I have always had a fondness for this property, which I stayed at on numerous occasions last century and even saw the new century in by staying here (no y2K probs were experienced, apart from being charged for ice ). I even proposed to my former wife when we were here in the Crest Suites lounge!

Anyway time has a habit of changing things, and as this hotel rebranded from a Westin I started sleeping around (in other hotels that is). With news of a renovation nd the fact I once again got Plat benefits (albeit in a different program) it was time to renew my acquaintance with this property.

Check In

Yuck is all I can say, when it comes to self checkin kiosks of the type this property uses. For a start they only facilitate credit card check ins, and the facial recognition of passports versus actual guest didn’t work for me. So I had to find the front desk, which is really a rear desk, located hidden in the back of the lobby area. And then I waited.

And waited some more.

More waiting.

Quite a few airline crew turned up (interestingly the same airline was using the hotel last century as well)

More waiting, Mr 10year old Markis10jnr started to get cranky.

Airline crew got served before me.

More waiting.

Finally I got served. Check in was all of ten minutes to complete. I fail to see how this hotel can handle its guests with such a lack of staffing! Anyway we were soon in our hotel room, and found a nice gift waiting which was not part of the norm:

Dining

Breakfast can be taken in either two restaurants on level 2 or in the lounge if your platinum. While we did not try the local food venue, we did try Cafe Swiss, which is busy!

Service was was poor with our waiter showing us to a table then we did not see them again, most other guests were at least asked if they wanted a coffee!

Perhaps that explains the coffee and croissant station outside both restaurants, we were able to at least grab a take away on departure. Food was very good quality wise and there were plenty of choices.

Executive Lounge

As it turned out the new lounge was available for part of our stay, and our second breakfast was taken there. Previously the hotel had two lounges, the executive lounge on level 60

https://www.swissotel.com/hotels/singapore-stamford/executive-lounge/swiss-executive-club-lounge/

And for those enjoying the penthouse suites (crest suites) the living room on level 65

https://www.swissotel.com/hotels/singapore-stamford/executive-lounge/the-living-room/

I actually popped the question to my former wife in the living room many years ago!

Now the hotel has both lounges on level 65, taking up a significant portion of the floor space.

For the crest occupants they still enjoy an exclusive area, albeit one that is a bit quiet!

I wonder who gets the solitary confinement table tennis room!

Breakfast in in the lounge offered a smaller choice of items as was to be expected, but with the benefit of not competing with the hoards for food!

The lounge also has restrooms

And a bar for evening drinks (Only Children over 12 are allowed during canapés and evening drinks which is 1730-1930), no alternates were offered, so we did not attend.

Overall

The remodeling of this hotel has helped to bring it up to scratch compared to its competition in Singapore. Rooms are nice but overall it’s the poor service levels that let this hotel down, with a 5 star look at 2 star service. That grates in a country where you don’t get to choose how to reward service, and pay a mandatory service fee.

Managed to get a great rate at the Hotel for a Staycation. Paid approx. SGD$150 a night and stayed for 2 nights here. The reason why I decided to stay here was the fact they just finished a hard refurbisment of the entire hotel. 

Check In

Called the hotel prior to my arrival to enquire about early check-in and upgrade. Happy to say that both was given upon arrival.

I arrived around 12pm for early check-in (Usual time is 3pm). I immediately was greeted by some eager staffers whom tried to guide me to the Automated Check-In counters which I declined. I personally am rather old fashion and would prefer someone to check me in and welcome me to the hotel personally.

I was offered an upgrade from Premier room to Premier Harbour View room. However, I was given a choice to either check-in now and get a room on the 30th floor or wait one hour and get a room on the 60th floor. I think we all know what choice I made.

Promptly an hour later, I was handed over the card keys to my room. At the same time, I was handed my Welcome drink vouchers and two $50nett F&B vouchers redeemable at The Stamford Brassiere due to the Executive Lounge closure as they were finalising the final touches of the renovation. I was also informed that the Executive Lounge would be having its Soft Opening the following day and I was invited to visit it during Evening Cocktails. As a Gold member, that was music to my ears as it meant I was upgraded to a sort of Platinum status (Perhaps of soft landing?)

Room

I proceeded to the lifts, do note there are two sets of lift one serving the lower floors and the other serving the higher floors. The lifts were pretty fast as it got me up to Level 60 in 32 seconds. The room I was given was 6057. The room was recently renovated as Swissotel The Stamford was under renovation for at least the whole of 2018.

The new rooms were delightful and pleasant. The room was sizeable considering you are in Singapore. The bed was comfy and the views from the Balcony was amazing. The bathroom was not in my favour to be honest. They still had the combined Bathtub/Shower design element which to me was impractical if you just under refurbishment. (But that’s just my opinion)

There was several issues I faced during my stay. The mini-bar was not filled as I suspect they only open up this room to guests a few days ago, thus not fully prepared. The bathtub/shower leaked at the side and when I called for maintenance to come, nobody came to check it out.

Additionally, I noticed there were howling noise coming from the air-con vents in the room, I suspect those noise came from the elevator swishing up and down as the noise resembled that type of sound. Additionally, the welcome amenity was not sent, had to remind them.

The postive thing about the hotel is that they have swap the bath amenities to big pump bottles instead of small bottles that are refilled everyday. I honeslt am not a fan of it. But hey, anything for a greener enviroment right?

View from Room 6057 Balcony

And below is the representation of my almost forgotten Welcome Amenity. I leave it up to you to decide if that is enough for you. No note from anyone by the way.

Dining

I booked a room without Breakfast however since I was upgraded, I was offered breakfast at either Café Swiss or Kopi-Tiam. Both of which I felt was subpar and not up to 5 star standard. Somehow, when I read the reviews online, guest seem to like it. Perhaps I have been pampered too much by other AccorHotels. (I apologies that I did not take photos of the breakfast buffet)

On the first night, I used my $100nett vouchers at The Stamford Brasserie which could be used for both food and drinks. Food at the Stamford Brasserie was so-so. Nothing to rave about and not worth making the trouble to eat there if you don’t have to. To be honest, both of the F&B outlets at the Hotel was kind of so-so. The only place I was happy at was at Skai restaurant, the rooftop dining outlet which was previously called Equinox. The food there was excellent and delicious.

The only thing that pissed me off at Skai was the fact they had the cheek to charge me for water! They claimed that the restaurant no longer uses Singapore “Tap” water as the F&B team feels that the water will affect the food quality. Thus, they now only exclusively use Filtered water, which they charge $3 per person. This I felt was bullshit considering that Singapore Tap water is considered to be one of the cleanest in the world. This was more of a way to earn more revenue IMO. Other than that, the food was excellent and top notch, the exclusive $3 water tasted like…… water, but I had to lie to myself that it tasted like gold water since I had to pay $3 for it.

Facilities

The facilities at the hotel included 2 circular swimming pools, gym, steam room, sauna room and Jacuzzi located at the adjacent Fairmont Willow Spa. The pools were slightly old fashion and I would very much prefer the Sofitel Singapore City Centre, Sofitel Sentosa or Novotel Singapore Stevens pools.

Swiss Executive Lounge

As I was there for Soft Opening, I cannot guarantee that my experiences would be a correct representations of what the Lounge would be when running normally (Which would be currently).

The lounge was located on the 65th of the hotel and occupies the entire floor. From what I saw, there was a small gym located within the lounge which I would presume that it would be exclusively for Executive floor guest.

I would say that my experience received at the lounge on Soft Opening would be bias as they were fully “Overstaffed” with a couple extra managers up there. Thus, service was excellent indeed. Food Offerings were pretty decent with a spread of hot items, 2 types of pasta, Singapore’s “Chill Crab” gravy with Man Tou (Deep Fried buns), a selection of desserts and cheeses.

Drinks at the lounge was mediocre if you ask me. There was the usual house pours of hard liquor and 1 type of red and 1 type of white wine. Both of La Minga wines from Chile, which are dead cheap in Singapore, I think I saw one selling for $20 in the supermarket. (Do note that in Singapore, Wines prices start around $18 at the Supermarket). As with the price standpoint, you can predict how the wine taste. There was NO Champagne at the lounge if any of my fellow and eager members would like to compare this to Sofitel Singapore City Centre.

Pictures below are the Lounge

Pictures below are the Evening Cocktails Selection on Soft Opening day

The La Minga Wines

Check Out

Check-out was fast and simple, I manged to get late check-out till 4pm which allowed me to rest more. Once again, when I proceeded to the Lobby for check-out, the eager staffers were trying to guide me to use the Automated machine which I declined once again. I settled my bill and left. Do note that the hotel does NOT offer complimentary parking to guest. Guest can opt of a $30 valet per 24 hours with multiple entry/exits.

Overall Experience

Overall, my experience at the hotel was slightly above average. Being a 1000+ room hotels will have many cons when comparing to smaller hotel. The service was simply not personalised. There was no welcome letter given, the welcome amenity was not sent until I reminded them, F&B at the hotel was subpar. Not to mention, I had the opportunity to taste $3 water that somehow makes food taste better.

However, with all the cons, I would still come back to stay under certain conditions. The simple and most attractive thing is the views from the room. I just love the view from the room and that will be the single and more important thing that will bring me back to stay here in the future. The location of the hotel was also pretty good as it was above an MRT/Metro exchange and a Shopping Mall. Other than that, if you are looking for Lounge and Facilities, I would recommend to stay elsewhere.