Rope Walk Guest House

My wife arranged this room. Said the pictures on Agoga.com did not match the room we got. 2-floor place with a steep staircase (about 55 degrees) and no lift. My 70 year-old mother-in-law was with us and no one offered to help us with bags. I'll explain more about the service staff later. Our room was bare except for a full bed, one twin, a small round table, an uncomfortable chair and a trashcan. We were not told nor was their any info about how to change out our bed sheets or our bath towels. Under the beds were dusty like they hadn't been touched and also had food wrappers when we arrived. My wife withheld this information from me because I was already upset by the way the front desk staff treated us when we arrived. Unfortunately, that did not improve. Men shower downstairs. I think women can shower up or downstairs. Showers were adequate, but the drain seemed to be lil more than a hole in the ground. Hair-body wash provided but I'd suggest you bring your own if you care at all about how clean you feel after showering. Upon check-in, we were told that Penang has a 10 Ringgit per day tourist tax. They wanted to collect that first so when my wife handed over a 50 Ringgit bill, the guy looked at her with annoyed surprise and said, "You don't have exact change?" The rest of the front desk staff didn't say a word to us the entire time we were there. When we walked in they might look up, but never said "Hello," or any kind of greeting at all. They honestly seemed more annoyed that we were there than they were glad we'd rented a room in their crappy hotel. Sad thing is, there's a lot of potential for the place. Its in an excellent location and if you're a 20 or young 30-something this might be a great place for you (especially if you don't care at all about how front desk staff treat you). For me, there with my wife and mother-in-law, this place wouldn't have been "good" at half the price. YMMV, but if you care about being treated like a valued customer, avoid this place.

The person in front of me got charged a lower rate for the same bed for some reason they made up. The stay itself was fine, but stuff like this makes me eager to leave Penang sooner. Unacceptable policy.