For Once And Never The Second - Carlton Hotel Singapore
I always love Staycation and even look forward to plan and visit every single one of them, through all my journey of Staycation 99% of it are pretty up to standard and up to their brand/reputation and just last month I visited 1 hotel that belongs to the 1% that disappoint and screw up my mood for Staycation.
So my boyfriend & I decided to book a staycation to chill and to pamper ourselves a little during Christmas Eve period, after much consideration we pick up Carlton Hotel because I always wanted to stay over at their Studio Room as they have beautiful bathtub with a view of Singapore City and CHIJMES.
Check in time is from 2pm onwards and both of us arrived at Carlton at about 3pm and thought that
there should be lesser crowd as it is slightly later already?
However to my surprise the hotel was filled with tour group travelers and jam up the check in queue, it took about 30 minutes to get our key card and head back to room.
Roughly about 330pm, we finally get to our scheduled room at Level 14.
Studio room is pretty limited and that explain it is slightly expensive as compare to other rooms, it cost us about $300 - $320 for one night stay over here.
Estimate about 30sqm with City View, pretty usual hotel setup for bed area and the only worth it point is that they have beautiful toilet/bath area. That is probably one of the unique selling point I guess.
We spend about 10 minutes to explore the room and took some pictures, after I explore I decided to visit the washroom and this is where the frustration build up from.
First Incident:
While I was in the washroom and my boyfriend was taking pictures of the bed area, housekeeping staff dashed into our room with the water boiler without knocking and pressing the bell, mentioning to my boyfriend the room is not ready yet. Hearing all these from the washroom I quickly dress up and rushed out to check out, and at the moment I was so pissed off with such services and made a call to reception to check it out and what they could do is to apologize for it.
What if the housekeeping staff was a guy and I was changing? I literally feel that my privacy was invaded and there is no more trust and security in the room because your staff could just enter without knocking/warning. I think it is totally unacceptable and disrespect for guest, irregardless whether if there is guest or not I think housekeeping should always knock before entering?
Second Incident: So when I was slightly not so angry, I went over to pick up the in house dining menu and happen to came by this memo on the desk.
"Dear Guest
We are currently in the midst of cleaning hotel facade and please kindly have your binds and curtain closed to protect your privacy. "
After reading it I got pissed off again, how can this be?!
We paid extra to enjoy the view and now you are asking me to close the curtain as they wanted to clean the windows or whatever. Why didn't you prompt or inform when we are doing booking at your page?! Why only inform us when we check into the room? I wasn't given a choice to choose then, to protect my privacy I have to close the curtains and seriously we just waste $300 for nothing.
Reasons given was like "Oh is peak period, they are busy so maybe miss out" In my opinion, peak period/busy is an excuse, if other hotels like Pan Pacific can do it properly why not you, in such case I would highly suspect your coordinating and managing skills.
But thankfully you have not bad gym facilities that bring my mood slightly better afterwards, it was stated 24hour on Carlton Hotel website however during our visit was 5am - 11pm.
So, whether operating hours is till 11pm or 24 hours access I have no idea because it is extremely misleading. However right now on their webpage is stated till 11pm.
Swimming Pool, a pretty small one where you can only do a quick dip instead of a swim.
Most of the time is filled with people and kids, so you have to go at right time I guess.
Conclusion,
Location is really good as it is right opposite City Hall MRT, I would say it is really convenience and there are lots of shopping and eateries for you. Estimate to have 940 guestroom and which mean most of the time will be filled with guest and tour groups, be prepared to not have peace as it will be filled with people and noise. If you are looking for a quiet environment, peaceful place I think this is definitely not a place for you.
76 Bras Basah Road,
Singapore 189558
Location: 4/5 (City Hall MRT) Facilities: 3.5/5
(Gym, Swimming Pool & Spa) Service: 2.5/5
(Despite sending an email for suggestion or complain, nobody get back to even apologize, this service is not acceptable in my opinion)
Price: 2.5/5
(Price is slightly high for such services, we paid $320 for 1 night stay)
Verdict, I will not want to be back again.
Once and never twice.
Xoxo
Andrea
