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The Ascott Jakarta is a luxury serviced residence located in the capital’s central business district – right next door to the Grand Indonesia mall and around the corner from the famous Bundaran HI in Central Jakarta.

The location is probably the Ascott’s finest asset, but it’s not the only one. The Ascott caters to business-class visitors with high standards, and the establishment largely succeeds in meeting them.

The Ascott’s apartments offer large, comfortable rooms with practical amenities (kitchenette, ironing board) and touches of sheer luxury (L’Occitane bathroom products, among other things).

Central Location: the Best Thing About the Ascott Jakarta

Your guide could gush all day about the Ascott Jakarta’s super-convenient location, but one risks overlooking the Ascott’s other qualities as well. So let’s start with the Ascott Jakarta’s location and get it out of the way.

Stand at the entrance of the Ascott Jakarta, and you’ll be standing close to the navel of Central Jakarta: just 500 yards away from Jalan Sudirman, Bundaran HI and the Selamat Datang Monument, and right next door to the Grand Indonesia Shopping Town.

The main artery of Jalan Sudirman (and its northern extension Jalan Thamrin) represents the western border of Jakarta’s central business district, the Golden Triangle. Sudirman and Thamrin connect Ascott guests to Merdeka Square and Monas to the north, and the swanky Pacific Place mall and the Gatot Subroto Tollway to the south.

Within the Golden Triangle itself, taxis are never hard to find, and major corporate headquarters and foreign embassies are never more than a few minutes away. To stay at the Ascott is to be where the action happens in Jakarta.

The Ascott Jakarta's Serviced Apartments

The Ascott’s got more to offer besides its central location: it’s a fine business-class hotel available for both short- and long-term stays. A good number of expat families live in the Ascott, as do transient executives and other professionals just passing through. What they get at the Ascott Jakarta is a great deal of comfort, service just short of pampering, and amenities that combine the best parts of both home and hotel.

The Ascott has 23 floors and 198 apartment units, varying in size from a studio unit to the absolutely sprawling 3-bedroom penthouse. Your guide was billeted in a 540-square-foot executive studio room on the second floor.

The immediate impression one gets is cool comfort: marble floor, sheer white curtains, and a really comfy queen-size bed with clean linens, down comforters and absolutely puffy pillows. Balinese accents – like the painting of the Legong dominating the room – add a nice indigenous touch.

The room had large windows facing the west – its being on the second floor precluded a great view, but the room was filled with ample natural light for most of the day.

All of the serviced apartments in the Ascott Jakarta are fully equipped with a kitchen. The kitchen unit comes with an electric oven; a cooker hob with a hood; a complete set of glasses, plates, and utensils; microwave oven; an electric kettle; refrigerator; and a washing machine/drier combo.

If your guide had felt like it, he could have made dinner to share with friends right in the room. Larger suites offer the option for maid’s quarters near the kitchen.

Home and Away at the Ascott Jakarta

Opposite the kitchen, an intricately-carved wooden TV cabinet came with a home entertainment system – a large 30-ish inch TV, a DVD player, and a speaker set. The TV picked up international channels like HBO, CNN, and Discovery Channel.

Your guide also made frequent use of the iron and ironing board that came with the room – a nice touch for businesspeople on the go. The closet also carried a hairdryer. The marble-topped bedside tables featured a digital alarm clock and telephone with IDD.

On the other side of the divider separating the kitchen from the bedroom, your guide found a desk with an ADSL cable. The Internet access available from the room is quite fast, although your guide was not able to detect a WiFi signal. That rules out surfing on your iPad within the serviced apartment; the Ascott Jakarta offers complimentary WiFi at the lobby area, though, so it’s all good.

The air conditioning in the room functioned as advertised, perhaps a little too well – even the medium setting on the dial seemed a tad chilly, and your guide had problems with his DSLR fogging up after leaving the room. As an escape from the outside, heat, though, the climate control did the job.

The bathroom was, for your guide, the best part of the stay – guests get hot and cold running water at high pressure and a bathtub to soak in. Little bottles of L’Occitane shampoos and lotions, along with a bar of L’Occitane soap, are laid out free for guests’ use, and are replenished every day.

The Ascott Jakarta's Amenities

Guests and residents get great privacy from unwanted visitors – the entrance to the elevators from the Ascott Jakarta’s warmly-lit elongated lobby on the ground floor has a security guard detail and card-only access.

When you exit into the lobby, you can leave three ways. One door parallel to the main entrance leads into a hallway with a 24-hour convenience store and the entrance to the restaurant. In the Ascott Jakarta’s restaurant, guests are served an adequate breakfast buffet, with a choice of Western and Asian dishes.

The main door exits to the driveway, where you can ask the guard on duty for a taxi, or just stroll out to the gate, cross the road, and enter Grand Indonesia Shopping Town. Finally, the door on the far end of the lobby from the elevators leads to the outdoor pool and children's pool, and a billiards room too.

Other Ascott amenities worth noting are the business center with spacious conference rooms; health club; sauna; steam room, and gym.

The Ascott Jakarta’s contact details and vital statistics can be found on the next page.