried calling out to the staff inside the kitchen three times, but they could not hear me. Good thing the front desk agent a few meters away saw me and gave our bill, otherwise we could have left without paying.

This happened again when I returned the next day to place an order. The staff were nowhere to be found when I entered the café and had to call out "Hello, anybody home?" a few times before someone attended to me.

3. The soap dish had old soap leftover by previous guests and the toilet needed cleaning.

4. Kitchen drawers need repair. Not in picture: the gap cover below the oven fell off every time I opened the oven door.

5. Thick dust that can easily be reached by a vacuum nozzle and a water dispenser with what I assumed were coffee stains. Take note this is after I wiped some off. It then makes you wonder how long the water has been sitting there.

6. The refrigerator shelves needed a bit of wiping, but that was minor compared to the state of the oven:

7. There were no mosquitoes, but something always seemed to be biting me whenever I was in the room.

8. I called Guest Services on two separate occasions to ask how much local phone charges cost and was told by two different people that it's less than IDR 5000 per minute to a landline. I made a seven (7) second phone call to my husband's office and was charged IDR 11,217. Take note that the phone just rang five (5) times and I didn't even get to talk to anyone.

9. There is not much nearby in terms of food or malls except for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet on the ground floor along with a Japanese restaurant, but both are closed at 8 PM and on weekends.

In addition, the traffic makes you not want to get out because even at 10:30 AM or 3 PM, you can easily rack up a rather huge cab bill. I think only on Sundays and public holidays can you get relief from the traffic jams.

There is a pharmacy (Guardian), but that too is closed during weekends. The only silver lining is the small convenience store that is open everyday until 9 PM.

So was there anything about the hotel that I did like? Yes. First is that they had more TV channel options than other hotels I've been to (which I believe is typical of serviced apartments). And second, the staff were friendly - when they're around.

Tips:

- Grab one of the hotel's business cards at the lobby and keep it in your wallet. Some taxi drivers do not believe that there is a Marriott at the Indofood Tower and will refuse to leave until they've made sure you understand that.

- If coming from Plaza Senayan or Pacific Place Mall, best to ask the taxi driver to drop you off at Wisma Nugra Santana which is the building across the street from the Indofood Tower and take the overhead foot bridge back to the hotel. Otherwise, you'll have to go all the way to the rotunda near Grand Indonesia to make a U-turn. The highway unfortunately does not have breaks in-between and the traffic is so terrible that what is supposed to be a 5 minute trip, ends up taking close to an hour.