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A budget hotel and a very suspicious five star rating from Trip Advisor

1   Not Recommended
October 29, 2015 by

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AMOY
 Map | 1 Review | 0% Recommended

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Liked:
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Service
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Amenities
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When I read the TA reviews I thought wow what a high ratio of five star ratings for this “magical boutique hotel” in Singapore. So we fell for it and booked. Additionally, I made the mistake of prepaying for what in hindsight was a very high rate for a very basic room in a very funky old building. Had we not prepaid for our room at this hotel, I would have moved after the first night. Singapore has many nice hotels to choose from. This is not one of them.

Pros:
The reviews rave about the staff. Yes that part is correct, as they are very friendly and helpful. Whatever you needed they try to help and ready to do so at a moment’s notice. First class assistance. But from the hotels I visited and interacted with various staff members Singapore hotels do this across the board. They all provide outstanding support. A real plus, but the only plus staying here in my opinion.
Reviewers also rave about the pickup at airport in a nice car. But a 20-minute car into where the hotel is located from SIN is not worth the trade off for what the hotel does not offer. I wonder if the free (one way only) car ride is because in four cases our taxi drivers had no clue of the hotel by name or its exact address? That tells you something.
The pagoda entrance is both charming and historic if you enter from the official address on Telok Ayer Street. Get past the cute restored pagoda lobby; you get a small budget hotel room and nothing else. There is no gym, a pool, or “hotel” restaurant. Nada. Maybe they contract with some gym close by but I was so disappointed by the property at that point I could have cared less. There is however a Sushi restaurant connected to the hotel lobby but they are a separate business from the hotel. You cannot charge your meal to the hotel. I heard from a friend the Sushi place Jin was pretty good for dinner at night. Even my taxi driver recommended it.
The hotel does offer as part of their contracted room rate a breakfast provided by the Sushi restaurant and again don’t believe the hype on TA.
Very very minimal and an unappealing breakfast meal. I say that because while I was here I had the breakfast buffet at two other hotels and both were outstanding buffets. Buffets in Singapore hotels are amazing if you get a chance. They all compete to really put beautiful great tasting buffet meals as a standard. Not the Amoy. One reviewer called it the best omelet he ever had eaten and I say he is a fan of airline food. In fact the breakfast is much akin to having a airline breakfast served during a club room which if you fly a lot you know they are almost not worth eating.
The hotel has outside one of its entrances several good places to eat. Have breakfast there. Or go across the street to Segafredo Coffee Bar as they serve great coffee and pastries. Nice place to hang out as well.
The hotel rooms were recreated from its original historical usage and rooms include a nice modern shower and working toilet. In fact the toilet was the nicest part of the room because the plumbing worked well for such a really old building. Plus a small sink area. The king bed was comfortable and the Internet worked ok. The frig had free sodas and beer with a couple bags of chips. Coffee machines with coffee pods were provided as well a tea boiler with tea selections. That is where the pluses end for me.

Cons:
The hallways off the elevator leading to the rooms had really dirty stained carpets. That is not a five star rated hotel by any honest rating service. That set off alarms to me. In the room our AC initially never cooled off and required constant fiddling to get the unit to work so we were either too hot or freezing. We finally asked that someone please fix, as it is an old non-insulated building/rooms where heat comes in fairly easily. The first two bellmen were clueless to solve the problem. Third try, the worker bee, got it working but again too cold. I realized the thermostat simply did not work. It was either on or off. We gave up and decided it was better to freeze as opposed to sweat in the hot Singapore climate.
Best part is that the AC controls were between the desk and an overhead cupboard so one had to bend over stick their head between the two to see what the labels of the dial or thermostat indicated. (see photo)
Rooms have very old thin pane windows, which are frosted over so you see nothing from your room & which did not keep out the hot humid air very well so be prepared. As well a lot of street noise from the food alley below meant keeping the windows closed.
The shower handle kept falling off and the reverse knob between the rain shower overhead and hand held kept changing without me touching it so it was very annoying.
Our view was either an alley or nasty rooftop. You do not want to open your windows because of the pigeons flying around outside and their droppings are everywhere. Not the best thing to breathe in. The hotel should remedy it by cleaning the windowsills and then applying some sort of repellant or glue to keep them from sitting.
My view is after a month visiting different Asian countries this hotel was the worst bang for the buck. If you can get it as an inner city budget motel price go for it. But not the high-rise modern hotel price we paid $210US a night. Interesting when you look at one booking engine an online photo shows a high-rise in the background so unless you drill down into photos you would at first glance think it is a modern facility. So disappointed in what we paid for what we got.
In the future when I see such a high level of TA five star ratings and a lacking of poor to terrible ratings, I will be very suspect of what it says. I mean think about it, what hotel anywhere in the world gets a 95% excellent rating and never a poor rating? None I have ever looked at. Even the real and best five star hotels get an occasional unhappy review. If it too good to be true then it is.

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