Having done a regular gig at one of the restaurants in Changi City Point shopping mall a while ago, I always remember glancing over and wondering what it’d be like to stay at this hotel. I fondly recall that the lobby was an inviting, warmly lit space to relax in while waiting for my rides home. As far as I know, all the rooms here have a kitchenette where you can do some light cooking. It’s a huge perk then that the mall is easily accessible from the hotel for convenient grocery shopping (or a plethora of dining options if cooking isn’t your thing).
During one of the sales on Traveloka, I managed to stack some promo codes and got a Studio Deluxe Room at quite a reasonable price ($69.84). Unfortunately at the last minute (literally the night before the stay), I received an email and a call from the hotel updating that there was a pipe leakage after the previous guests checked out, and that all the rooms in that category were affected (interesting explanation…). They offered the options of a downgrade to a Studio Superior Room with a refund of the difference ($20), a postponement (to some dates that we weren’t free), or a full refund. After much deliberation, the decision was to take the downgrade with the refund so that my husband and I could at least try the hotel out. A very shaky start indeed.
- Inclusions:
- 1-night stay in Studio Superior Room
- Breakfast
- Spent: SGD$49.84
Check-in
The lobby and reception areas were completely empty when we arrived. Zakiah, the patient and friendly reception lady, attended to us immediately to check us in. She was also the one whom I spoke to over the phone yesterday regarding the room availability issue.
Room
We were assigned a room on the 9th floor (out of 12 floors) and entered to find the welcome amenity given to members of the free-to-join Fraser World loyalty programme. I liked the comfortable room size and modern aesthetic of the interior and furnishings, as well as the firm bed and requested firm pillow, but that’s about all the positives I can say about the room. While I was taking photos of the view, I noticed some red ants crawling along the window structure and on the floor. Also, there were seriously too many strands of hair on the carpet, bed and table for it to be considered an accidental oversight. I went down and shared this with Zakiah, who was apologetic about it and quickly arranged for a room change.
Within the next 5 minutes, Shahril, a staff from the concierge team, came to assist us with the room change. He had such a sincere and approachable demeanour that made it easy to strike up a conversation. He shared that most of the staff here wear many hats and have to juggle multiple responsibilities in different functions. It seemed like they were pretty stretched, which might explain the hygiene situation in our first room.
Our second room was a spitting image of the first except for the view as we were now on the highest floor of the building. Although there were less hair strands in this room, the problem of red ants persisted. They seemed to be perpetually trailing down from the ceiling and I even found one crawling on the bed. Oddly enough, I only saw ants on the table between 6pm to 7pm (we didn’t eat in the room but these well-trained Pavlovian ants came out to try their luck at dinner time anyway).
To add to the list of unwelcome cohabitants, there was also a drain fly party going on in the shower, where if the loose movable drain cover was agitated, more flies would start to appear. Furthermore, I spotted muddy fingerprints all over the bathroom sliding door. This is the first time I’ve felt so strongly about needing to wipe down all the touch points of the entire bathroom door myself.
Having already shifted rooms once and seeing that these issues were likely pervasive throughout the hotel, I was resigned to spending the night in this less-than-ideal environment ):
Facilities
As I was exploring the hotel, I met Mas, who was manning the entry to the sizeable pool and gym on level 2. He gave me a super warm and enthusiastic welcome when I first turned the corner to the pool entrance, sharing candidly that he’d been in this line since he was 19 (he was 71 when we spoke!) as he really enjoys interacting with people. What an inspiration!
On this same level, you can find steam and sauna facilities in each of the male and female changing rooms. However, due to the covid measures in place, these have been closed off temporarily. Mas was kind enough to allow me in to take a quick peek inside for photos.
Bicycles are available to in-house guests at no extra charge between 7am to 7pm. You just need to approach the concierge to make a reservation on a first-come-first-serve basis.
We had our breakfast the next morning at Caprilicious on level 1. It was served in a set-breakfast style with only five main options to choose from, but at least it was unlimited ordering across the options. The food tasted rather average – you might want to avoid the bland congee and chicken macaroni soup. Drinx, the lobby bar, and Delite, the grab-and-go cafe, are both adjacent to Caprilicious but were not in operation during our stay.
My overall rating of the experience: 3 out of 5 stars. This was regrettably not the kind of stay I was looking for. Not only did we have to settle for a smaller room at the last moment, we had to contend with pests like red ants and drain flies, which was not pleasant at all. Cleanliness was really not their strong suit, with rooms that had muddy fingerprints and way too many strands of hair. The only redeeming qualities were the rooms’ contemporary design that was at least pleasing to the eye and an amazing team of service-oriented staff across departments that truly personalized our experience here. For some strange reason, I lost a huge bulk of my photos from this stay during the transfer from phone to laptop (hence the severe lack of photos as compared to my other hotel reviews). It was almost as if it mirrored what my mind was trying to do, which was to dwindle the memories of this largely uncomfortable stay to a forgettable amount. It’s safe to say that we won’t be back for a long time to come.
Dania Experiences 