It was pure coincidence that for both of our staycations this year, we’d booked hotels within a stone throw’s distance from one to the next. That said, the property we booked for our four day family staycation this week – Orchard Hotel Singapore – was, simply put, a class above the earlier property – Orchard Rendezvous Hotel, even though it’s not quite yet in the five star category.
Comments!
The room we reserved was a Family Room at SGD265/night before taxes, but we were finally actually given two interconnecting rooms at check-in. That was a nice surprise, and we benefited from the added privacy between adults and kids, and the kids could binge watch the Cartoon Network in the evenings all they wanted on their TV. We had a king-sized bed in the adults room, and two super-single beds in the kids’ room. The beds were on rollers though, so they shift position fairly easily.
We had complimentary parking, though we left our car in the basement carpark for most of the four days. The turn from Claymore Road into the carpark can be a little hard to miss, but it’s there: from Orchard Road, turn left first at the corner of Delfi Orchard, and right after you pass Claymore Connect on your left, turn left right away into the sideroad – the entrance into the Hotel’s basement carpark is about 50 meters away.
Word has gotten around of last week’s widely-reported hotel check-in fiasco at Hilton Singapore, Pan Pacific and Four Points By Sheraton. But we had no such difficulties at Orchard Hotel. An odd situation to report here though: the Agoda booking form noted that check-in was at 3PM – but when I called earlier on to confirm the reservation, I was told that check-in was 2PM. So, we showed up at that time, only to be told again that rooms would only be ready at 3PM. It was just as well though, since there was a queues formed at each of the four check-in rows at the 3PM actual check-in time when we returned – but our registration had already completed and hour ago, so we collected our keycards in a jiffy.
Our two interconnecting rooms at level 13 were of decent size, and plenty of spaces for the kids and adults.There was a large rug where the bed frame was, and light brown parquet tiles for the rest of the flooring. The toilets had a standing shower stall (no rain showerhead though), a good-sized bathtub, and enough surface area around the sink to put our range of toiletries. The room’s mini-fridge was bereft of paid drinks and snacks, but the beverage corner had the usual instant coffee mixes, and a range of tea flavors that from a brand I’ve never seen before (they tasted fine). Our two units were directly facing private apartment blocks though, so the day curtains had to be drawn closed throughout, as I wasn’t sure if the rooms interiors would be visible from the opposing residential blocks.
We had no issues with the in-room WIFI nor getting connections on the two laptops, two handphones, and one iPad. Download speeds were good and I reached 5-6 MB/s connection speeds even with multiple devices connected.
I’ve written previously about this far end of Orchard Road when we stayed at Ochard Rendezvous Hotel, and the comments there likewise also applied to this stay: it’s a quiet stretch of the road, though also far from where the big clusters of dining and retail places are.
The good bits aside, we have two less nice things to say.
Firstly, the rooms were dim and would have benefited from more light sources! The room in the evening and night felt fairly dark that it wasn’t easy to do any serious work or reading. This wouldn’t matter for couples intending romantic getaways, but I’d lugged my work laptop along to clear work stuff during this staycation.
Secondly, the complimentary breakfast was served at the Orchard Cafe, and wasn’t quite where we’d expect from a property that’s ranked #23 of 365 in Singapore – the fare was forgettable. Covid 19 measures meant that breakfast was ala carte for the most part, and we chose from one of four options for mains: Indian, Chinese, Vegetarian, and Western. The menu didn’t change over the mornings we checked-in for it, and there wasn’t anything particularly memorable taste or presentation-wise. One incident stuck in our mind though: the duty manager at the cafe on our first morning was curt and sounded even annoyed when we had questions about the ordering process. And she even reprimanded one of her waiters right in front of us when they didn’t notice our call for assistance (this was a small thing to us, as the cafe was busy that morning).
Still, the kids liked the hotel. As for the adults, it was OK – not again as nice or memorable as some of the properties we’ve stayed at for staycations, but still significantly better than the one last month. So, Orchard Hotel Singapore is an easy recommendation again for family staycationers who want a short stay and don’t want to break the bank either.
Recent comments