Hotel Sandjaja Palembang
Jl. Kapten. A. Rivai, No 6193
Kota Palembang 30129
Sumatra, Indonesia
Tel: +62-711-362 2222
[---]

I stayed at Hotel Sandjaja in mid March 2007, as we had a business meeting here. I would not choose to stay here again.

Hotel Sandjaja is the original corporate 4 star hotel in central Palembang, about 1km from the historic Ampera Bridge across the Musi River. While it is well located near the downtown business district, if you have a vehicle, although nothing is within walking distance. Taxis in Palembang are few and far between and do not use their meters, so tend to be very expensive in comparison with most Indonesian cities.

The staff are friendly but the the hotel is very definitely showing its age. Rooms are apparently being upgraded, and my room was minimally furnished but comfortable. Public areas of the hotel, elevators, corridors the lobby area haven't seen a facelift in years and tend to be dirty and/or badly maintained. Conference and meeting facilities in particular are very rundown, shabby and unappealing. The conference room on the 8th floor appears considerably tidier than the ground floor facilities adjoining the hotel.

There are two restaurants, the Shinta Cafe (which doubles as a karaoke bar at night) and a Japanese restaurant hidden inconspicuously behind the hotel next to the swimming pool. I doubt that the menus at the hotel have changed in years.

We paid 350,000 IDR per night for deluxe rooms at the corporate rate. I believe the same rooms on walk in rack rate are approximately 500,000 IDR.

The hotel has no business centre, but does offer a daily 24 hour broadband service for 20,000 IDR, although it is almost impossible to connect during business hours so this really only leaves early in the morning or late at night for reasonable internet use.

The nicest hotel in the city is probably the Novotel, near the PTC Mall, but this is quite a distance from the Sandjaja and CBD centre. Given the close proximity of the much better Aston Hotel, and the much newer Hotel Horizon (at much the same prices as the dilapidated Hotel Sandjaja, it is hard to recommend that you stay here until the Sandjaja decides whether it wants to compete with the newer 4 star hotels that have come onto the market.