Raffles Hotel Singapore Staycay: Palm Court Suite Review

👍 Terrific service, gorgeous deco, thoroughly modern rooms.
👎 No executive lounge (but it doesn't matter, really).

TLDR: Raffles Hotel is doing a "The Suite Life" staycay* package for bookings by 9 April for stays til 30 June. Weekend/holiday dates for the 'base' Courtyard Suite (s$795++ for 2 nights) are sold out, but the Palm Court Suite (s$975++ for 2 nights) is still tremendous value. Book on their website before rooms run out!

* Hotels in the Staycay tour:
Raffles Hotel | Capella Singapore | Marriott Tang Plaza | The St.Regis Singapore | Grand Hyatt | The Fullerton Bay Hotel | Parkroyal Collection, Marina Bay | Marina Bay Sands.


The legendary Raffles Hotel Singapore just completed 2-year long renovations in August 2019. The 100-ish suite hotel (even the basic rooms are suites) has long been known to be the epitome of luxury in Singapore ... with normally a suitably luxurious price tag unaffordable by the proletariat. So while the darling and I have wanted to get a taste of the atas life for a while, we could never really bring ourselves to bite the bullet, until a combination of the forced cancellation of our Japan Sakura trip plus a ban on foreign visitors thanks to the covid-19 situation gave us this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!


The hotel, naturally, is ridiculously gorgeous, and (mostly) immaculate.


We booked ourselves into a Courtyard Suite, but were very graciously upgraded to a Palm Court Suite. It's a huge, luxurious, gorgeous room with just the right balance of classic design language with thoroughly modern amenities (including tablet-controlled lights, curtains, and television). Check out the video tour below:


More photos of the room below:


Little touches like this birthday 'cake' and Raffles Tiger soft toy (done by the Butler team) are always extremely appreciated as they set a great first impression.


More photos of the Palm Court Suite:


The room's design is really classical, but the fixtures are most definitely modern. Everything in the room (except the ceiling fans) can be controlled by two iPads: One in the parlour / living room, and the other in the bedroom. It's pretty nifty being able to turn off all the lights at a single touch.


There is a walk in wardrobe area in between the bedroom and bathroom, with a dedicated hair-drying desk.


The bathroom also is gorgeous and fully equipped with anything you could ever expect from a hotel. Except maybe a high-tech Japanese bidet/washlet on the toilet seat. You do still need to manually wash your own bum.


The hotel's surroundings, of course, are also gorgeous, even for the darling and I who aren't able to view it through colonial-tinted lenses.


Raffles Hotel has an outdoor rooftop swimming pool which is salted (instead of chlorined), which is always a nice touch. The water temperature was great for even our 6-month old, regardless of time of day. Except maybe when the sun's out in the middle of the day, as there's not much shade.


For food, we had lunch at BBR by Alain Duccase, which is now a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant (verdict: The set lunch is pretty good value). We also splurged a bit for a dinner at the Butcher's Block (verdict: A little pricey, but service and food rivals any other top-tier steakhouse in the city). Full reviews will come in a separate post.


Breakfast is at the Tiffin Room (in Raffles Hotel's main building), and is currently unlimited ala-carte (instead of a buffet) because of the covid situation. We actually really loved this breakfast format; not sure if the kitchen can handle it during higher occupancy period, though.



All in all, Raffles Hotel certainly lives up to its reputation. What these photos weren't able to capture, however, was just how amazing the service was. From the moment the iconic doorman greets you at the entrance, all the way til check out, you always feel like the staff are out to make your stay as comfortable as possible. It truly is amazing service, and has spoilt us so badly that we're not sure how we'll go back to "normal" hotels after this.

As I mentioned at the top of the post, Raffles Hotel is running a killer promo now if you're comfortable with doing Staycays at this time - it's a bargain that you really shouldn't miss!

Look See Eat