Our trip is brought through Groupon(2D1N) with an extension of 1N stay for 4 people.

After reading though all the reviews posted before heading off to Batam, I am mentally prepared for the bad service, food and hygiene from the hotel. During our stay in the hotel, everything is better than what we have expected.

Once upon arrival, we waited for 10 min for the check in. We knew from the reviews that the fridge would be lock so we requested to use the fridge and hope they could remove the mini bar so that we don't have to pay $50 deposit. In less than 30 min, the staff came to our room with a smile and took all the stuff from the fridge. We even requested for some extra pillow and toiletries and there weren't much delay.

We went to check out the hotel facilities.
- The swimming pool is clean but not as big as Singapore public pool.
- There are 2 jacuzzi for adults and children. There weren't many people as we went during the non-peak period. So we quite enjoy the privacy of having the pool and jacuzzi for ourselves.
- The gym has plentiful equipment but some are broken.
- KTV lounge are huge but we didn't have the time to stay and sing.
- I have no idea about the massage and spa facilities (I only know that they are not free)

The room are not as rundown and dirty like what other reviews had mentioned. It is quite spacious, no stains anywhere and the towels are clean. The bed is comfy, views of HarborBay is amazing in the morning. However, the cupboard door is not smooth to open, program selection are limited and 2 out of 4 sockets are not working.

There are average selection of breakfast buffet. They changed their menu daily. The only food/drink I love is the corn beef and fruit punch. There weren't much disturbance in the lobby at night.

The reason why my overall rating of this hotel is very good and not excellent is because most of the staff don't understand english and chinese. We took quite some time to get our message through or find someone to translate it for us.

One thing I see from most reviews, they are not well-prepared during peak period (Dec).
I don't mind heading there again but not doing peak period.

My pointers for all who is going to Batam for the 1st time.
- Go-kart circuit only meant for children in the tour if you are buying packages(even if they didn't state so in the packages). You have to request. (We got scammed as we were told it was complimentary)
- Hotel provide cab services. They are more expensive than the public ones (yellow plate) but safer. You have to negotiate price before boarding.
- Do not eat street food cause we are not well adapt to their food hygiene.
- Do not go out at night as the security there are not very tight.

I went to this hotel during Christmas Holidays and I was diappointed. The hotel front desk staff, made us wait and did not entertain us, like we were non existent. I even had to take the welcome drink myself. My husband came later to join me in the hotel, and when I asked for a clean glass, the reception staff kept me waiting for another 15 minutes, so I used my glass to take a drink for him. They charged S$50 for the compulsory Chrsitmas dinner, a total of $100 as we took 2 rooms for our kids, and the food was lousy and there was not even at turkey, instead they served cold roasted chicken which was extremely small. Breakfast was average, and my husband got a rotten half boiled egg, for which the staff was not apologetic.
Our bed smelled of urine, I stayed in room 624. Even after they changed a clean sheet for us, it still smelled, I was sleepless because of that. Swimming pool was ok. Spa was average, but the massaeus kept gossiping and we cannot relax as we got a couple's room. We could also hear other massaeus talking loudly outside. The passage way into the disco was very dirty and smelly and smoky and we changed our mind abt going into the discotheque. even the passageway to our rooms were smelly. The manager on duty at night was very unhelpful. My son went to the reception to ask for macdonald's number and he simply said he don't know, and later made some calls to find out the number when my husband went down to ask. And when the food did not come after one and a half hours later, we made a call to ask macdonalds and he told us that he came and left because the reception did not allow him to come to our room!!! He could have called and informed us at least. And that night my kids went to bed without dinner!!
It is a beautiful hotel with beautiful rooms, I think they need to retrain all their staffs if they want more occupancy rate. And they definitely have to manage the smell.

The hotel was unique; staffs were amazing and approachable; and the service they have provided us was excellent! They are all smiles to provide service and though it was buy that time coz it's holiday season, they never showed dismay on their faces.
We enjoyed our room #407, we only had one concern about the toilet, it's really small. The breakfast was surprisingly pleasing. A lot of food selection and two thumbs up for the ambiance. The lobby is spacious with great design and decors. Reception, telephone operator and concierge were easy to contact and available all day & night.

We enjoyed our stay in Pacific Palace Hotel, though the real purpose of our travel was to visit tourist spot, the location offers nothing for this except the Nagoya hill for shopping which has limited new signature brands. If we only stayed longer probably we had visited some places suggested by the concierge like the bridge which will take us from hotel to the site in about an hour.

Other than that, we did enjoy our stay in this hotel. Great hotel, great facilities, great staffs and great service. And oppppsss! The massage i had was the best massage i had so far.

Bed was comfy and bathroom nice but very expensive ($165usd per night Christmas-New Year) and unfortunately food was awful and on 2 separate nights brought different dish to what i ordered, i asked them to bring what i ordered with the correct change and they tried adding service charge.
Once i ordered vegetarian Spaghetti and was told the kitchen had no vegetables, no veg in a hotel with 2 different restaurants, WTF.
Noisy in the evenings due to band in lobby and having interior balcony, through till 9-9.30pm.
Room cleaning was awful, empty plastic bottles/bags hadn't been thrown away and generally still a mess, probably due to cleaning being done by men, men can't clean.
Finally instead off telling me my Company changed my booking to Novotel over the road when i finished work at 2pm, they waited till 8pm on New Years eve to tell me, and then said i had to leave immediately, i asked if i could have 1 hr to finish my dinner and pack, Manager basically said that was too long could i be gone in 20mins, due to lack of notice to check out didn't have the $ to pay laundry bill so asked if could drop bag off over the road, stop by the ATM and come back, despite Novotel being only 200mtrs away Manager was very difficult and said i couldn't leave the hotel without paying.
1 star is for the bed and A/C.