We went to Kota Kinabalu 2 weeks ago to attend my friend’s wedding. As usual, the first online resource that I look for accommodation is always Tripadvisor. I usually refer to the top rating list based on the reviews given in Tripadvisor and narrow down my selection to the budget that I set. Most of the time the top rating hotels listed in Tripadvisor are the luxury hotels that cost a bomb, so I always have to scroll down the list to the less impressive hotel with less expensive rate.

So I expected the same process when looking for hotels in Kota Kinabalu. I typed “Tripadvisor Kota Kinabalu Hotel” in Google search, it brought me to the page as shown below. Hotel Eden54, a no star hotel, was listed as #1 of 77 hotels in Kota Kinabalu and it was only $35 average price per night! It beats Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria Resort which is a renown 5 stars hotel. Out of complete curiosity, I read through most of the reviews of Eden 54 in Tripadvisor, mostly gave very good comments about Eden 54. The credibility was especially given to Ling Ling, the staff there who provides excellent services to the guests.

We then browsed through Eden54 offical website to check for the room rates andthe room availability:

The room rates are pretty affordable, isn’t it? Without second thoughts, we called to make our reservation. We only managed to book Compact D without window, as all rooms had been fully booked. I don’t like the idea of being in the chamber without window, it gives me suffocating feeling. But since all rooms were taken, we had no choice but to suck it up.

We arrived in Kota Kinabalu in the noon time and immediately checked in Eden 54. Eden 54 is located in Kota Kinabalu city, within walking distance to Suria Shopping mall (5 minutes), Wisma Merdeka Shopping mall (7 minutes), Jesselton Point Jetty (7 minutes), Sabah Tourism office (5 minutes) as well as Major Banks (3 minutes).

Hotel Eden 54 is converted from the 2 story shop lots. Even though Eden 54 looks more like a guest house than a hotel, its design is more sophisticated in comparison to the majority of the  guest houses. I didn’t have high expectation on Hotel Eden 54, after all, it’s just a no star hotel with affordable room rates. To me cleanliness and services are key factors for the budget hotels that we look for. The size of the hotel doesn’t really matter to us as we don’t usually stay in the hotel whenever we were on holiday. But of course occasionally I do wish to indulge myself in a luxury sea facing resort. I will save the opportunity when I have a chance to visit Maldives .

As we walked into the hotel, there is a small desk and two chairs in a very small space of the entrance, I presumed it is a waiting area. We pressed the bell as indicated in the signboard at the desk. A middle aged man came down from the 1st floor to greet us and helped carrying our luggage.

The interior of the hotel is of modern design with cream color painting on the wall, my favourite color for interior building. The interior of the building was very new and clean which immediately impressed me a little. We proceeded to the check-in counter at the first floor where we finally met the legendary staff in Eden 54, Ling Ling. We kept seeing the name “Ling Ling” in most of the reviews in Tripadvisor and we couldn’t wait to meet her personally. She is a typical Chinese looking lady with friendly smile in her face. She showed us our room politely and helped to arrange a window room for us in our third night as someone cancelled the booking for the night. We didn’t interact much as we wanted to get into the room so badly after a few hours sitting in the airport and the airplane.

Waiting area at the corridor

The room was relatively small but enough for two to have sweet dreams or to watch tv in the bed .

For those who can’t live without laptop, there is a table for you to browse the net. I prefer using laptop in the bed, so the desk usually serves no purpose to me.

There are HBO, BCC, Star World, Feng Huang, Japanese, and other local channels in the TV. The TV is facing the bed so we turned it on all the time regardless watching it or not. I prefer to have some noise in the room.

The bath room is clean, not very spacious but didn’t cause any inconvenience to us.

The bath room came with toiletries, so we don’t actually need to bring our own soap or shampoo.

We rested for a while in the room and went to the reception to get a map to plan for our itinerary. Before opening our mouths at the counter, Ling Ling already handed us a map and introduced us the places of interest around the town. She recommended us some good seafood restaurants to dine in, a famous breakfast place which is within walking distance from Eden 54, promenade where we can stroll along the sea or have a glass of refreshing beer under the hot sun. Ling Ling attended to all our queries and requests patiently and politely. No wonder most guests gave a 5 stars to the services in Eden 54.

Another value added facility in Eden 54 is that you can treat the hotel like your home. There is a big refrigerator at the lobby area where you can store your drinks, your beer, your fruits, your yogurt in it. We had our Ben & Jerry ice cream in the freezer for 3 days. The refrigerator was packed with food at all time as there wasn’t refrigerator in the individual room, so every guest shares the same refrigerator. Besides, there was a big resting / dining / reading area in front of the reception. It was very quiet and cozy with comfy couch and soft music playing at all time.

Books and newspaper are available in the living hall. If you don’t like to be grounded in the small room, you can read a book or use your computer here in the living hall.

The setup was so homely that we loved hanging around here during night time when we had nothing to do in the room. We brought our drinks and snacks here during night time. Don decided to assemble the ships puzzle that he bought from the Times book store in Kota Kinabalu town, while I blogged with my laptop the whole night here in the living hall.

Don patiently assembled the 3D ship puzzles.

Don decided to leave the ships here in Eden 54 as a gift to the hotel. So if you happen to see the ships, they are courtesy of Don Lim Ling Ling was so happy of the ships and kept thanking us for that.

There was also a small kitchen in the living hall with complete utensil, washing sink and microwave that all the guests can use. We even made our own sandwiches in the kitchen with the bread, bacon, cheese and tomatoes that we bought from Tong Hing supermarket next to Eden 54.

This is our favourite supermarket, it’s like Cold Storage supermarket in Kuala Lumpur, we were overwhelmed by a wide variety of snacks, food, bread, drinks, beers, wine, and etc from the shop. We visited the shop at least twice everyday. It makes Eden 54 a favourite budget hotel in Kota Kinabalu town as it’s just so convenient to get anything you want from Tong Hing supermarket. You can even make yourself drunk easily by spending few minutes walked down from your room to the shop and grabbed yourself a few bottles of wine.

If a supermarket doesn’t satisfy you, spend another few more minutes to walk across the street to Suria Sabah shopping center. It’s just right behind Eden 54. This is where Don bought the 3D ships puzzle. You can even catch a movie in the cinema in Suria Sabah.

We had pleasant stays in Eden 54 and we would definitely come back again.

~*~ Overall Ratings of Hotel Eden 54: ~*~

Room - Very clean even though it was relatively small! 4 out of 5 stars

Cleanliness - I have nothing to complain about the cleanliness in Eden 54. 5 out of 5 stars

Service - Indisputable good services. There is a helpful answering machine called Ling Ling that you can get all your queries responded instantly at all time. 5 out of 5 stars.

Business Service – All I need is internet access. And since Internet access is free, I will give them 5 out of 5 stars.

Food – No food and breakfast provided at all, so no rating for this category.

Location – Needless to say, as depicted in the post, 5 out of 5 stars.

~ * Contact: * ~

Website: http://www.eden54.com
Tel: +6 088 266054
Fax: +6 088 225580

Email:
stay@eden54.com

Address:
Hotel Eden54,
54 Jalan Gaya,
88000 Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia.