I always research a hotel before I embark on a trip. It is uncanny how I can find my way around the hotel even as I step in just because I have read up and seen extensive pictures before actually booking it. But on my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, I was stumped too! For, while you can look at the physical aspects or a property, it is not the beds, lifts, views and toiletries that comprise a hotel. For a hotel to be alive, the warmth of its hospitality must be palpable. At the Renaissance Marriott in Kuala Lumpur, it is this warmth that is lacking - which is what makes the hotel so utterly lifeless and plastic.