Stayed one night in a surprisingly large standard room with a queen sized canopy bed. The building is charming, but lacks maintenance. It was rather noisy as the rooms were facing the main road.
Food at the restaurant was just average and lots of black ants visited the restroom in the morning!
We just came back from a 2 nights stay at this hotel. We had taken the two Halcyon Rooms on the second floor hoping to get a view. Sadly none. The hotel is probably the best in Frasers Hill and by far the most charming. Unfortunately it badly needs renovation and maintainence. The outside walls need a coat of paints, the cupboards in the room are breaking down, cobwebs under tables. The list goes on....
The high point of the stay was the afternoon tea with scones. The experience is very nice specially if you have a clear day. Breakfast was also filling and an interesting experience. Unlike the usual buffet style this was a sit down affair. We didn't have our meals at the hotel but the prices we saw were very steep.
There are no TVs in rooms, which can be challenging if there are kids in the group. No internet. No newspaper. And no coffee/tea maker in the rooms.
I would recommend this hotel for those who are looking for a quiet, relaxing holiday. Who will be happy reading books in plush sofas surrounded by memorabilia that are of a period long gone by. Actually this reflects Frasers Hill itself. If the owners can renovate this place and put in a few modern facilities it would be a wonderful place. But then prices would go up....
The entry and common areas were the definition of "shabby chic" so we were temporarily impressed. After just a few minutes in the room we noticed all the mold, rusty nails, torn furniture, stained linens, sprung mattress, dirty ledges and more but we thought we could stand it. What drove us out was the toilet got completely covered in ants in two hours. Sure, they sprayed but when the ants came back after 2 more hours so we moved to another room. The next day the new room had ants all over the toilet. What's with all the ants?
We were also awoken by a cat crying a our door but we assumed he was after mice so that was OK. We expected more for over $100 a night in Malaysia and we have lived and traveled here over 7 months.
The breakfast was barely marginal with the croissants still frozen in the middle both mornings and omelette's cooked to rubber! The fellows who cooked were from Myanmar and we don't think they really understood the hotel business well. We will say that the scones were excellent and this was absolutely the only place in Malaysia where they didn't water down the fruit juice.
Why did we stay 2 days? It was the busy season and a weekend and we really wanted to see the birds and the rest of Fraser's Hill which was all delightful.
We should have been more organized and made arrangements ahead and stayed at another location but we were driving around Malaysia with spontaneity and we paid the price for it here!
For RM385 per night, I would expect something better.
The place had the old time charm, for sure. But the service level was inconsistent. Sometimes we had to ask for things twice or three times.
Hot water is available until 11pm only. There wasn't notice regarding that. I started filling my tub at about 10-ish hoping for a late night soak. The water was fine when I started running the tap, but when I stepped in a few minutes later, it was cold!
They lock up the main building at about 10pm. There's no notice about that either. I wanted to go for a late night walk only to discover that they had locked the doors. The manager was nice enough to let us out for a 5 minute walk though, and waited for us to close up.
Dinner is not recommended. My RM48 roast chicken was dry. My partner's similarly priced steak pie was also bland. Mineral water cost RM5 - the same bottle that they serve in the rooms for free.
The only thing I'd recommend would be their afternoon tea of scones and tea. One set of 2 piece scone with a pot of tea cost RM18. The tea they use is Boh tea, which I can purchase for a very cheap price at any local store. But hey, I actually think Boh is 'up there' with any other expensive brand, so I don't mind it so much. I did notice that if you order one set of afternoon tea (they call it Devonshire Tea), they put 2 teabags in one pot, and if you order 2 set, they serve one pot with 3 teabags only. Not fair really. Other fare I sample is the Rarebit (aka bacon) on toast which is very tasty because they put cheese and white sauce on it, served with delicious fries.
So... just for there for the Scones. Nothing else is worth it.
Authentic old style decor but in need of some TLC. Ants in the bathroom which has been referred to a number of times in other reviews. Appreciated all the charm of a bygone era but the food was not good enough for the prices and although a reasonable choice of wines were offered they were outrageously expensive - the cheapest was 120MR. Drinks in the bar before dinner were also double what we were paying elsewhere in the area. Another night out in KL when we went to a fantastic, smart and trendy restaurant specialising in pork, and we would have expected to pay top prices, there was a terrific choice of wine between 40- 60MR so there is no excuse to charge such exhorbitant amounts.
The Ye Old Smokehouse hotel in/on Fraser Hill was a pleasant surprise for us. We've been away from Europe over 6 months now and the hotel just gave us the feeling of being back. The hotel/hill was covered in clouds / mist for 3 days, but that made the whole atmosphere very cosy and mistirious.
The staff was very friendly and helpfull; we got a free upgrade to a suite as the standard room were under renovation (in the middle of high season?).
The suites are very spacious and nicely decorated. There is no aircon or central heating, which you don't need anyway. Due to the clouds/mist it makes everything a bit damp, but that is just part of staying at a hill station.
The food was good and the wine excellent (not expected in Malaysia). Nice to eat a proper piece of meat and yorkshire pudding, instead of the standard Mee or Noodles.
The area is very nice a lot of things to do, including some very nice hikes.
Point of improvement: the restaurant staff struggles with explaining what is on the menu and are not very pro-active (you need to ask for a refill if your glass is empty). My eggs at breakfast was cold on one of the mornings.
A bit of paint / renovation would do the hotel good.
