The hotel development is growing very rapidly in Indonesia. From the year of 2010, we could see a steady growth within the industry. Many new players joined in and tried this business opportunity. New hotels in Indonesia are mushrooming, especially in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Bali, and other big cities. Hotels, from five-star to non-star and boutique hotels, can easily be found along the main streets of these cities. Now the question is could they survive and evolve within the economic conditions of Indonesia that is uncertain? Well to answer this question, we have to go out and find the right person to answer all of these questions. Incidentally, we are now in the month of May, where in Indonesia you will get a lot public holiday, including a few long weekends, if you are smart enough to ask your boss for a day off or two. Upon facing those long weekend, we asked our friend and good partner at Agoda Indonesia to help us solve those questions. So we tried to call and asked them for a good recommendation on where is the best place to stay within the Jakarta area. Eventually because the business hours, we could not reach them and got a quick answer, therefore we look at their site by our own and found out that there is few of good ones.
Upon selecting those hotels, we would like to see new and fresh. Something unique and definitely not part of the big chain hotel. Based on the good review of 1997 people, we finally decided to visit Morrissey Hotel Residences in Central Jakarta. Better known as Morrissey Hotel, it is a hotel located in warm-old neighborhood of Menteng and very close to the Gondangdia train station, just about ten minutes of walk. Or if you are coming from Gambir train station, it will takes you about another ten minutes of drive. The hotel offers several type of room or studios with luxurious service and facilities, such as an outdoor pool, a cozy restaurant, fitness corner, self-service launderette, resident’s lounge, business centre, to a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw transportation called Ed, part of in-house facility that has been popular among local residents and quite similar to the ones that you usually see running across the busy street of Jakarta.
We do this kind of self-service thing because we would like our guests to feel like they are staying at home. We also often give them a lot of privacy and time, especially when it comes to exploring our hotel.Mohammad CholilUpon entering the glass entrance door of Morrissey Hotel Residences in Central Jakarta, visitors are first greeted by its well-appointed bellboy and its French artist-Barista costumes. Step further inside and you will encounter an old motorbikes along with cajón, a six sided box-shaped percussion instrument that normally use by its workers to sing or welcome the guest. All of them beckon for exploration. Amid this entire spectacle, some visitor can be seen enjoying their coffee or sandwiches in a little corners named HOME, while having a conversation or, if you will, having a light conversation with one another. Established in December 2011 by a former member of hospitality industry, Morrissey is indeed more than a mere hotel. Unique to its name, it has a similar service or facilities that you usually see at a fancy apartment. According to Mr. Mohammad Cholil who is the General Manager at Morrissey, “We do this kind of self-service thing because we would like our guests to feel like they are staying at home. We also often give them a lot of privacy and time, especially when it comes to exploring our hotel.”
Morrissey Hotel Residences‘s many windows and wide ventilations also ensure that the place is awash in natural light. The semi-outdoor space at the back of the lobby area looks like a cozy place that you usually occupy during a visit to your grandfather’s house. This space is built within a simple style, using various kinds of wood, as a place to interact and also to spend your breakfast or afternoon meal. While the room that we were staying at, the Morrissey Studio Luxe, was more like a cozy apartment rather than a fixed structured hotel room. It is the largest studio rooms with a huge space of 36 meter squared to play around with. The generous proportions are increased by the natural light from the wide windows and the space from the high ceilings. It also has its workspace with high-speed internet access and wifi, universal electrical outlets, sofa with small table, 32 inches flat-screen TV and DVD player, bathroom, and fully equipped kitchen so you can whip up your favourite meal.
Entering its fourth year of existence, Morrissey Hotel Residences is definitely entering a new era of its own. Just like any other business establishment that must go through some highs and lows during its cycle, the management and staff came a long way to get in sync working together as a solid team. They are now determined to renew their management system with a better ones that is fairly radical, compared to or with the hospitality business out there. For instance, they allow or direct such visitors to interact with their employees or surrounding environment of the hotel in various ways. Ranging from food ordering system on room service that can be very cheap if visitors are going down to the HOME area, creating a self-service laundry room or launderettes area, an independent yet personal use of computers, fax machines, printers, and so forth in the business center, up to the procurement of in-house transportation system named Ed that can bring visitors around the region of Menteng, from hotel to Sarinah building or even around the culinary world of Jalan Sabang. Nevertheless, all these things can not be taken for granted or positive by the various parties. One of the driver and bellboy of the hotel, Mohammad Ridwan explained, “Today, we as worker are being encouraged and given the liberty to go extra mile to delight customers without invading their personal space. Me, personally, is being treated very well by the management. They gave me a new uniform that is very casual yet have an instant feeling of being welcome by us. Aside from it, everything should be casual, natural, no communication gap but still remaining respectful as how hoteliers are born and trained to do.”
INSIDER’S OPINION
Today, we as worker are being encouraged and given the liberty to go extra mile to delight customers without invading their personal space. Me, personally, is being treated very well by the management. They gave me a new uniform that is very casual yet have an instant feeling of being welcome by us. Aside from it, everything should be casual, natural, no communication gap but still remaining respectful as how hoteliers are born and trained to do.
Mohammad Ridwan
Unlike other hotel serviced apartment or hotel in Jakarta that often exude an intimidating air and are mostly frequented by super high class visitors, Morrissey Hotel Residences aims to embrace as many people as possible, including us, the local visitors. For sure, one of their many strategies is by providing the best service and comfort for anyone who comes in, as great as possible. In term of the staff, they did great and it was the greatest amenity which was flawlessly welcoming and helpful. Otherwise, during my two days stay at Morrissey Studio Luxe room could be basic, and there will be no direct interaction between us, visitors and employee. Through its many embodiments, Morrissey Hotel certainly provides a real picture why the hotel business in Indonesia continued to rise every single year. They do it with their own way. They succeed and democratizes the world of warm hospitality and professionalism, while providing an unexpectedly tranquil and soul-fulfilling escape from the hustle and bustle of Jakarta. For those of you who would like to stay at Morrissey Hotel Residences, you can visit Agoda Indonesia now and book yourself a room.