docjames
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2007
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3 Night stay (wed/thrus/fri). Around SG$135/nt booked as advanced purchase in "asia on sale". Views may be clouded as we were in the HK Grand Stamford Intercontinental for two nights prior to this.
Arrived 8pm, room was decent size, but smelled stale (? was it the airconditioning or like it had recently had water damage - we noticed this less as the stay went on). Initial disappointment as it looked like the hotel is way out of the main parts of town (centre or orchard road) but as we stayed there three days this disappointment wore off as we realised 1. They had a shuttle bus to both and 2. Nowhere is very far away in Singapore, 3. The MTR and buses works pretty well and cheaply to get oyu to/from either of the bus dropoff points. In Melbourne we probably could have walked to almost anywhere, but in Singapore this wasnt really a viable due to the weather (heat mostly, although risk or rain came into the decision too). It (we?) never realyy got past the first impression that "this hotel looks a bit tired" - like it was modern in 1995 but it's 2009 and looks like it hasnt been touched. The bed was comfortable enough, king size, but the pillows were terrible. To be fair, we should have rung and asked for more but ended up using two each which worked ok but not great. The room did have a nice view of the city to some extent, and was relatively well insulated from noise and heat outside. Bathroom was very tired, cold tap seemed to leak onto the benchtop every time we turned it on.
Checkin was a bit belaboured but checkout was easy, they also gave us a "late" checkout (2pm instead of 12pm) and will hold baggage for the day (we had a 930pm flight) and they have shower facilities to use pre-leaving for the airport for those without lounge access at the airport.
Bar - basically, they had a terrible "band" (singer and electric "pianist") which were too loud and played a terrible selection (think wedding singer only about 10x worse). The drinks were very expensive when compared to the price and ambience, the cheapest 330ml beer was S$15 (coughtails were S$16+). Of course, as with everywhere in Singapore, dont forget to add the ++ (tax 7% and tip 10%). A stream of really drunk locals were passing through the lobby on the night we arrived after a function there - modestly amusing but not really endearing us to the hotel. In the bar, the food selection and the service was terrible. We ordered the "Margarita pizza" and the waitress delivered a Margarita coughtail. The sausage and salad is best described as basically a sour tasting potato salad with chunks of sausage mixed through. The club sandwich was small and served with cold fries. Needless to say, we didnt frequent the bar again.
The restaurant for breakfast had an excellent selection, although when we requested a seat by the window, we were told no and to sit on the (packed side) of the restaurant rather than the less busy other side of the buffet because "this side closer". Weird. Maybe they were expecting a tour group or something, but given we sat down at 930 and breakfast ended at 1030 and when we left at 1015 noone else had come....... go figure. We only ate there one morning as it really wasnt good value at S$27++ or $S20++ if you book at the time of reservation or checkin.
The concierge were mostly happy but intermittantly hopeless. They happily let others push in line of the taxi queue. They ask you to "reserve" with them for a place on the shuttle, but half the time they just say "come to concierege when you are ready" and other times want name rank and serial number type detail. They didnt expect tips however. They couldnt advise at all on basic info (eg. how much is a taxi to the airport, could you help us call a restaurant for a reservation etc).
Overall, I think part of our regret at booking this hotel was the location and not really being able to just walk out the door when you like. The shuttle bus runs about half as frequently as we would have liked, and would be better if it had a couple more drop-off options. It was also a come down after the Intercontinental Grand Stamford in HK for the two days prior was so good. Our thoughts the whole time really were we should have paid a bit more for a better hotel, but it looked good when we booked, and were were trying to be economical (tight).
I think unless the hotel has a major revamp (focus on decor, bathrooms, bedding), or the rate is stupidly cheap, we're unlikely to stay there again.
Happy to answer any further questions.
Arrived 8pm, room was decent size, but smelled stale (? was it the airconditioning or like it had recently had water damage - we noticed this less as the stay went on). Initial disappointment as it looked like the hotel is way out of the main parts of town (centre or orchard road) but as we stayed there three days this disappointment wore off as we realised 1. They had a shuttle bus to both and 2. Nowhere is very far away in Singapore, 3. The MTR and buses works pretty well and cheaply to get oyu to/from either of the bus dropoff points. In Melbourne we probably could have walked to almost anywhere, but in Singapore this wasnt really a viable due to the weather (heat mostly, although risk or rain came into the decision too). It (we?) never realyy got past the first impression that "this hotel looks a bit tired" - like it was modern in 1995 but it's 2009 and looks like it hasnt been touched. The bed was comfortable enough, king size, but the pillows were terrible. To be fair, we should have rung and asked for more but ended up using two each which worked ok but not great. The room did have a nice view of the city to some extent, and was relatively well insulated from noise and heat outside. Bathroom was very tired, cold tap seemed to leak onto the benchtop every time we turned it on.
Checkin was a bit belaboured but checkout was easy, they also gave us a "late" checkout (2pm instead of 12pm) and will hold baggage for the day (we had a 930pm flight) and they have shower facilities to use pre-leaving for the airport for those without lounge access at the airport.
Bar - basically, they had a terrible "band" (singer and electric "pianist") which were too loud and played a terrible selection (think wedding singer only about 10x worse). The drinks were very expensive when compared to the price and ambience, the cheapest 330ml beer was S$15 (coughtails were S$16+). Of course, as with everywhere in Singapore, dont forget to add the ++ (tax 7% and tip 10%). A stream of really drunk locals were passing through the lobby on the night we arrived after a function there - modestly amusing but not really endearing us to the hotel. In the bar, the food selection and the service was terrible. We ordered the "Margarita pizza" and the waitress delivered a Margarita coughtail. The sausage and salad is best described as basically a sour tasting potato salad with chunks of sausage mixed through. The club sandwich was small and served with cold fries. Needless to say, we didnt frequent the bar again.
The restaurant for breakfast had an excellent selection, although when we requested a seat by the window, we were told no and to sit on the (packed side) of the restaurant rather than the less busy other side of the buffet because "this side closer". Weird. Maybe they were expecting a tour group or something, but given we sat down at 930 and breakfast ended at 1030 and when we left at 1015 noone else had come....... go figure. We only ate there one morning as it really wasnt good value at S$27++ or $S20++ if you book at the time of reservation or checkin.
The concierge were mostly happy but intermittantly hopeless. They happily let others push in line of the taxi queue. They ask you to "reserve" with them for a place on the shuttle, but half the time they just say "come to concierege when you are ready" and other times want name rank and serial number type detail. They didnt expect tips however. They couldnt advise at all on basic info (eg. how much is a taxi to the airport, could you help us call a restaurant for a reservation etc).
Overall, I think part of our regret at booking this hotel was the location and not really being able to just walk out the door when you like. The shuttle bus runs about half as frequently as we would have liked, and would be better if it had a couple more drop-off options. It was also a come down after the Intercontinental Grand Stamford in HK for the two days prior was so good. Our thoughts the whole time really were we should have paid a bit more for a better hotel, but it looked good when we booked, and were were trying to be economical (tight).
I think unless the hotel has a major revamp (focus on decor, bathrooms, bedding), or the rate is stupidly cheap, we're unlikely to stay there again.
Happy to answer any further questions.
