Just a bookmark here on this blog because a group of chess parents were in a dilemma because they wanted to attend the Malaysian Open Chess Festival on the 18th to 24th August in Malaysia. Problem was that the main hotel, Cititel Midvalley has been booked way in advance. Someone told us that it is peak season because that country is celebrating their independance day around that time.
So, the next best thing was to find the nearest hotel. I used HotelsCombined.com for this and it returned 130 hotels!! For us the main criteria is that it be 3 stars and above and near to the tournament place. The search page was super helpful with filters for just about anything you'd find important for selecting your hotels such as star ratings, room service, high-speed internet, swimming pool, whether pets are allowed or not etc. In the end it took us 20 minutes to narrow our search down to Pearl Point Hotel which was only 5 minutes away from our playing hall by cab! That was indeed great. In addition, the bonus was the room we chose was comparable price with the official tournament hotel, Cititel. Also our hotel was close to ammenities like supermarket, food courts, and cheap internet cyber cafes. Talk about luck!
We've reserved 3 rooms for ourselves already. Calling the hotel, we found out that the taxi stand is just outside the hotel and it was no problem hailing one. We will take their word for it.
To other chess parents, if you find a better hotel search website other than HotelsCombined, please leave a comment here. So far this site is the best we've found. Will probably use it in future when travelling to other unfamiliar countries with our kids to play in chess tournaments. See you guys there in the Malaysian Open in the coming week.
