Empire Hotel And Country Club

5 star hotel w 2 star service

Being a local who has migrated about 10 years ago, every time I bring friends & family back to Brunei for a vacation I would take them to Empire. 2010 was no different. I actually stayed there twice in a span of 2 months and both times their service staff was a disgrace.

The first time, it took them over 3 hours to have our room ready. One that we booked through a tour company over a month ago.

The second time, it took them about an hour to get our room ready only to give us the wrong type of room. it took over 2 hours to resolve the issue and multiple phone calls. When I tried to speak to a manager, I was told they don't work Sundays. Then when I called again, a different individual said they were at a meeting and when I was explicitly upset, they finally got a manager on the phone.

The country club sauna/changing room area is dangerous with marble floors but not matts so one of my guests slip and fell hard. Two kids tripped as well when I was in the tub. The floors are not safe once wet.

The gentleman at the door told me I could not take the towel to the country club (which is fine) but he expected me to bring my towel back to my room (rather than hold it at the desk or send someone to bring it back up)

I could go on, but this should suffice

Unique Quality: It does have amazing rooms with great views. Most ocean view rooms come w spacious balconys and a breathtaking view of the beach. It is always quite silent making it a nice recluse.

A Touch of Luxury

We brought the New Year in here together with the rest of Brunei.

The hotel is often referred to as a six star hotel. It was built by the current Sultan of Brunei's notorious brother Prince Jefri, who fled Brunei under a cloud of scandal after some serious financial overspending. He certainly spent a lot on this place. Everything is lined with gold. the main hotel building is stunning. You wander around with your mouth hanging open looking at it. It's also a superb place for swimming there are beaches and a whole wealth of swimming pools. We tried them all.

The whole complex cost around $US1.1 billion to build. There are seven restaurants, a golf course, a cinema and a bowling alley.

Our accomodation was wonderful but for a constantly dripping tap. All that money and still not perfect!!!

The only down side of this place is it is far from everything else and you must travel by expensive taxi unless you have your own car. This was not a problem for us because when we saw the accomodation and pools and setting, we did not want to leave.

I have so many photos, but where? Will try to add some later when I can track them down.

Unique Quality: Gold lined walls.

Luxurious.

Lots of different pools and on the sea so many swimming opportunities.

The 6 star hotel of Brunei

The Empire Hotel and Country Club is one of the best hotels in Asia and perhaps even the world. I have the chance to stay here for 5 days (for a meeting) and it is truely a very grand and luxurous hotel. This 6 star hotel is located at the Jerudong area about 30 minutes drive from Bandar Seri Begawan, and there are 3 beaches in front of it. The hotel also has 8 swimming pools of all shapes and sizes, several restaurants, a big golf course designed by Jack Nickalaus, 3 cinemas, a big sports complex etc etc etc. The rooms are huge (include the toilet inside the room) and the service is really excellent. The main lobby is very big and grand, and will blow you away. In fact, I will be building a VT page just for this hotel (please visit my VT Jerudong page). All the above luxury does not come cheap and the normal price of the cheapest rooms cost about $600 Brunei Dollars per night. If you want to get the rooms cheap, you can join the Royal Brunei Airlines promotion or ask for someone who is a member of the country club which can book the hotel at a significant discount.

• Opinion of Price: most expensive

Empire Hotel And Country Club Photo: Empire Hotel & Country Club, Brunei

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the best in Borneo

The hotel is extremely impressive and I've never seen a grander lobby. We had asked for two deluxe adjoining rooms. Upon check-in, they didn't have adjoining, but gave us two rooms next to each other, one room upgraded to a sort of junior suite, so that was a fair trade. Both rooms had great direct views of the grounds and the ocean.

We had E-Club rooms which included breakfast in the E-Club lounge. These were excellent meals, eaten with real silver and china. I asked for HP sauce with my eggs; the waiter had no idea what that was, went off to find out, and came back with some in two minutes. He made a real effort. We had a meal in the Atrium Café which was also excellent.

I do not recommend the Pantai restaurant. The meals had fresh ingredients but just did not taste as well as their counterparts elsewhere. The service was also slow.

One problem at the end soured the whole experience for us. We had an early ferry to catch to Labuan, so we got up very early in the morning so as to have a leisurely breakfast, walk around, and non-rushed check-out. We asked for our bags to be brought down, but they didn't come. I asked about five times in the end, the last time raising my voice. We got up at the crack of dawn for this ferry ride and we ended up leaving the hotel 15 minutes late and rushing from then on because they didn't bring our bags down in time.

I would stay there again simply because I doubt there is any serious competition in Brunei.

Unique Quality: The sand-bottom pool was nice and large with clean water and fairly clear of people. There could perhaps be more seating with shade around the edges.

The beach sand was not pleasant: darkish brown mixed in with the tan colour of the sand, and extremely hot for walking. It wasn't really welcoming to swim there.

• Opinion of Price: most expensive
• Related to: Romantic Travel and Honeymoons, Family Travel, Spa and Resort

Empire Hotel And Country Club Photo: View from the room

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Comfy bed n pillows

The beds and pillows...they're too comfy...I had a good sleep everynight...

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Empire Hotel And Country Club

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Stylish and luxurious stay

That's where I stayed...the South Lagoon...about 5 minutes walk to the main lobby...

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Empire Hotel And Country Club

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Stylish and luxury stay

What can I say about this place? Superb!!! It's such a beautiful place...located along the beach somewhere in Jerudong area.

It's about 15 minutes from Brunei International Airport and takes about 20 minutes to the city.

My stay here was so wonderful. The room I stayed in was great...big and spacious. The toilet was very spacious as well. There's a big swimming pool right in front of my room...all I have to do was walk a few steps to the balcony door n jump into the pool...wonderful. The minibar...even wonderful...it's refilled daily on complimentary basis...oh well...it's an expensive hotel...what else can I say. What I missed most is it's comfy pillows...

There're plenty of rooms you can choose: rooms with stunning views of the ocean, lagoon or golf course. Prices are around 523BND-24,200BND. It's a bit expensive though...but worth it.
The hotel is big...it's set on a 180 hectare land with so many facilities.

Most Bruneians I met... they're so proud of this hotel...very luxurious...something like Burj Al Arab...well...it's really a nice place to stay.

Unique Quality: Everything here is great...views...facilities...pools...the staff are friendly n very helpful...food is nice...I really enjoyed my stay here.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Empire Hotel And Country Club

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Brunei's most luxurious hotel

A Huge Empirical Resort

I travelled here on a business trip. I think the staff are selectively nice, depending on who you are and how expensive you look.

A colleague of mine who travels here quite often is not too impressed with the service either. And they ran out of salad and Evian water at one point. During that stay, Prince Andrew was also in residence apparently. Maybe HRH had special dibs on all the supplies.

Unique Quality: Yeah yeah, it's supposedly a 7-Star hotel or something, and one of the Leading Hotels Of The World.

Everything's gilded - furniture, pillars, ceilings - and there's lots of gold around. I'm putting up more photos of this in my next few tips.

The rooms are miles away from each other. There's a man-made saltwater pool and a freshwater pool and all this reclaimed clean constructed beach type things.

That's my problem with this hotel. Yes, it's nice, yes it's grand, yes it's luxurious though not spectacularly more so than other great city hotels (but maybe 'cos I'm not Prince Andrew maybe I didn't get such fine service as he would). But everything is so... CONSTRUCTED and a little bit CLINICAL...

Oh, there's a bowling alley and a cinema within its grounds too. They also do shuttle services between the hotel and city center or Jerudong Park.

• Opinion of Price: most expensive

Empire Hotel And Country Club Photo: lobby, empire hotel brunei

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