SNA1K

My first impressions of the property are mixed. I hope that the negatives are all part of the start up issues and will get worked out shortly.

So far, my first impressions are as noted above. This is a fantastic location for a resort. The marina next door is beautiful and I can see this being a great place for a weekend. However, as a business traveler I cannot see myself using this as my normal place to stay as it is just too far away from anything and from any transportation options.

My first staff impressions were not good. Although friendly it appeared that they have not been trained fully. When I asked how full the property was for opening day I was told about 50%. First I was told that checkout was at 12:00 tomorrow. When I questioned him he was surprised to note that I was a Platinum. I was then given a Fabulous Room which is the category of room that I booked. I asked about an upgrade and was told that I am already in the third highest category of room. Fine, but that is the category I booked so therefore it is not an upgrade. I am then told that all suites are full. When I questioned about them being only 50% full but all suites are taken I am told sorry they are full. Online and in front of him, I was able to book a Marvelous Suite so I questioned him again on availability. Once the manager came out to greet me I was given a Marvelous Suite. So, I am not sure if this level of suite is a normal upgrade level or not, but I did get it. The part that bothered me is telling me that I am already in an upgrade when in fact I was just in the level of room booked and then told that all suites are full. Honesty will go a long way. I hope that this is just an opening day training fluke and that future Platinums will be handled appropriately.

The property itself is very nice and typical W chic. The pool area is beautiful with the swim-up bar and fantastic amenities all around. So far, no one is using it but I am sure that will change. I know that I will use it!

After walking around the property I had a quick bite and drink at the WooBar in the lobby. Very nice view and great service from the ladies there. I had the "Fish and Chips" which was essentially some pieces of sashimi on chips and wasabi which was tasty, but the portion very small.

For dining options there are currently only two--Skirt and the buffet. I will be trying the Buffet for dinner tonight. I was told by the manager that there is a small complex next door scheduled to open late October that will have more dining options. I hope so as there is nothing else around that doesn't require a taxi ride.

The Marvelous Suite is very nice and large. There is a living room area with TV and Surround Sound, bedroom, and a large bathroom complete with standalone bathtub and TV with surround. The room has a nice balcony complete with sunbed and a view over the boats in the marina area. The one strange item was that the desk had NO plugs on it. Is has a nice charging station with connectors for every type of phone, iPad, etc. but no place to plug in my laptop, etc. I was also looking all around the desk for the wired Internet connection but it was not to be found.

I finally found the additional plus and Wired Internet next to the TV in the center of the living room area. Kind of a strange location but I can work around that.

Everything else is as one would expect in a W! If I have more later I will post.

yosithezet

Thanks for the report! Look forward to hearing more.

This is true of anything on Sentosa I'd say. While you could make due with the monorail if staying next to Universal, Sentosa isn't really meant for people who need easy access to the rest of Singapore.

SNA1K

I kind of knew that, but was hoping that the monorail could be workable. I am desperately waiting for a good Starwood choice! I guess I will have to continue waiting for the new Westin. It's unfortunate that the SR is a bit out of my budget and the Sheraton is, well, the Sheraton.

Flygirl_DE

Does the W offer a shuttle to/from the Monorail or how do guests get to the W? Only by taxi/car?

SNA1K

There is an hourly shuttle that goes to Resorts World and to Vivocity.

travelswithmyself

I'll add on to SNA1K's review:

1. It's a beautiful location, in the very high-end residential part of Sentosa. Be aware that despite being on an island, there is no beach. There is a lawn and a large pool then it leads to a marina.

2. There is a small shopping/food area that is not open yet. Otherwise there is NOTHING nearby. Transportation is to be frank, abysmal. I asked W&W and the Wheels guy; there is only a shuttle at 6 and 7.15pm to Universal/Resorts World. They have Wheels but it costs 110SGD for a ride in an Audi and ?20+ for a ride in a Morris. I saw two Segways at Wheels. The guy also mentioned that they would eventually probably arrange for buggy drop-offs at the Sentosa Cove Arrival Plaza which is the entrance to this gated community - sounded like they hadn't started it yet though. The usual Sentosa shuttle calls there every 30mins or so. You can walk from the hotel to the Arrival Plaza - I measured it - 600metres/yards. Otherwise it's taxi all the way. Not sure about the hourly shuttle that SNA1K mentioned...

3. Was fed the same line about there being no Marvelous suites available. Not very happy about that, especially since they were still bookable. And could see that most of the suites (corner units) looked unoccupied.

4. Aesthetics are excellent - the decor is very W. The Fab Room is large and spacious but has only a chic armchair sofa not a full-length sofa - no extra sleeping space here. The two beds are super-single sized - 1.5 metres wide.

5. The main building is in a gentle u-shape - at the centre can actually see the balconies of the other units - very clearly. The Away rooms and suites are on the ground floor and the plunge pools are where the balconies would be for an upper level room. The pools have no roofs the upper levels can look down into them, and see a bit of the deck too. The pools are about the size of a room balconey.

jaejaez

Not impressed. Just came back from my one night stay and whilst there was a major issue that really ruined my stay for me, there were a lot of small issues too which I will list them here. Hopefully these will be ironed out as the days go on, but for now they seem to be a long way away in terms of delivering decent level of service, let alone whatever/whenever.

1. Not responsive Whatever/Whenever number. On average I had to call 3 times with each call ringing for at least 5 minutes until someone finally picked up. Actual delivery of requests is another story.

2. Upon entering my marvellous suite, there were multiple lights that didn't work (on an opening day! ). When the engineer came up, he confirmed that they were broken (which they took until evening-time to fix).

3. There was tv in the bathroom above the bathtub but I couldn't change the channel (fixed on SPG tv) and so i called W/W. The guy came up and explained that SPG tv was all I could get on that tv, that I couldn't watch other channels. But guess what, as I fiddled around it a little more after he left, I could change channels and had fun watching MTV while bathing.

4. Breakfast is not free for plats. You must exchange it for your 500 amenity points. No happy hour drinks/plat lounge/plat anything... as you would (should?) expect from a W.

5. It took them 45 mins to bring up the bags when I got into my room, which I desperately needed.

6. There was no turn-down service.

7. Ordered room-service after a very under-whelming dinner at 11:45PM and asked what was available for late night local flavors. Was told nothing local was available. I asked if they could try to make fried rice for me. They said no. I asked if they could try Hor-fun. They said no. I then asked for french fries... they said no. I asked for chicken wings. They said no. At this point I pressed further and reminded them that the motto of their hotel was "whatever/whenever as long as it's legal". They said they would call me back after checking with their kitchen.... 25 minutes later I get a call back and they say that they've checked with the kitchen and the kitchen said "no". So I asked them what WAS available to which they said potato wedges were available. When it arrived it was very badly cooked and the bread that came with it could have been used as a baseball bat. I was starved but still could not eat it.

8. I asked W/W for extra champagne glasses for some guests in my room. 20 mins later I called again to remind them. Another 15 mins later (guests in my room just waiting around) I decided to go down to the reception desk to tell them in person. Still 20 mins later I called again (deeply frustrated) to see what was happening. To cut to the chase, it took me 1 hour and 10 mins and five calls later to finally get the champagne glasses in the end... which weren't champagne glasses they were random sized wine glasses. I told the staff who brought it up that these weren't what I was looking for... but he spoke ZERO English and just smiled and said stuff in Chinese. I ended up serving champagne in bordeaux glasses that he brought.

9. When we arrived at the hotel, the bellhop stood there watching and didn't bother with opening taxi doors or taking our luggage until I prompted him.

10. There was no escort to the room, or to the elevators.

11. The bill was wrong - my rate included two welcome cocktails which was charged. The reception lady appeared visibly frustrated that I would press on her to remove the charges that should not have been there.

12. The service was so slow and unresponsive just in general that we ended up getting in the habit of just not asking for anything (e.g. wife and I ended up using the same toothbrush)

13. Staff at the WooBar had no idea what "Vodka Lime" was and when we explained how to make it, they said it was not available.




Yes I am rambling and I am obviously not in a good mood after what I would consider a very poor stay... I mean there were just so many incompetencies in so many fronts of the hotel (with rare exception of swimming pool staff) but hopefully this will give you an idea of where they are TODAY... I mean hopefully they'll get better but as someone who's been waiting for the opening day for so long this was very disappointing. Mind you, I have been to many opening days (incl. 4Pts Bkk, St Regis SG, Sheraton Incheon, Le Meridien BKK) and while they were all rough around the edges, W Sentosa tops the chart for what appears to be the least ready hotel of the pack.

jay87

I guess the W Sentosa hasn't sorted out their upgrade priorities.

Just checked in this afternoon and was informed that they've already assigned me to a Marvelous Suite.

I'm a lowly gold, trained to expect nothing so this was quite a pleasant surprise, especially when reading about the plat experience above. (Therefore created an account to share after lurking for the longest time)

On the transportation side, yes it's taxi all the way, and one thing to keep in mind it is so far out, there are no taxi's that will just be dropping by, it will likely be a long wait even if the hotel helps call for one. I spent a good 15min waiting for a called taxi when heading out today.

The shuttle is available from 10-7, stopping by Vivo City and Orchard Road. They also indicate there is ONE morning shuttle that goes to Vivo City, Marina Bay and Raffles Place before 0900 for those heading to work. ONE return shuttle at 1830 at Raffles Place and Marina Bay as well.

Will explore the hotel more and share.

jaejaez

Few other things worth noting:

1. You cannot get here by mass transport - no MRT, no buses and no monorail. Taxis are your only choice.

2. The hotel is not very large which was good - there are less than 250 rooms including suites.

3. There seems to be plenty marvelous suites - my bet is that the upgrade % will be fairly high here (there seems to be at least four per level)

4. Very nice designs with attention to detail

5. Hotel generally feels more 'family friendly' than your typical W in Asia (Seoul, Hong Kong etc)

6. The waitresses at WooBar look like models

Flygirl_DE

Please keep posting reviews ....

our stay will be in December, but after reading the first comments I decided to keep my backup reservation for another hotel so that I can wait and see how everything develops at the W Sentosa

travelswithmyself

Thanks for sharing, both of you.

I have a question, how many was your party? 2? 4? I'm wondering if this plays a part...

travelswithmyself

May I know if this was a regular booking, an upgrade or a SNA?

ZenWorld

This sounds really bad. I fear the worst now. Arriving during the F1 weekend. I think they will be totally overwhelmed. Oh dear. But thanks for sharing!

lcpteck

Guess they really put the Woo in WooBar.

AZ Travels the World

As is our practice in the Starwood forum on FT, once a new property opens, we begin the hotel Master Thread with a substantive stay report. In this case, there have been several within the first days of opening. ^

There is a pre-opening discussion thread which might also contain helpful information and it can be found here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...iscussion.html

-AZ
Moderator