This is my review of the mandatory quarantine hotel to enter Indonesia. I stayed at the Mulia Jakarta. Read on for a review of the hotel and some practical tips to make your mandatory quarantine more enjoyable.
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Review of the Mulia Jakarta
To avoid interacting with other guests, I had to enter the hotel via the backdoor. They took me directly to the 9th floor, which is the quarantine floor. A Mulia receptionist was waiting for me in the corridor with all the check-in papers. She also processed my payment for the entire stay. Within 5 minutes, they showed me to my room.
The whole process from the airport to my room was absolutely seamless and designed to minimize interaction.
Review of the Junior suites at Mulia Jakarta hotel
The Junior Suites are sophisticatedly beautiful. The suite is elegantly furnished. It is large, about 57m2, but it has only one large room.
The welcoming bedroom includes a super comfortable king-size bed. The bed is enormous, and the bedsheets are amongst the softer I have seen. I slept very well!
The electricity control panel is next to the bed so you can control all the lights and the AC straight from your bed.
The room has an office desk right by the window.
Other than this, there is also a comfy sofa set along with a table. The whole vibe and architecture of the room are modern and luxurious. The color theme of the room is brown with a combination of gray. It gives a very subtle air of grandeur to the room.
There is a 55-inch High-Definition LED TV that you can watch from the bed
Tip: the TV is not a connected TV, so if you plan to watch Netflix or other online TV, bring a TV stick
As the room is spacious, I had enough space to put a Yoga mat and exercise during my stay.
My suite was a corner room and had two large panoramic windows. The windows are covered with curtains so you can set the mood of your space according to your likings. The two windows let prolific natural light in and invite you to the views of the city that include the hotel’s outdoor pool and the city skyline I was a bit disappointed with the view but I guess being on a low floor and in the middle of a large city makes it harder to view greenery. The rooms on the other side of the building faced the golf course, which might be nicer if you like to see green. The Mulia Jakarta hotel pool looked huge and very inviting. But as I was in quarantine, I had to stay in my room and could not use it.
The room windows did not open, so it was hard to get fresh air into the room. The air-conditioning temperature in the room was not easy to adjust. Whenever it was on, it would blow cold air into the room. The room was too cold for me, so I ended up switching it off totally.
The room is exceptionally well soundproofed. During my whole stay, I have not heard another person staying in the rooms near me.
Review of the bathroom at the Mulia Hotel Jakarta
The bathroom has an oversized bathtub and a separate rain shower. 
As I stayed for a week in quarantine, they provided plenty of extra amenities like soaps, shampoo, body lotion, …
Review of the Food at the Mulia Jakarta hotel
Food is one of the most important aspects of a quarantine stay, and the Mulia excels with the options provided.
Most quarantine hotels offer a set menu. You get a food box delivered to your room. Some of the better hotels allow you to choose amongst various options. The western meal, the Indonesian meal, the Japanese meal, …Mulia really distinguishes itself because the food offering is very flexible.
At first, I was confused that they could not show me the set menu for the week as I wanted to know what I would be eating. But then I realized that they provide so much flexibility that you don’t really need the set menu. You can choose to eat the set menu with an appetizer, a main, and a dessert or order from the room service. You get a credit of 200000 Rp. Per meal which was enough for most dishes on the room service menu.
The Mulia Jakarta has eight restaurants so that you can order all kinds of cuisines. I stayed for five nights and didn’t have enough time to try all the dishes I wanted to sample. The café is the main restaurant with a mix of continental and Indonesian food. Table 8 is the Chinese restaurant. Orient 8 is a French and Pan Asian restaurant. Il mare is an Italian restaurant, and it has more than just Pasta and Pizza. Edogin is the Japanese restaurant.
You can see the Room service menu by clicking here or scanning the following QR code:
The sushis from Egogin were particularly delicious.
But I also enjoyed the Pizza, salmon teriyaki, and tenderloin dishes.
Mealtimes are also flexible. You can basically eat what you want where you want it.
For drinks, water bottles are provided for free in large amounts and can be replenished upon demand.
Tip: The tea and coffee making facility in the room was very limited so if you are in quarantine, I recommend bringing your own
On one day, they even brought me a healthy Jamu juice made of Tumeric
Usage of plastic and the environment
Friends quarantining in other hotels complained that the meals were served in boxes with plastic cutlery. This is not the case at Mulia, where all the meals are served on regular plates with regular metal cutlery. It is much more comfortable but also more environmentally friendly.
They, however, use plastic wrap on all the dishes. That, combined with the 500 ml plastic bottles provided for drinking, created a lot of unnecessary plastic wastes. I was horrified at the end of the first day to see my trash bin full of plastic. After mentioning it, they agreed not to use plastic wrap on my food and gave me glass water bottles. It is with small gestures like this that we can make a change in the world.
It was a great response from them, but I think providing a gallon of water to people in quarantine would be even more environmentally friendly and would likely save the hotel money too!
If you care about the environment, mention it to the hotel. Hotels are usually very attentive to customers’ needs and will make changes to their operating procedures if there is enough demand.
Review The sports program at Mulia Jakarta during quarantine
Besides the food options, another great feature of the quarantine stays at the Mulia Jakarta is their online sports program. A sports instructor does gym and yoga classes three days per week so that you can keep active. The classes are via zoom so that you can join from your room. I did two classes and was alone each time, so it was like doing a personal training session online.
They lent me a mat free of charge during my stay.
Review of The Service at Mulia Jakarta
It has hard to review the service in a hotel while doing a quarantine stay because you basically have to stay in your room and don’t meet anyone.
There is also no cleaning of the room during your stay. The room was sparklingly clean when I arrived. It was stocked up with extra towels, amenities, and garbage bags. I would just leave the trash and dirty towels outside the door, and they would be picked up.
Tip: The quarantine package includes five pieces of laundry per day. You can’t accumulate them, so you need to put your five pieces in a bag every day and leave it outside the door.
The hotel staff was very responsive to any of my demands. I was always greeted by name. What amazed me the most was their proactivity. If I forgot to order a meal, they would call me and check what I would like to get.
Another example of their proactivity is that during my stay, the length of the mandatory quarantine was reduced from 7 to 5 days. As soon as it was official, they contacted me and organized my PCR test at 8:30 am the same day so that I could leave quarantine two days earlier than expected. They even refunded me the two last nights that I didn’t need anymore!
What is it like to arrive in Jakarta during the mandatory Covid quarantine stay?
I flew to Jakarta on the 10th of October 2021. After landing in Jakarta, the process was very well organized, with plenty of seated socially distant waiting areas.
I have entered a few countries during Covid, and I must say that Jakarta is the best organized I have seen. The first station was to check my passport, boarding pass and issue me a QR code.
The second station was to check my vaccines certificates and PCR test. The third station was to do the PCR and check my quarantine hotel booking. You need a specific quarantine booking confirmation with a QR code.
The Jakarta airport has seating areas everywhere and does an excellent job in queue management. There are bathrooms and hand sanitizers along the way. Free internet is available.
TIP: You need to prebook your quarantine stay before arrival. All the hotels and their quarantine packages are online at this link.
It is worth mentioning that booking a normal hotel room might not be accepted. The stay has to be booked a quarantine stay as the rooms are located in a different part of the building and have different procedures.
It was for immigration that I waited for the longest as there was only one officer for the foreigner’s line. I stayed there for 45 minutes.
The bags were already waiting for me. The last station is the transport to the hotel. Two Mulia representatives waited for me there. They took my bags and gave me a very welcome bottle of water. I didn’t have to wait for the results of my PCR test in the airport and could go straight to the hotel where my results would be forwarded. We went straight to the car, and I was on my way to the Mulia hotel.
All in all, it took me 100 minutes to go from the plane to the car. The car ride from the airport to the Mulia hotel is about 30 minutes.
Tip: Covid travel rules keep changing, and it can be hard to keep track of everything needed.
I saw a few people being denied boarding in Europe because they were missing documents. The Garuda website is usually up to date and is my go-to website to find out the latest travel requirements.
Another helpful website is the Bali Covid update group on Facebook.
In conclusion of my review of the Mulia Jakarta quarantine stay
While mandatory quarantine isn’t fun, selecting a good hotel to do it will make your stay much more enjoyable. The Mulia hotel is a fantastic option that distinguishes itself by its food and service quality. I also enjoyed the online sports classes offered. I had a very peaceful quarantine and time flew by. I recommend the quarantine stay at The Mulia Jakarta