"The Eastern and Oriental Hotel heritage bit was built by the Sarkies, Armenians in 1880’s. It is located on the sea and comprises two blocks the victory annex dates from 2014. We stayed in the older british colonial style Block with a room rate that included a happy hour with snacks and alcohol that are served foc in the cornwallis lounge. I would recommend this if you like an evening tipple. Our room was decorated in a colonial style. All the boxes were ticked. The entrance hall is grand. It trades on its history quite strongly. I don’t think it makes five star as the service doesn’t have the edge that true five star hotels have and if you look a little deeper maintenance isn’t what it might be. However in georgetown its perhaps the best choice The pools are shallow and can fill up quickly with people. You can walk out from here in the evening it’s hot and humid so you will sweat a bit chulia is buzzing at night. You can also walk up to fort cornwallis. You can walk down panang, you can get a taxi to armenia and walk back seeing some murals etc. There are a few things to see here, a couple of grand houses, museums, temples and several british colonial era buildings. There are trips to penang hill which is quite nice. Reception will call you a taxi and they are honest. We dropped one driver a bit of cash and he took us all over, best value ever. Overall George town is an interesting place to see but would not describe it as a must do from a tourist perspective. three nights here is the typical stay."

"We spent 2 rainy days & nights at the end of our hectic 2 and a half week stay in George Town cocooned at the E&O. It was blissful. Our ground floor suite in the Heritage Wing exceeded our expectations and invited us to just relax with a beer (free from the mini-bar) or a Johnny Black (remainder of our duty free). When not in our room our time was spent at Farquhar's Bar - pretending to be posh - sinking into the lush velvet green couch by the window watching time pass by. Included breakfast was average and dining options were reduced due to CNY celebrations. Had it not been raining we would have headed to the local food court for a CKT. However this review is not about the food, but about the overall experience."

"Back again to this lovely old colonial star of Georgetown. The true elegance hits you when you step out of the taxi. The breakfast are simply lovely, outdoor terrace seating area. Great choice. Rooms gorgeous, staff very friendly and helpful. Twice daily swims, pool area so clean and well kept. Evening buffet 1 night, amazing, fresh lobster and giant prawns, our favourites. ONLY NEGATIVE, and we weren’t the only ones to draw attention to this. The endless noise of chairs scraping the tiles at breakfast. We dreaded seeing someone getting up, as they created such an awful scraping noise. Some chairs on the right hand side had little pads which were a joy to sit near. But the left area was a nightmare. We just couldn’t have breakfast here ever again, it was so bad. We would have to go over to the Edison for breakfast in future. We really hope you have looked at this issue, it needs attention, very fast. It’s an easy fix. And cheap. Please please reply to me assuring you have attended to this problem."

"The staff just did not care about the guest experience. The hotel is in two wings, but depending on your room, there are many areas of the hotel you cannot access. Staff onsite were very unclear about what and where I could access leading to embarrassment when I was turned away. Worse however was the terrible smell of ammonia/sewers coming from the shower tray when I woke. It was the disgusting stench that woke me. When I reported this to the front desk the staff seemed neither surprised nor concerned. The quality and care of the service did not meet reasonable expectations of a five star property. This felt more like a well appointed three star, and definitely not the luxury it claims to be. A wonderful property not badly managed without investment in the team?"