I had a lovely holiday in indonesia, stay in lovely places on java and bali. I wanted just to stay two days in jakarta before my flight back home. My grandparants used to live in Jakarta menteng. In the same street as this hotel, for sentimental reasons i chose this hotel as at is verry central located. I booked it via tripadvisor on agoda, it was the best value to book on internet.
But on internet the advertised with pictures from diffent rooms than the rooms you could get. You could only choose the superior and the superior executive as i wanted the best of those two and payed more money. but on arrival we got a room with makes no differrence with the cheaper option. When i asked why i had to pay more as there was no difference they could not awnser this question. They only awnser i got ws: that 's what you get if you book on internet. And sure after our toilet was broken several times and several times complaining they offered a different room but the room was exact the same it was not bigger than promised on internet. After rejecting the offer for it made no difference if we moved to adifferent room. We got offered a free dinner on the second day of our stay( maybe because i complained bout the broken toilet nd bout the broken promises), because we already had our dinner, we asked wether i could change it in a free breakfast the awnser was no. The rooms were also dirty, the floor poorly cleaned, the towels old and not properly cleaned. Service terrible for we had to pay 6 dollars if we wanted to print an airplainticket from internet. The rooms are not that expensive but for every other services you had to pay and the price they asked wasn't reasonable. the only thing i love about the place was the location for it was located for me on memory lane, but because of my stay in this hotel they make this memory less pleasant. there are plenty other othels in the neighbourhood, i will advise you to stay in an other hotel.

Rooms were basic, staff only sometimes helpful. The room needed to be cleaned.

I stayed at this hotels a few times over the last 5 years for business trips. Overall, it is a decent hotel. Location is good, about 10 minutes of walking from Jaksa Street, where you can find cheap foods, internet cafe, travel agencies, and a super market; about 5 minutes of taxi from Sarinah Mall and the Gambir Train Station. Stadard rooms are small but you could get a much larger room if you are willing to pay more. Breakfast is very good and the staff are friendly, except those at the front desk, whom I found a bit cold. Blue Bird taxi are always at the gate of the hotel, 24/7. Security staff are professional and polite. There is a swiming pool on the rooftop, but it is small and apparently not very clean. I've never seen any guest use this swiming pool. There is an business center where you can use the internet, but the charge is ridiculous. Better to walk to Jaksa where you can find many internet cafe.

The problem with hotels in Menteng (and around this central area) is that there exist either only luxurious hotels or cheap backpacker ones (moslty on Jaksa Street). Cemara is one of a vere few mid-range hotels that seem to be decent in the area. If you need a mid-range hotel near Menteng, this is the one.

I have stayed in Grand Cemara several times in the past and even if I am frequently persuaded by my local partners to stay in some posh hotel (like Aryadutta or Borobudur), I always prefer to go to Grand Cemara. The rooms (in the old wing) definitely need some refurbishment, you can smell the cigarettes there, the internet connection is lousy and expensive but it is in an excellent location in the bustling street, near to the Sarinah shopping mall, the Jaya Pub, Taman Sari massage parlour, several money changers, and pharmacy across the road.