Intercontinental Singapore
The Intercontinental Singapore is located at Bugis, just around 100 metres from the Bugis station, which is also served by the MRT serving the airport.
The hotel is part of the Bugis shopping complex and built partly in historic shophouses with a tower building for additional rooms. The hotel has 406 rooms on 17 floors.
You enter the hotel through a courtyard. The entrance is not as one could expect opposite the main driveway but on the left side. After you have entered the hotel you are in a smaller lobby where the check-in desk, the Ambassador / Royal Ambassador Desk and the concierge desk are located. Some lounge chairs are available as well.
The main lounge is a bit further in the building with a two storey high area with the bar, the entrance to some of the restaurants. The elevators to the rooms are on your way from the entrance lobby to the bigger main lobby. From the atmosphere I like it, as it has a colonial styled interior and is not the usual hotel interior. The lobby is painted in white colour and therefore really bright, the tiles are really nice in this part of the hotel.
The outdoor pool is located in the fourth floor. Locker-rooms are available as well as towels are provided. There is a big pool and a smaller (children) pool and a Jacuzzi styled pool. Deck chairs are available. The pool area is open from 07.00 to 22.00. The big pool is a nice place for some laps. I am not sure if everybody likes lying in the sun there as there are some high rise buildings around and you are probably seen from the offices.
The gym is one floor down and can be reached from the pool area over a staircase. I have not used it, but the equipments looked okay and it seems okay for the seize of the hotel. As usual at Intercontinental Hotels the gym is open 24 hours 7 days a week.
Meeting rooms are available in different sizes and types and the usual equipment could be provided by the hotel.
A Business Centre is located on the second floor.
The hotel had three different types of rooms, the shop house rooms, the tower rooms and the club rooms. In each category are also different types of suites available.
The shop house rooms are located in the shop houses, which usually mean lower floor and either facing the street or the mall. The interior of these rooms are colonial styled. The room are a bit narrow than the tower rooms (at least that was my impression). The windows are glass windows with a interior shade. If you open the shades and have a room facing the mall one could easily view into this room and if you close the shade the room becomes very dark. Therefore I suggest to try to get a room facing the street,
if you prefer to stay in a shophouse room. The other disadvantage of these rooms is that you have to pass several doors where you need the keycard to get access. And you have to pass the lobby on a gallery and some meeting rooms to reach the gym and pool. This makes it a bit uncomfortable if you like to do this in a bathrobe.
The tower rooms are bigger in size but the interior is the usual contemporary hotel room decoration. The bath however is big with a bath and separate shower stall. The rooms are on higher floor and you could easily access gym and pool without further passing public areas of the hotel.
The club rooms are in the tower and have access to the club floor lounge. The club floors have a staircase to reach the club lounge.
The hotel offers three restaurants (“Olive Tree”, “Man Fu Yuan” and “Ko”) and in addition to the lobby lounge the “Victorian Bar” for drinks in the evening.
Stay 25 May 2007
direct link to hotel
InterContinental Singapore
visited on Pazifikhopping 2007
Arrival Date: 25 May 2007
Departure Date: 26 May 2007
Room type booked: Standard
Rate Plan: Advanced Purchase Rate
Room Number: 1312
Room Rate: 190.00 SGD
Status of Guest Program: Platinum / Ambassador
We arrived around noon at the hotel from Changi where we took the MRT to Bugis.
Staff seemed a bit surprised seeing guests not arriving by taxi, but we did not care. We approached the check in desk and were directed to the Ambassador desk. The reservation system was down, so they could not pull our reservation. We had booked a room with two beds but they got us preselected a room with a king in one of the shophouse rooms. So it was clear that we could not avoid a room change. Anyway we wanted to have at least the change to take a shower and change clothes and refresh ourselves. We were accompanied
to the room. I have to admit that I was a little bit surprised by the long way from the elevator and the number of doors one had to pass.
The shop house room was nicely from the interior style. After exploring the shop house room and showing a possible alternative room, I decided to head to the front desk after consideration with my fellow travel mate and ask for a room in the tower. I had booked a tower room and that was what I wanted to have. I also put explicitly “room on higher floor” in the reservation and second floor is not what I would call higher floor. It was a bit arguing with front desk about the room. They told me the shop house room
was an upgrade, but I pointed out if I book a tower room with two single bed and put a note in the reservation about higher floor I did not want to get the very opposite of what I have booked, might it be an upgrade or not. And I wanted to see the new room. So after some research I was shown a similar room to the one I should get and I told them this would be okay. They moved us to our new room while we were visiting Orchard Road without further problem.
But it is true, you really have to force things the way you want to have it done. They have some routine and they do not care about the reservation. I understand that they might have some difficulties due to the reservation system being down, but I think they do not select rooms if the guest is checking in but do this in advance. Staff is okay, but not as friendly as usual in Asian places, but this is Singapore after all…
The new room was on the 13th floor and bigger than the shophouse room. The interior however was contemporary and the usual hotel interior. You enter the room through the entrance door, where the wardrobe is located along with the safe and the tea and coffee facilities. Opposite is the entrance to the bathroom with bath, shower, sink and toilet. Nicely in appearance, towels were provided for three persons as well as slippers and bathrobes for two persons.
The room had two beds with adjacent bedside tables on the one and a sideboard with the TV set on the other side of the room. In front of the window were a lounge chair, a lamp and a small table placed. The furniture was okay, some minor damages and scratches but you have to search for it like you have to do finding some stains in the carpet.
Check out in the morning was fast and everything was prepared.
The Ambassador gift was a fan.
Overall a nice hotel in a nice area, but staff could be friendlier, especially as this is Asia and not the US or Europe. The feature of the hotel are okay and the rooms are nice, depending on your room choice (Shop House) you get a room with a nicely interior which is not the usual hotel room design. If you have special request a reminder two days prior to your stay might work. I will stay there again and give them a try and see how the compare to this stay.
