Okay, okay, okay
Written: Sep 29 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice room, good big bed
Cons: Poor restaurant, mediocre service, unattended health club, generally disappointing.
The Bottom Line: Good room but poor restaurant. Recommended only if you eat out, or in the room, especially breakfast!
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| vodkaboy's Full Review: Le Meridien, Singapore |
It's interesting how your holiday objectives change as times passes. A few years ago my holidays would have been somewhere to go out and party at night, listen to some good rock bands, have some drinks, amaze some beautiful women with my wit and humour, and .. er.. hope! Then I got married and our holidays became somewhere to enjoy culture in the day, beaches and wet bars in the evenings to sup on a cocktail. Now, with two young mini-mees, holidays are somewhere with pushchair access, with shopping to entertain Mrs V, parks and toys for the young Master Vs and, hopefully, somewhere that Mr V can quaf some Stolichnaya! Oh, and where we can get a large or two-room hotel room so the kids can sleep while we watch TV/DVDs and eat room service. Doesn't it sound idyllic?
After some research, we agreed (ie I was told) that Singapore promised to offer pretty much all of what we all wanted. We decided that 3 days in the city would be enough, then the rest of the week to be spent at leisure (ladies - "at leisure" means pool/beach/chill, not shopping). So, where to stay?
Spending a lot of time in hotels, I have racked up quite a lot of points with several hotel companies (though not Intercontinental - but that's another story). I decided that it was about to cash some in. I find Starwood by far the easiest to use, and have already used points for one very good stay, at the El Gezira Sheraton, Cairo so I browsed through the list of Starwood hotels in Singapore and found two - the Meridien, on Orchard Road, Singapore's shopping Mecca, or the Sheraton. The Meridien cost was 4000 points per night whereas the Sheraton was 7000. An upgrade to a suite was same again. So, Meridien it was - a suite being just a little more than a regular room at the Sheraton.
Arrival
I had told them that we would be arriving early after an overnight flight, at about 9am, and could we have a room ready? They had said "We'll try - if we can't get you into a room immediately, you can rest in the lounge". That sounded reasonably hopeful.
Well we arrived, not having slept much during the night, and of course there was no room ready. However, the guy at the Reception desk was down to earth and sincere and seemed to be trying hard to get us a room as soon as possible. He made a few calls then took us to a "lounge", made us coffees, ordered glasses of milk for the mini-mees (which were charged to the room!) and promised to have at least our bedroom ready as soon as possible.
The lounge was a windowless room with chairs, kettle and sachets of coffee and coffee-mate, really quite pathetic as lounges go. Thankfully we only had to wait 25 minutes before someone came and took us up one floor, where our room was in a corner, not far from the lifts.
The Room
We were very glad to get into the room. Any room would have looked good just then, but the room continued to look good, even after some sleep and even over the next couple of days.
The room was a suite with the bedroom and a living room, separated by a sliding double wooden door with opaque glass panels. Neither of the rooms were particularly large but they were light, uncluttered and comfortably furnished.
The living room had a sofa and two armchairs in an "L" shape around a coffee table. A writing desk (which doubled up as a table to put all the shopping bags!) stood against one wall. In another corner was a wooden drawers unit with a medium sized TV on top. There was a kettle with tea/coffee and in the cupboard a good sized safe as well as an iron and ironing board.
The most important thing of course is the bed and this one was large, a generous king size. It was very comfortable, with padded headboards, and slightly lower, nearer to the ground, than some hotel beds. There was also the obligatory drawers unit with another TV, well position for viewing from the bed.
The bathroom was a reasonable size, with bath and shower, and a well equipped. The shampoo, conditioner etc were all by Crabtree and Evelyn and were quite fresh and invigorating. There was also another toilet off the living room.
Overall, the room was very good, comfortable and clean. The only problem we had was one day with the air conditioning, which didn't seem to be working properly, but that was soon fixed.
Food and Drink
The main restaurant is known as Georges. This is to the left of the lobby, at the front. There was also another restaurant to the left at the back, which appeared to be laid out for a meal but when we tried to go there, they directed us to Georges - perhaps we weren't wearing the right deodorant?
We had breakfast at Georges' each morning. The breakfast buffet selection was quite good and varied, the food was not bad, but the buffet was very congested. The counters were close together and it was laid out in a way that the most popular items seemed to be at the corners, so there was always a crowd where you wanted to go through.
Another ridiculous feature of Georges' was the incredibly small paper napkins, about 4 inches square - I've seen bigger postage stamps. What use are they if you spill coffee, drop a spoon, or sneeze? Add to that a bossy woman who seemed to think she was doing us a favour by allowing us into the restaurant, and got really flustered when she offered us a table right in the thick of the crowd and we declined, preferring one on the edge, and breakfast became a necessary irritant rather than a relaxing start to the day.
If there was a choice we would have taken it, but there wasn't. Although we were in a suite, we did not have access to a lounge breakfast, if there was one.
The only other restaurant was the Japanese Nogawa which was open for lunch and dinner. The hotel people told us it was a top Japanese restaurant in Singapore, but then they also told us we were welcome in the breakfast area, so I don't know whether to believe it.
Georges Lounge was a cluster of armchairs in a huddle by the entrance to the restaurant, so not much to speak of.
There was also a poolside cafe. When we went for a dip there was a tantalising smell wafting over, of barbecuing spiced chicken. However we were going out for dinner so satisfied ourselves with drooling into the pool! Nobody saw, so what?
Facilities
The aforementioned pool area was outdoor, with a plain rectangular pool surround by a tiled verandah area with the cafe at the far side. The pool was not large, even I could swim from one side to the other in about ten seconds, but it was refreshing.
There was also a Health club, which I visited once. It was at around 7.30pm, when a lot of business travellers might want to work out, but when I phoned there was no answer. I tried a few more times, unsuccessfully, then went downstairs to the Club. There were one or two guests in the small gym, but no staff on duty at all.
The Hotel also has a Business Centre, and conference and banqueting facilities, but I didn't check those out.
Summary
The hotel is in a fair location, though there are other hotels closer to the main shopping areas, such as the Crown Hotel which is right next to some of the malls. The room was very nice, the bed huge and comfortable, so we were happy with that but we were disappointed in the rest of the hotel. Apart from the guy who checked us in, the rest of the staff were polite, pleasant but not very effective. The restaurant in particular was badly laid out with some obvious lack of thought, and one or two senior people with poor attitude.
Recommended? If what matters is the room, then yes, it was very comfortable. However if you want good service and a relaxing start to the day, either eat in the room or go out.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
vodkaboy
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Location: Somewhere over here
Reviews written: 168
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I've been thinking. That's an improvement.
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