Name: crystal guesthouse
Address: 294, Lebuh Chulia, George Town, 10200 George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, George Town, George Town, George Town, 10400, Malaysia
Rating: 7

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crystal guesthouse

I stay here for a month..had a great time in Georgetown.dorm room is around 5 us dollars!family run and I was treated so well.good for visas to Thailand also.no complaints.the guy who cleaned the showers etc is good fun..we sung old tom jones and Abba songs together every morning!the hostel is central too everything in Georgetown with hawkers food right outside from 6pm.if you like a chilled atmosphere in the middle of Georgetown and you are on a budget this is a good place.

I liked the place! I stayed in their big dorm room on the third floor. The room smelled a bit, but other than that it was clean and had AC. Barhrooms on the second floor were old but clean and did not smell. Friendly staff, fast wifi (at least on the first floor), best location. Chairs on the first floor are so comfy. Can't expect more for 22 RM a night. 

I came back to this guesthouse for a dorm room to find out the price had increased from 22 RM to 28.5 RM for a similar air-con dorm room.  I think the fan dorms were 25 or 25.5 RM.

The common shared bathroom is mostly the same (5 toilet/shower combo stalls), but it seems like hot water heaters are in all of the stalls, and some new tiles/paint.  All of the stalls have free toilet paper and soap.  [some of the] rooms are a bit improved with paint or new electric outlets (instead of malay-only plugs, they now are multi-pronged so you may not need a travel converter). 

They also converted what used to be the internet/computer side into a restaurant (Crystals Restaurant).  Large menu.  They moved some of the computers over to the other side.  That was smart actually, as perhaps more people were bringing tablets, smartphones, and laptops and thus less people needing dedicated computers.  

It's an older place, but the important common areas are well maintained. They do pay attention to details that are sometimes overlooked by some of the other places:

- space to hang washed clothes
- free soap in shower/toilet room
- greet you when you come in.

I was the only person in my room (5 beds), so I basically had the room to myself. Very quiet also, with the occasional creek from the floorboard nearby.  Try to get there before 23:00.  I think they close the front door at either 24:00 or 01:00 where the door will be locked and you have to knock to get access.

The reason why they didn't get 5 stars was 2 things:  1) because of the smell.  It's NOT a smell of something spoiled, rotten, or dead animal.  But just a weird smell in the room; hard to describe what it smelled like.....but you could smell it.  The lady said it was for the bed bugs/mosquitoes.   But the smell is still there after a few hours....the entire time I stayed!  You tolerate it after about 10 minutes and it may not bother all people the same.

I don't know if the private rooms had the smell, so I cannot verify this.  I do remember from the last review that the larger room had the Air/Con and a slight smell. Maybe with fan room and open windows you cannot smell it as much, but with air/con and closed window room you can smell.  You do get used to it after about 20 minutes or so, but if you venture out of the room for a while and then come back, you can smell it again before adjusting. So I know I'm not making it up

2). the WIFI did not reach the room where I was.  only 1 bar and i could never connect.  It is ok downstairs though in the kitchen.  I remembered from the last time I stayed the wifi being ok in the other larger dorm room (now fan-only).  I ended up getting a hotlink sim card anyway.

3) put clamps on the water hoses in the toilet.  If you turn the water hose on or bend it to wash yourself after using the toilet, the hose can come off.  They forgot to add a 0.50 RM hose clamp that would ensure the hose stays on the faucet.

I figured for the price that I would try my luck elsewhere.  But it is not all their fault about the price.  seems like Malaysia has slowly adding taxes here and there.  GST 6% tax and before that some 'accommodation' tax that is 2-4RM per person [per night?] plus general inflation/exchange rates.  Hell, the Thai consulate recently recently increased all their visa fees 30+ percent. 

I would potentially stay here again as a first stop for a day or 2.  But there seems to be several more guesthouse and dorms opening.  So I decided not to stay and try something new.  It was a tough decision not to give them 5 stars (for the price level); we'll see what happens the next time.

I arrived in Georgetown with nowhere booked to stay, after asking around at a couple of places I decided to stay at Crystal Guesthouse. I looked the nicest from the outside, had a bed for me in the dorm and they repeated over and over that they had hot showers. 

The dorm was just a simple dorm, 12 single beds around the room, there were about 5 fans on in the room, no air con, a blanket on each bed, you could hire a towel from reception if you hadn't brought your own. The room was clean, beds reasonably comfy, not too loud at night.

You could book visa runs through the guesthouse and mini vans to other parts of Malaysia or Thailand, they will also change money for you at reception. They provide free maps of Georgetown and just helpful advice in general.

George Town

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Lovely Chinese family owners

Still a good spot to stay temporarily....

Cheap and Cheerful

Great for value

Not very friendly, minimal English, went for a room, and had to wait for staff to come fix the light, instead of promptly giving us a different room. Lounge area was cramped, and not welcoming. Internet was not working very well either. Find a better place.

crystal guesthouse

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