We visited Istana KL january 2011 & were impressed with it, so returned January 2012 hoping to receive the same good experience. We did not and wont return again. We booked and e-mailed via our tour operators & personally, advising of our return with simple room requests ie no smoking, high floor, double beds & received a favourable e-mail reply.
Whilst the Hotel is well located for shopping or sightseeing & reception area is nice, as are some staff, thats where the good points end.
Staff at check in were slow & kept answering phone calls in between serving us with check in, they did not welcome us back, did not appear interested that we were returning guests, they did not provide room as per e-mail requests, although we appreciate we had arrived at 9am in morning & they may of been able to offer one to our liking later in afternoon, but after a long flight from uk we wanted to settle in. Later that day we were in our room & were subjected to noise of workmen in other rooms. On enquiry we were advised it was renovation of rooms close to ours & this would go on to 6pm daily during our stay. We complained & eventually a duty manager offered to move us -to a room that we had requested in previous e-mails of the same standard.
If works are going on the hotel should not put guests in rooms close to them or should advise visitors. We requested to speak to general manager but he was not available, until we had a phone call on our final evening just as we were going into town prior to leaving early next moning and we therefore chose to go out and not speak to him as we had already been there 3 days without him bothering.
The accomodation floors & guest rooms we have seen are now looking tired & shabby in parts especially dirty carpets, stained walls or ceilings & bathroom shower or toilet floors and walls grimy & stained- we dont think this is the cleaners faults but more they need attention due to ongoing use & age.Requests for luggage racks or iron boards in room took hours to provide when they are advertised as being in rooms, & tea or coffee supplies were meagre so we brought our own in 7/11. The pool area whilst clean & staff helpful has only 15 sunbeds & often these were all reserved early on, and more would be useful. WiFi access is expensive at 20 RM per hour (other hotels or bars are cheaper or free in KL), restaurants/bars in Hotel are expensive. We did receive a bowl of fruit eventually as a gesture but this did little after the problems we had, the poor reception service, dirty rooms and it seems that standards have fallen over the year & being returning guests counts for little or nothing. Sorry to say we wont return to this hotel, but if we return to KL (we have visited regularly in the past) there are potentially far better hotels who will welcome guests.

I travel at least 9 times a year and use Kuala Lumpur as a base while overseas, I have stayed in approx 6 hotels in KL but now will only stay at the Hotel Istana, the staff are very proffesional and the management will do anything to make your visit as comfortable as possible.
On my last visit the family came along and the two bedroom suite was perfect !
Mister Norman the host of the Istana Hotel was amazing and I highly recommend everyone who visits KL stay at The Istana.

My boyfriend and I stayed at the Istana for two nights and wish we had stayed longer. We decided to get the airport transfer, and we were surprised at the new mercedes waiting for our arrival. The lobby is beautiful and the check in was quick and smooth, with the staff being extremely friendly and helpful.

We stayed in the club room and it was sensational (considering how cheap it is). It was spacious, clean, had a great view of the city and the bathroom is large for hotel standards.
Breakfast is amazing with overwhelming choice!

We have no complaints and would happily come back.

We have stayed in KL on many occasions at a no. of hotels. We chose Istana this time basically because of excellent value offered via Venier of a Club suite which included all the benifites of access to club lounge. The service was without fault, the food in Club Lounge very good & our suite huge with a great bath. The icing on the cake for us was the pool ... a good size for actually swimming in & in large grassed & treed area. A genuine 5min walk to Lot 10 etc & beside monorail station. Management are to be congratulated. We will be back.