Previously operating as South Beach Hotel, this property has undergone major rebranding and refurbishing to become JW Marriott Hotel South Beach. Opening its doors back in 2017, this venture marked the JW brand’s first foray into the Singapore market. My friends and I did a stay here back when it was still South Beach Hotel and all I can recall was the extremely over-the-top, gaudy design of the entire hotel. When I saw photos of the newly revamped version, I decided to give it another go with the help of a decent bargain I found on Trip.com.
- Inclusions:
- 1-night stay in Club Deluxe King Room (upgraded from Deluxe King Room)
- Executive Lounge access
- Breakfast, afternoon tea and evening cocktails (as part of club lounge access)
- Spent: SGD$222.70
Check-in
The eclectic vibe of the hotel is immediately apparent the moment you step through the doors. An elongated reception area lined with a mishmash of decor and furniture styles is what greets you, albeit in a more toned down fashion from its days as South Beach Hotel. There weren’t many people at the reception when my husband and I arrived so the check-in process was smooth and quick. We were informed that we’d been upgraded to a club room as part of Marriott Bonvoy privileges.
Room
There are 21 guestroom floors in the hotel and the room we were assigned to was on level 15. As I entered the room, the first thought that hit me was that it didn’t look as loud and flashy as its predecessor, but it was definitely still tacky, exacerbated by the fact that everything in it looked cheap upon closer inspection. Having a ton of reflective surfaces can either help or hinder depending on its execution. The Fullerton Bay Hotel did it quite classily and I guess the colour palette helped as well, but that was unfortunately not the case here.
It didn’t help that things were not well-maintained – there were many scratches on the sofa, musty cupboard odours and orange-brown stains on the walls. Cleanliness was suspect as well. I found white flecks all over the floor of the entryway, as well as along the corridors just outside our room. Thank goodness the sheets and towels were fine.
In addition, our room was so close to the adjacent rooms that there was barely any privacy. We could see right into other guests’ bedrooms from our L-shaped windows and vice versa. The curtains offered some respite but that also meant we had to sacrifice our city view.
Of course, there were some positives, such as the ample space in the room, having a firm bed and pillow (promptly delivered in a zipped carrier bag no less), the generosity of item replenishment during turndown service, as well as the heated bidet TOTO toilet seat (loved this). Regrettably, these were very much overshadowed by the general state of the room.
Facilities
Just before we checked in, we met up with a few friends over lunch at Akira Back restaurant located at B1M of the hotel. With the easing covid restrictions then, we could finally meet in groups of more than 5 people! As we were a group of 6, we were ushered to the slightly cosier, more private seats along the flight of stairs. The restaurant’s interior mirrored the bold and quirky accents in the reception area.
The food here was tantalizing! Two of my friends ordered the One-derful set meal ($56++) that came with a tuna tataki salad, a choice of beef cheek, pacific halibut or sashimi don (at an additional cost) and a choice of homemade ice cream or sorbet. They went for the beef cheek and pacific halibut, both of which were tasty and had great texture, as well as the vanilla bean ice cream and campari blood orange sorbet.
The rest of us ordered individual dishes such as the cajun tuna with crispy rice, nori paste and spicy ponzu poured tableside ($21++), the atlantic black cod with yuzu sake foam ($38++), the Perfect Storm roll comprising shrimp tempura, spicy tuna and salmon belly ($27++), as well as wagyu fried rice ($22++). Everything tasted really well-balanced in terms in flavour and texture, although I didn’t fancy the black cod as it was overly sweet for me.
I also ordered a dessert called “chocolate in a cup” ($18++) that consisted of Gianduja cake, banana foam, vanilla bean ice cream and a Bahibe chocolate disc. This was the only mediocre dish that fell a little flat compared to the rest. Nevertheless, it was nice to receive a 20% bill discount with the Marriott Bonvoy membership as the restaurant is hotel-operated.
After settling down in the room for a while, it was time for afternoon tea served at the club lounge! I was mildly amused at my husband’s shocked expression when he realized we needed to press “level 2” in the lift to get to the lounge. I guess we’d mistakenly expected the lounge to be on a higher floor given the amazing location for spectacular views of the bay.
The lounge ambience was not particularly inviting, with the aesthetic echoing what we experienced in the room – tarnished metallic furniture (with some wooden ones thrown into the incongruent mix), garish carpets and an incoherent colour palette. Neon hues are fine if they’re integrated tastefully, as with W Hotel, but the way it was executed here seemed a bit haphazard.
There were two 1-hour seatings between 2.30pm to 4.30pm but this didn’t appear strictly enforced. I was really glad that self-service buffets were back! After experiencing one too many assisted buffets during the covid period, it was awesome to finally be able to control exactly what and how much goes on my plate. As we were already full from lunch earlier, we only picked a few items to nibble on. The food and hot chocolate here were pretty good (:
Level 18 is where many of the facilities are situated. Flow 18, the hotel’s main swimming pool with a jacuzzi jet section, boasts incredible views of the city and Marina Bay area but due to the windy environment and the lack of direct sunlight, the waters can be freezing cold. That didn’t seem to stop guests from swimming there though, even at night.
Further down from the pool, you can find a fairly large gym with loads of mirrors around. There is also plenty of open-air seating areas to relax at and enjoy the breeze, as well as an activity space with equipment for table tennis, table soccer and pool.
If you’re looking for a night out at a bar, there is no lack of options to choose from within the premises. The hotel itself has one on the first floor right next to the reception area called Tonic, a cosy nook to relish a tipple or two. The rest of the themed bars can be found at The NCO Club, a conserved heritage building adjacent to the hotel.
Once we were done exploring the hotel, we headed back down to the club lounge for evening cocktails (from 5.30pm to 9pm) and hors d’oeuvres (two seatings between 5.30pm to 7.30pm). These timings, again, didn’t appear to be strictly enforced.
We were treated to a wide selection of food here! There was even a live station serving up hot bowls of freshly prepared laksa, as well as an actual honeycomb in the bread spread section. Similar to afternoon tea, I enjoyed pretty much everything, especially the prawn mayo, the tuna nicoise salad and the japanese cheescake (:
In terms of service, most staff were pleasant and professional, but the one who made a fine impression was Hazel. She stood out because of her bubbly, candid demeanour and how she came over to check on us a few times to ask if we needed anything. At one point, she brought a bottle of Prosecco to top up my glass of mimosa as it was half full and not cold anymore, super thoughtful! She single-handedly elevated my lounge experience to become a fantastic one.
We had our breakfast the next morning at Beach Road Kitchen as the lounge wasn’t open until later (a norm during the covid period). Breakfast service was from 7am to 10.30am on weekdays and extended until 11am on weekends. It was a little disappointing that there was no specific section for lounge guests, unlike at Pan Pacific Hotel, and it didn’t help that the restaurant was extremely crowded that day.
The buffet was served in an assisted style, with a good deal of variety and many live stations available. One of them was dishing out jazzed up versions of eggs like lobster laksa eggs benedict and omelette with chilli crab or salmon spinach. Unfortunately, the food was largely unmemorable and I struggled to pick out anything worth going for. The eggs benedict were severely overcooked – my first one was practically a hard-boiled egg and the second one was ever so slightly runnier than the first. Even the nasi lemak and XO carrot cake, which I expected to pack a lot more flavour, was way too muted. An overall nope for me.
After breakfast, I had some wind-down time at Spa by JW. In-house guests can access the wet spa facilities at $20++ for 3 hours (a fair bit cheaper than The Remède Spa at The St. Regis Hotel). These facilities include a steam room, a sauna, a jacuzzi hot pool and a relaxation lounge with zero gravity lounge chairs. The staff explained that the 3 hours is more of a guideline given the risk of guests getting dehydrated while using the facilities, so they probably won’t insist on you leaving if you seem alright.
I mainly use the hot pool whenever I visit such facilities so it was a shame that the only one here was faulty (the water was cold as the heating mechanism wasn’t working). The staff was apologetic and shared that she needed to call in the engineering team to fix it, so she waived my access fee for the inconvenience caused. As such, I spent about 20 minutes on a reclined vibrating zero gravity lounge chair watching the world go by before heading back up to the room. Do note that the relaxation lounge is a common space, whereas the other facilities are separated by gender.
Just before checking out, we ended our time here with round two of afternoon tea. The items were completely different from that of yesterday’s, so that’s good news for guests staying across multiple days. Similar to yesterday’s verdict, the lounge food was very decent, definitely many notches above what we had at breakfast.
My overall rating of the experience: 3 out of 5 stars. Although I appreciated that the general aesthetic of the hotel had been toned down from its predecessor’s outlandish style, it is still a little too avant-garde for me. It didn’t help that the quality of furnishings wasn’t up to par, so the designs came across as tacky for the most part. There were some cleanliness issues with our room and maintenance issues with the wet spa facilities as well. The breakfast we had was forgettable but hopefully it has improved since we last stayed. Some positives are that the rooms are spacious, the facilities are comprehensive and there are a ton of restaurants and bars such that you don’t have to set foot out of the premises. If your budget and itinerary allows, do opt for club lounge access as the food there was much more enjoyable and the staff were a lot more hospitable (: That was probably the highlight of our stay.
If this post helped you in some way and you’d like to buy me a coffee, I’d be incredibly grateful (:
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