Juniper
Friday evening traffic in Kuala Lumpur before 5pm is usually totally gridlock and last Friday was especially bad as I headed from a media event in Balakong to the city centre. It took almost 2 hours to get back to the city to meet up with my friend at lyf Chinatown Kuala Lumpur located on Jalan Raja Chulan. I had a complimentary one-night stay & a tour of the premises had been arranged. I thought I could get there by 5pm but it was 6pm when I arrived at lyf’s doorstep.
lyf is more of a co-living space than your ‘traditional’ type of hotel. There are 13 floors with shared amenities such as a spacious kitchen and lounge as well as launderette. lyf is one of the hotels under Ascott so you can expect high quality accommodation at very reasonable prices.
There are several types of rooms which cater to solo travelers to groups of up to 8 persons. For example, Good for One is 18 sqm/195 sqft and that’s quite a bit of space for a single person. For 2 persons, choose from lyf Style (17 sqm/183 sqft), One of a Kind (19 sqm/205 sqft) or One of a Kind Plus (23 sqm/248 sqft). All Together caters for 4 persons in 2 bedrooms (41 sqm/441 sqft) while All Together is a 4-bedroom duplex for 8 persons (52 sqm/560 sqft).
My friend and I were allocated One of a Kind located on the 10th floor. Each lyf has a colour theme & the colour theme for lyf Chinatown Kuala Lumpur is a bright, sunny and vibrant yellow. It’s a very uplifting and cheerful colour. What is unique about lyf is that each co-living area has a name, e.g. the reception is “Say Hi” (because everyone who enters the reception area is greeted with a “Hi”), the other areas on the 12th floor are BOND (Social Kitchen), BURN (Social Gym), CONNECT (coworking/lounge), COLLAB (meeting room), WASH & HANG (common launderette) and HANG OUT (balcony). The rooftop which has a very nice wall art is on the 13th floor).
There’s no bottled water in the rooms (something I give thumbs up to as sustainability is important) but there is a sink & filtered water available in the corridor of every floor where rooms are. A kettle and jug as well as coffee/tea sachets are provided. If you bring your own water bottle, of course you can fill it up with filtered water before you head out of lyf.
The room itself was a delightful surprise as it is bigger than I expected. I’ve been inside KL hotels that are rated 4 or 5 stars and those rooms are smaller than One of a Kind at lyf. Even the bathroom was much more spacious than I imagined with ample room on both sides for toiletries for 2 people. There was a towel rail on the shower door, the shower space was also spacious and there were eco-friendly amenities in refillable bottles. Next to the sink were body lotion & liquid hand soap while in the shower stall were shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. Toothpaste and toothbrush are provided in sealed plastic.
The bed is queen-sized and on the wall is a colourful mural of someone preparing snacks. Next to the very comfortable bed is a functional work desk and chair. A lot of thought went into the design of this room as there’s even a space under the mattress for extra luggage. There’s a hairdryer which I didn’t use but good to know it’s there anyway. There are 2 pairs of bedroom slippers which came in handy as I didn’t bring my own slippers.
Breakfast is provided at SLOAFT Cafe located at lyf’s lobby at an additional cost of RM25 nett – 4 sets are available every day with beverage choices of coffee, tea or orange juice. The quality of the food also went beyond my expectations. Although the portions aren’t big, the quality more than made up for that. Food delivery people come in frequently to collect SLOAFT Cafe’s food so even customers outside lyf know their food is superb.
As lyf is in Chinatown, more good food is but a stroll away. During our weekend stay, my friend and I checked out an Indian restaurant and an Instagrammable restaurant, both restaurants have delicious food and drinks, We probably wouldn’t have visited these places if it wasn’t for the stay at lyf.
While lyf doesn’t have parking facilities, there is open space parking right next to lyf but the charges are really high at RM5 per hour or RM20 per day so public transport is the best option if you are planning to stay at lyf. Overall, it was a pleasant and memorable stay. The room was clean, the ambiance was quiet and peaceful, the amenities and facilities were more than enough and the location convenient for exploring Chinatown where there is plenty to see and do.
If you have checked out at noon but need to store your luggage at lyf before going to your next destination, there are lockers at the lobby which lyf reception staff will lock. There is no extra charge for usage of these lockers. Special mention goes out to Manager Puteri for being friendly, accommodating and altogether exceptional.
