Grand Tjokro Yogyakarta in Yogyakarta

I booked three rooms for one night, expecting a genuine 4-star experience from a hotel that claims to be working towards 5-star standards. Sadly, what we encountered was more in line with a 3-star property, and even that is being generous.

When we arrived, check-in went smoothly enough, but things went downhill the moment we stepped into our rooms. My room, in particular, was stiflingly hot — 30°C, to be exact — with no humidity. It felt more like stepping into a sauna than a hotel room. I contacted the concierge straight away, yet it took an unreasonably long time for the engineering team to attend. When they did, I was told the air conditioning was in “hibernate mode.” This is not something a paying guest should have to discover; management should ensure rooms are checked and fully prepared before guests arrive.

I was further informed that the property uses a split ducting system, meaning each room operates independently. For a hotel claiming 4-star status (and aspiring to 5), I would expect a centralised system or, at the very least, rooms pre-cooled to a comfortable 22–25°C with proper humidity.

Small but telling details were also lacking. Bed linen, duvets, and towels did not have a fresh, pleasant scent, which should be a basic standard in any quality hotel. The outdoor windows were also extremely dirty, giving the impression that management does not prioritise attention to detail.

Perhaps most disappointing was the customer service. When I raised my concerns with the concierge, the response felt scripted and indifferent, showing little empathy or effort to resolve the issue. For a property claiming to be on its way to 5-star recognition, guest care should be one of its strongest points — here, it was one of the weakest.

Overall, I left wondering what standard the management believes a “4-star on the way to 5” hotel should meet, because this experience fell well short in almost every regard

Agoda did not immediately deliver to the hotel on our specific request of the room, when the booking is done and paid for, the hotel should have received the request and immediately secure the specific room, but by playing safe under the terms “based on availability” both Agoda and the hotel made the room with specific requirement requested not available, hotel should have immediately get the info about the room, and informed back to Agoda if the specific required room is not available so that Agoda can contact the guest to either change the hotel or other means to accommodate, but the hotel and Agoda, again, nonchalantly play safe under the terms “based on availability” which was legal but surely not ethically justified which lead users/guests lost their USD200 because the booked room cannot be cancelled, the hotel got an extra paid for unoccupied room which they can use again for another guest and Agoda got their services fee while the the user/guest got a loss;
The front desk staff also failed to escalate to the onduty manager in time, which made guests feel abandoned and not cared for even though the room is already paid for, what a bad experience

It's a terrible. Most of all facilities are very old and dirty, mabye not maintenance. Specially restroom and shower booth. Refrigerator is useless (temperature is higher than room) and smell bad.
The hotel was surrounded by bad smell,nobroken and dagerous sidewalk unlike other places in city.
In general, I evaluate this hotel as 0.5 star not 4 stars.