tobeytoh

gravii

Paid stay here recent in an "Andaz Suite King". The room is essentially identical in layout and amenities to the "Andaz Studio Suite King" which I've seen on flyertalk reviews. The only difference seems to be the view.

Hotel is not too bad, very modern and fairly spacious rooms. The hotel is conveniently connected to the Bugis MRT at B3 level, however this was not mentioned by check in staff. Unlike another poster, I did get a daily turn down service, however found it very inconsistent. The service on one day only resulted in having my blinds closed, hover sometimes dirty towels were also collected (but sometimes not replaced). Pool is smallish hut has a nice view of Marina bay.

OsakaWino

They have recently changed their website and removed the description that the Andaz Lounge Hour in the Sunroom would be 4-6 pm from Jan 1. It now says 5-7 pm, so maybe someone came to their senses.

solewalker

I wouldn't expect too much - only two wines and the Andaz Pale Ale.

yosithezet

Considering a staycation over CNY but the poor reviews of breakfast are making me reconsider. The GH would be good, but the rates aren't nearly as good.

krispykrme

Aventine

No bathtub is a dealbreaker for me. I wouldn't stay here unless I got a suite or whatever with a tub.

CXYYZ

Stayed here recently for one night. My favourite boutique hotel in Singapore closed so I have been trying to find a new go-to in town. I have Discoverist status with Hyatt so decided to give this a whirl.

I liked the hotel and would stay here over the Grand Hyatt due to a combination of location (Orchard Road got boring for me long ago) and simply how much more modern the Andaz is - the style is more home-like to me. I would generally rather have breakfast at a cafe or on the run than in a crowded and noisy hotel restaurant so cannot comment on the in-house options. There are some great restaurants, bars, cafes, etc nearby.

I arrived somewhat sceptical of what the service would be like but I had positive interactions with every member of the staff that I encountered. At check-in, I was granted late checkout (3pm vs 2pm "expected" based on status).

Potential negatives: The flip flops in lieu of slippers are stupid. There is no bathtub in base rooms, if it matters but the shower is decent. The journey to/from the ground floor can take a long time.

orkan

Is there a spa theme here? Some hotels with "spa" wings/towers in the States have flip flops.

Wondering if we're better off here or at the Four Seasons or Mandarin Oriental. Can't seem to get much value out of hotel points in Singapore so might as well try something different.

krispykrme

3rdworldresident

There is only ONE MO in Singapore, IIRC.

and four seasons is now in renovation process.

Kacee

OP means MOs in other cities. And his report is consistent with numerous others that MO Singapore is tired and in need of a refresh.

orkan

Thank you for the recommendations. Do you like the service or rooms at the FS and St Regis?

We ended up staying at the Andaz after all and added an extra night. Looked fresh and simple from photos online. A little bit more our style than, say, the new IC, Indigo, Warehouse, etc. But we came down with the flu while travelling so didn't get to check out much of their f&b.

The staff members seemed attentive and friendly enough. Constantly checking if we needed anything when we're travelling to and from the public side of the lift. Sometimes it felt like we were in a hospitality school. Somehow they come across more like students than the Grand Hyatt staff. I guess we made use of all those opportunities to make requests in person rather than calling them in. I really could not stand the green "emergency lighting" on the ceiling of the room. Seems like a good idea but doesn't really work well when paired with blackout curtains. In the standard room, the light in the bedroom floods over the bed. We had someone tape up the one in the bedroom and I covered up the bright red TV light with the hotel info sheet. If I go back, I'd get the bathroom emergency light taped up as well, leaving only the closet area lit.

And those slippers.. they have regular ones upon request

OsakaWino

We just completed a 13-night stay over CNY and enjoyed it tremendously. Very glad that we chose Andaz Singapore for our final fling as Globalist.

After booking a Studio Suite when they first started accepting reservations, I kept checking the rates frequently to see if they would go down. One day in September I noticed something strange: the Senior Rate, which is what I usually book, was the same S$351 for all room categories, all the way up to the Presidential Suite, while the Standard Rate and other rates increased according to category. So I booked both the Presidential Suite and a Large Suite to see what would happen. Both reservations went through just fine, but feeling that the Presidential Suite was being too greedy, I cancelled that a few days later and held onto the Large Suite. I was worried how this would work out, but at check-in we were warmly welcomed and shown to our Large Suite with never even a hint at the 3x difference in the rate.^

The highlight of the Large Suite is the bathroom, which is the same size as an entire standard room and features a double shower. We found the living room to be overly furnished with heavy easy chairs and sofas, probably enough seating for at least 14 people, and the lack of lighter-weight chairs made it rather difficult to easily utilize the round dining table. We were also puzzled by the lack of phones; just the one in the bedroom, none in the living room or anywhere else. We did not have any problem with the AC and the shower water pressure was just fine.

One thing that I don’t think has been mentioned previously is the heat-reflective sheet on some of the room windows. This sheet has little black dots all over it, making it uncomfortable to look out at the daytime view from close to the window and also significantly reducing the transmission of light from the nighttime view. This sheet was on the west-facing living room windows and the west-facing part of the bedroom windows but not on the southwest-facing part of the bedroom or the southwest-facing bathroom windows. On our next stay I would enquire about this and request a southwest or south view if possible.

Housekeeping was generally very good, but a bit inconsistent. We had plentiful toiletry replenishments. And on most days they took care to note what we were using from the complimentary drinks and snacks and then generously leave extras of those items, but then on a couple of days they did not replenish the snacks, and midway through our stay when we removed the teabags with the intention of bringing them home, they were never replenished. Turndown was pretty much useless, just closing the drapes and moving drinking glasses to the bedside. Since we re-opened the drapes and moved the glass back to the bar on our return, we eventually just left the DND light on in the evening.

We were very impressed with the level of personalized service, most especially at breakfast and also from the “hosts” at what serves as the front desk. Everyone seemed to make a great effort to remember guest names and even room numbers. We were frequently greeted by name even by staff that I do not believe we had previously met.

As has been previously mentioned, breakfast is no longer an “either-or” situation. If you are a Globalist or on a breakfast-inclusive rate, it is a full buffet setup with no ordering of ala carte. Cold items, bread, and waffles/pancakes are in Icehaus, hot western buffet items and an egg station are across the hallway in Green Oven, and hot Asian buffet items and a noodle station are across another hallway in Smoke & Pepper. It may sound too spread out, but it disperses the crowd well, and the separate smaller seating areas create a more cozy and tranquil atmosphere than one large space.

The food at breakfast is mostly of very high quality. Excellent orange juice, good-quality fresh fruit, exceptional smoked salmon (a rarity these days; I believe it is the same Scottish salmon that they serve on the lunch and dinner menu), really good waffles with fresh cream and berries, and the omelets are among the best I’ve had anywhere. Some disappointments were the mee goreng and fried rice, which I think were likely much better when made to order rather than when left sitting on burners. And the congee was only lukewarm on a couple of occasions, probably because the pot is too large or too full for the size of the burner. There was also a lack of cold cut meats; just some bologna-like loaf on most days, with prosciutto on one day and both on one day, but we saw no ham throughout our stay. The croissants and other bakery items were surprisingly of rather low quality.

Due to a physical condition I have we try to take dinner in-room as much as possible. Unfortunately the room service menu is extremely limited, but on enquiry all of the F&B outlets were happy to send meals to the room. We would order at the restaurant and they would have room service staff send it up. We found the food to be universally of very high quality and excellent value. However, the room service delivery system, whether ordering from the room service menu or from the F&B outlets, is merely a matter of bringing in the tray; no setting of the table, uncovering of the food, or even confirmation of the order.

At the evening lounge hour in the Sunroom we found the chardonnay to be quaffable, but not the red. Other than the peanuts, the snacks were worse than you could imagine in even the cheapest bar. We did not expect canapés, but just some edible pretzel or cracker-like snacks would be nice. The lounge gets very crowded some nights, but there is no problem with overflow to the tables in Icehaus. We don’t usually drink beer, but on the one night we thought we might try the signature Andaz Pale Ale they were all out and only had Tiger beer.

Something we really did not like was that no matter whether you pressed Host (meaning the front desk), or Eat-in, or Operator on the phone (there was no button or direct dial number for Belldesk or Housekeeping), it was without exception always answered by “Guest Services”. One example of how this did not work for us was when we wanted to order some bread midway through our room service meal (bread is included with some dishes but not others). Guest Services told me that the only bread available was either the hamburger or the sandwiches. As I felt that actual room service staff would be able to get us some bread, I asked to be transferred to in-room dining, but was told “this is in-room dining sir”, so I gave up.

There was also a mix-up with a room service order. We got back late one night and ordered sayur lodeh (indicated on the menu as vegetarian) from the late-night room service menu, but instead they delivered curry chicken. Again no uncovering of the food or confirmation of the order, so we did not realize this until the staff had left, and in any case we had already been waiting 30 min for the order and would not have wanted to wait for it to be replaced, but it is a good thing that we are not vegetarian.

Some other minor issues that we encountered:

There are very few door staff stationed at the Level 2 entrance. When we arrived with 2 very heavy bags there was no one to greet the taxi and there seemed to be no one around at all. The sole staff on duty was in the back getting some stored luggage out for another guest.

There was a letter in the room stating that “preventive maintenance” was being done on the building façade from 9 am to 9 pm, and we did see some gondolas go past our windows. Have no idea what problems this brand new building has. They did not seem to be using any tools, so maybe just inspection or something like caulking. A more detailed explanation might have been nice.

The fire alarm went off at 1 am on our first night, but just a false alarm and fortunately did not recur.

The previously mentioned construction smell on Level B3 is still very, very bad (think paint thinner) and it is likely to remain that way until some tenants move in, which might be a long time considering the slow pace at which the Duo Galleria is being occupied.

All in all we were very satisfied with our stay, with the plusses (especially the ability to order room service from all the F&B outlets being a major personal plus for us) far outweighing the glitches, and I really expect them to continue to improve, although maybe at a slower than ideal pace. We look forward to staying again in the future, but we will have to consider the cost. The fact that we would be able to use an Explorist Club Access Award at the GH will exacerbate the cost premium of staying at the Andaz. If only WoH would allow those Explorist Club Access Awards to be used for breakfast at properties that have no club, but that of course is wishful thinking.

BAGoldBoy

Great review from OsakaWino and we were there for a few days during his stay.

Enjoying the last few days as Globalist. Decided after 16 years as Diamond that self funding Globalist wasn't for us although the reward nights now counting is a bonus. I had expected to fall to Explorist but for some reason I have been granted Discoverist. Still lots of points to burn over the next year so will be able to use the 4 RC vouchers.

We had booked a standard suite using the opening offer rate and a DSU. Arrived late at the property and luggage was taken care of by charming young lady who also helped us when we were leaving.

Room was fine. Quite large bedroom with small sitting room and large bathroom area with bath in front of the window. Everything worked OK. As previously mentioned replenishment of mini bar, tea bags, etc was a bit hit and miss. I could we could have called down but didn't bother.

First morning at breakfast was weird. Just shown to table and left with no idea of set up. My wife asked for a coffee which was brought to her but then she was told by the host that she could get the next one herself as it only involved pressing a button. Didn't seem to be anyone in charge and the staff were keeping a low profile. Subsequent mornings there was a guy in charge in a dark suit. Completely different level of service so I guess they were just slacking on day one.

Only used the lounge on our last day. Poor quality wines (think Canvas) and appalling snacks. We did manage to have an Andaz Pale Ale in the bar one afternoon which came with superior snacks - a very nice beer brewed in Melbourne.

We wanted a later checkout as our flight wasn't until 23:00. They couldn't leave the suite open but offered us a standard room so after breakfast we changed rooms although the new keys hadn't been programmed correctly so a couple of visits back to the lobby.

Really liked the Mr Stork concept. We happened to go up there for some roof top photos just as the CNY fireworks started - spectacular.

I have quite a few photos which I will put up when I have a bit of spare time.

Will definitely go back on our next trip later this year and will be interested to see how a non Globalist fares. Not too worried about breakfast as there are plenty of options within walking distance.