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.