Located in the city centre, Naumi is a boutique hotel that features interesting and interactive art pieces throughout its many spaces, including a four-storey graffiti wall mural on the exterior of the building. But what really drew me to this hotel were the photos of its chic rooftop infinity pool, so when a promotion package surfaced on Trip.com, I went ahead and booked a stay!
Unfortunately, even before setting foot in the hotel, the initial point of contact over the phone already gave off an unreliable vibe. My first call was to check that the booking had been successfully rescheduled (due to suddenly imposed covid restrictions) and that my package inclusions would remain intact despite the postponement. Although the staff said she would check on that and call me back, she never did. A week and a half later, I called again to confirm my package inclusions. That same staff attended to me and said as long as my booking voucher reflected the inclusions, they would be accorded (a statement that would later prove to be somewhat inaccurate). I then enquired about available room upgrades, to which she responded that she would check and get back to me… I never heard from her again.
- Inclusions (exclusive to this package):
- 1-night stay in Oasis Room (upgraded from Habitat Room)
- Set breakfast
- Guaranteed 12pm early check-in and 2pm late check-out
- Free-flow sunset mocktails at the pool between 6pm to 7pm
- Inclusions (available to all staying guests):
- Complimentary mini-bar (non-alcoholic)
- 10% dining discount at Florian restaurant
- Exclusive access to rooftop infinity pool
- Premium SOAK bathroom amenities
- Spent: SGD$169.23
Check-in
Entering the hotel, you’d immediately see the reception area on the left (quite small with only one counter) and Florian restuarant on the right. My husband and I were ushered to a table at Florian to complete our registration. Since we didn’t receive the callback regarding the room upgrades, we enquired at check-in and the staff shared that there was an available Oasis Room, but we would have to wait as the room wasn’t ready yet. We thanked him before heading out for some lunch and a stroll around the area.
When we came back, our room still wasn’t ready but the staff invited us to wait upstairs at the infinity pool deck, what a nice gesture (: Eventually around 4pm, another staff finally showed us to our room! One thing to note was that none of the reception staff went through our package inclusions with us, which would become a regrettable point of contention later on.
Room
Our Oasis Room was a corner room situated on level 7 (out of 9 levels), featuring a largely black-and-white palette. I generally liked the bright and airy feel of the space and it didn’t look as dark and enclosed as in the photos from the website. I was also thankful for the extra square feet to move about in, plus everything was sufficiently clean. The bathroom was decked out in high-end fittings and came with a freestanding tub and a rainshower. Bath amenities were in wall-mounted bottles instead of individually-packed ones as seen from previous reviews, though it’s not something that particularly bothers us. First round of mini-bar items are complimentary for all guests – a benefit I previously thought was exclusive to the package we bought, but I guess not.
Sadly, that’s where the positives end. Despite its status as a luxury boutique hotel, it has not aged gracefully. Some things were starting to fall apart, and others have already met their demise. There were obvious chips in the laminate all around the room, rust was lining the bottom of the bathroom sliding doors, paint was peeling off the corners and coffee stains (or at least I think it’s coffee) laid claim to various areas of the carpet. The room just didn’t feel very well-maintained.
I requested for my usual firm pillow from the staff who brought us to our room earlier and he said he would check if housekeeping could send it to me. To cut the long story short, after 3 calls that ended with “let me check and get back to you”, I was told they didn’t even have anything other than their standard pillows. Truly a facepalm moment. Regardless, I was grateful that the standard pillows were semi-firm along with the bed, so our sleep turned out fine.
Turndown service was also provided upon request but when we came back from dinner, the only difference we observed was that the trash had been cleared. The water in our glass bottle wasn’t replenished and used towels were left as is. We suspected they might’ve been facing a manpower crunch as the reception staff were the same ones delivering stuff like water refills to us. One of them shared that they could come by to run us a bubble bath (something the butlers at St. Regis do as well) but seeing how things had been going, I thought it best not to add to their load.
Facilities
Cloud 9 infinity pool and bar takes up the entire top floor of the hotel and boasts amazing views of the surrounding areas. This was my favourite spot to relax and hang out at as the breeze here was pretty strong and cooling. With the colourful deck chairs, pop culture neon signs and city lights, this space is definitely worthy of the gram. Do note that there were a few huge crows bathing in the pool when it was empty (if that’s something that grosses you out too).
Gym equipment is split across 3 levels – weights on level 6 and cardio on level 5 and 7. These are accessible 24-7, you just need to call reception for them to open the door if it’s locked. They’re terribly small in size though and can probably comfortably fit a maximum of 2 people.
One of our package inclusions was free-flow sunset mocktails served by the pool from 6pm to 7pm, or so it was stated in our booking voucher. Naturally, that came with certain expectations, such as a poolside bar with a bartender and unlimited ordering of drinks. Alas, this wasn’t the case in reality. The poolside bar was completely vacated and the only way we could order was to call Florian via a phone at the bar. There was no menu and the baffled young staff (poor thing) attending to us also didn’t know what drinks we could order, so we ended up just getting the first two options he could think of.
We later found out that Florian is not a hotel-operated restaurant, which resulted in some miscommunication about this package inclusion. When we wanted to order a second round of drinks, a more senior staff came up to explain that the hotel apparently wanted to pull the plug on this inclusion as it was initially only meant for guests staying on Singapore’s National Day. However, because packages had already been sold, they had some difficulty managing the situation. In conclusion, he apologetically informed us that we would not be able to have the free-flow drinks even though it was sold to us as such.
I sympathized with their predicament but really, what was the marketing team doing? How can something written in black and white on our voucher be retracted this way? To Florian’s credit, they still delivered our second round of drinks on the house but I just felt that this quagmire could’ve been easily avoided to spare all parties of unnecessary displeasure. With that said, the sunset view we got to enjoy was really quite magnificient, the sole silver lining in this whole episode.
When I made a dinner reservation at Florian prior to our arrival, the staff asked us if we wanted a table at the rooftop as they would be opening it up for dining that day. Initially, I was worried it would be too warm but she persuaded me with the prospect of a beautiful view (which was indeed breathtaking). Lamentably, when we arrived at Florian, we were seated indoors at level 1 with no mention at all about the rooftop dining option, no explanation whatsoever. Having just come from the empty rooftop deck, it was clear there wasn’t going to be any dinner service there. Not that our dining location mattered to us, to be honest, but it was yet another case of over-promising and under-delivering, with no real accountability as to what had been communicated to guests.
Thank goodness dinner was delicious and we enjoyed the fare. We ordered the king prawn pasta, truffle cream mushroom pasta and a lava cake with vanilla gelato to share. The ambience here was cosy, though it was a tad crowded that evening, and all staying guests automatically get a 10% dining discount. Service was thorough and excellent too as staff were observant and quick to anticipate what we might need. For instance, offering another chair for us to place our belongings on, keeping our water glasses filled, plus remembering our room number from an earlier encounter. Little things like that truly elevate the experience, so kudos to these guys (:
We were back at Florian the next day for breakfast. Each guest can only order one set (comes with a drink) with a choice of either English or Continental. We picked different sets for variety – the sausage was legit juicy and the salami was flavourful, while the other items on the plate were average. It was more of a functional meal than anything else, and it did the job.
My overall rating of the experience: 3 out of 5 stars. If there were to be a theme for this stay, it would be “Over-Promised, Under-Delivered”. The callbacks that never came, the firm pillow that never existed in their inventory, the pseudo-turndown service and the supposed rooftop dining that didn’t come to pass. The worst part was the retraction of an actual inclusion clearly stated in our booking voucher – free-flow mocktails reduced to only two rounds of cordial-based drinks. In addition, it was slightly irksome that half the inclusions weren’t specifically crafted for this package but a mere statement of what all staying guests already have access to. It felt like the marketing team just wanted to lengthen the list of inclusions, but I guess it’s on me for not doing enough research. Hardware was rather poorly maintained as well. The saving grace was really the rooftop infinity pool deck – gorgeous sunset, wind in our hair, beautiful cityscapes that light up the night sky. Dinner was yummy and service at Florian was very impressive too. As for the hotel staff, we could tell they were all trying their best to cover for each other in their various capacities, so truly A for effort. All in all, I’m not sure I’ll be back anytime soon but their designer-inspired rooms do look awfully intriguing. Maybe a second chance if the price is right?
Dania Experiences 