Review of Conrad Centennial Hotel Singapore

For SGD 340, you will can get yourself a KING Deluxe room.

After all that pictures overload, I have only one thing to say – Fabulous!

Conrad Centennial Hotel truly leaves up to its Hilton standard of service. It was simply superb. Even though I had no luggage with me, the check-in officer by the name of Chandran actually escorted me all the way to my room. Totally unexpected but well appreciated. Now that’s service!

Everything in the room was in tip top condition so there is nothing to complain there and the view is just superb – especially during the day when the sun slowly rises and allowed natural light to enter the room.

The breakfast spread was okay – not as extravagant but enough. The waffles and ice-cream is a great way to start your breakfast! You also cannot go wrong with the location as its just within walking distance from the malls and the suntec city convention centre.

Conrad Centennial is just excellent. This is how all Singapore Hotel should be!

Overall rating: 88 out of a possible 100

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Hotel Review - Orchard Hotel Singapore

At the time of writing, Orchard Hotel is rated at number 52nd out of the other hotels in Singapore by Tripadvisor readers. As it is located along Orchard Road, the shopping city of the nation, and considering it is a 4star hotel, how bad can it really be?

I am in for a shock! Check-in reception was slow and the most outrageous thing was the fact that there there were not many guests going through check-in.

My check-in was handled by a guy (I have decided to make him anonymous here)who seemed pleasant at first until he asked me a question which appalled me - What time will you be checking out?

My goodness - that is exactly like asking what time will I be leaving? This is just so wrong. I believe informing me of the check-out time(like other hotels I have visited) would have sufficed.

What make matters worse is the fact that I did not get a double bed room but a twin bed room - I indicated in my booking form that I am going to be staying on my own so why can't they have booked a double room for me. Very upset! But the hotel did have a non-guaranteed clause so there is nothing that I can do about it.

Lifts to your room require a card to access to other levels. The corridor is more towards contemporary style - this is indeed a business hotel – and from its interior it looks exactly like it.

Upon entering the room my immediate disappointment was with the bathroom. Size was a tad small and to make matter more unpleasant is the very fact that there is no dental kit nor any shaving kit. The guest is required to call for the items to be delivered to your room. I don’t understand the rationale for this at all. Luckily upon calling, those items were sent promptly which ease my frustration a little.

I always love a bathroom with rain shower and Orchard Hotel has it albeit being part of the bathtub. The mirror has some Chinese character on it - pretty Zen-looking if you asked me. It is also very clean and well maintained. However the complimentary toiletries are pretty generics.

From the toilet you can pretty much overlook the sleeping area. In other words if you are a couple you can enjoy the great view of your partner from your side.

The beds and pillows were not as comfy as I expect them to be, it is rather too soft for my taste. But I have to say that the bedroom walls are pretty nicely designed. Very aesthetics. The help desk has a caller id so there is no need to even mention my room number - which makes me ask myself - if they have caller id why can't they answer the phone by stating my name - is that too much to ask for a little service?

No laze chair unfortunately but i guess that armchair will have to do. My other redemption for the room is the 32inch LCD screen.

Another thing which pisses me off is the view outside my window - simply horrendous.

However small touches like my name on the TV is an added bonus.

Another thing - its at Orchard Road so location wise its perfect for shopping and in the end I ended up spending more than SGD200 just for taking a stroll along that wretched road. Oh well, I have not shopped for a while :)

I guess the special room rate that was offered to me was good and edging on being complimentary. As such I believe this must be one of their cheaper rooms. But would you pay the standard normal rate of SGD150 to SGD200 for such a room?

Thus my first ever stay in a hotel in Singapore is quite a dismay which makes me promise myself to only stay and review hotels that are in the TOP 20 in Singapore.

Overall rating: 65 out of a possible 100.

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Milford Plaza New York, USA by guest contributor singaporean

For those who have been there during this time, you would probably know that New York over Christmas and the New Year can be a truly amazing experience. New York during this time of the year can also be prohibitively expensive. Which is why I was pleased to have found Milford Plaza (on the edge of 8th Ave and 45th Street) on the Internet when I recently went to New York.
The costs of a standard room with Club lounge access (US$120 or so per night) is one of the most competitive and value-for-money in New York's uber expensive accomodation scene (where $200 and over a night is more the norm). The location of the Hotel is also very much central: being only about 5 minutes walking distance from both Times Square and Broadway, visitors would have quick and easy access to some of New York's most famous landmarks.

When I first arrived at the hotel, I found the room to be functional, if a little antiquated. That said, there was definitely a certain rustic charm to the room. One little matter though was that the walls appeared to be somewhat thin, which allowed me to eavesdrop on conversations that took place in adjoining rooms if the visitors in those rooms were too loud (and presumably, for them to listen in to conversations that I had if I were too loud). This was of course, part of the charm of the place, and can be easily overlooked, though I can imagine how disconcerting that might be if you were attempting to sleep at night and you were beside a particularly noisy neighbour (I was blessed with early sleepers as neighbours). There was a view of New York from my hotel room - while nothing spectacular, it is easy to forget that given the hotel's considerably lower-than-norm charges, the fact that any view is available is, in and of itself, quite a bonus. The lift-allocation-system is also structured in such a way that in most instances, you'd be given a dedicated lift to go to the level that you need - while some find the system inconvenient (and to be sure, it is, to some extent), I loved it since it means there is no need to engage in small talk with other guests.

That is not to say the Hotel is not without its faults. For one, it did appear during my stay that there were too many people who had access to the Club lounge, making it impossible to get seats in the Club lounge if you are not an early riser (whenever I went to the Club lounge at 9:30 am, for example, it was impossible to get seats, though it was much easier to get seats whenever I went earlier than 9 am). The Club lounge is also separate from the level the hotel room is on, which does mean the little inconvenience of taking the lift whenever you needed to go to the club lounge.

In short, Milford Plaza is not perfect, and definitely no big-name 5-star hotel, but for its costs and central location, is extremely value-for-money, especially in the festive season where most other comparable hotels charge almost double what Milford charges.

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