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!

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Kempinski Singapore Staycaytion Review (Terrace Room with Discovery Black)

👍 Gorgeous deco, impeccable service, great location.
👎 Evening hors d'oeuvres offering sparse compared to the competition.

The Kempinski Singapore - full name The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore - is a relatively new hotel which has just opened in the Capitol Building and Stamford House (built in 1930 and 1904 respectively). To be honest the darling and I aren't exactly history buffs so we're not too familiar with the two buildings, but nevertheless we quite liked the idea of staying in a heritage building refurbished to modern standards, and run by Europe's oldest luxury hotelier, so we booked ourselves in for a night to celebrate her birthday!


For those of you looking for a quick summary: Kempinski Singapore is an amazing intimate, luxurious hotel, and you would not be disappointed with a stay here. Staff are (mostly) well-trained, warm, and welcoming, and the hotel does go out of its way to make you feel like a special guest rather than just another random customer staying the night. The hotel's location is also superb, being connected to the City Hall MRT station (which has Singapore's two major MRT lines), and within walking distance of a lot of the city's attractions. Some minor niggles: Executive Lounge evening hors d'oeuvres offering is weak, and access within the hotel for wheelchairs and prams / strollers isn't the best.


The luxury starts at the intimate, gorgeous lobby, where check-in is done seated at one of four desks with a cold towel and welcome drink, and with a receptionist who already knows all your special requests and likes/dislikes because the hotel actively asked you about them a few days prior. Once formalities are done, said receptionist walks you to your room and makes sure that you're properly sorted - which is amazing, but may perhaps cause some bottlenecks if you happen to arrive with a large crowd.


We had booked a Deluxe Room but were kindly offered a triple-category upgrade to the Terrace Room (thanks to our Discovery Black membership). The room was really nice, with enough space for our bags, stroller, other stuff, and the baby cot (already waiting for us in the room upon arrival).


The wardrobe houses the usual amenities: Bathrobes, fluffy slippers, in-room safe, luggage rack, and the Minibar cabinet houses a fridge, nespresso machine, teabags, kettle, and some snacks. Kempinski Singapore makes soft drinks, water, and juices complimentary, but alcohol and snacks are chargeable.


Modern facilities like cordless phone, wireless charging pad, electric/electronic lights, blinds, and curtain control, and universal power and USB sockets, and a Sonos soundbar are nice touches, but perhaps expected as this is a new hotel.


The Terrace Room is so named because of the balcony that makes for a nice outdoor lounging area if you are so inclined. The view isn't great, though, which is probably one of the major disadvantages of opening shop in a low heritage building.


The bathroom is huge, spanning the entire length of the whole room (possibly a concession to the buildings' dimensions), and has all the bells and whistles you'd expect of any luxury hotel, and even including some you might not (like the high tech warmed toilet seat + bidet, Japan style). A second television in the bathroom is set up at the perfect height for watching some TV while getting your soak on.


If you are the sort that likes to work out by swimming laps, then unfortunately the Kempinski Singapore is not for you: The relaxation pool is - as it's so named - for relaxation, not for swimming. One plus point is that it's salt water, so your hair won't be ruined like it might be at chlorined pools. The gym is fairly well appointed and has treadmills for cardio and a decent assortment of weights and other circuit equipment.

Kempinski also has a spa, but we didn't check it out this trip.


We were granted access to the Kempinski Singapore's Executive Lounge next to the check-in area. The lounge is gorgeous, and is an extremely pleasant place to sit and rest and idle some hours away. Guests with Executive Lounge access get evening cocktails and hors d'oeuvres / canapes from 6-10pm, plus a private area for breakfast in the mornings. We're not too sure who gets lounge access, though: For most other hotels, access is normally part of the room type - for example, an "Executive King Room" would normally mean a "King Room" with lounge access - but I can't find any mention on Kempinski's website.


Also, the evening canapes would be sufficient for a pre-dinner appetizer, but most definitely not a dinner replacement (as it is in the lounges of some other competitors like Hilton/Conrad/Pan Pacific/etc). We snacked a little and then headed over to the hotel's flagship restaurant 15 Stamford (by "demon" chef Alvin Leung) to try out his Asian-Singaporean cuisine.


The next day, we opted for the privacy of the lounge (again) to have breakfast. The mini ala-carte / made to order breakfast menu was a nice touch: I ordered some truffled scrambled eggs with baked beans and mushrooms, which were delicious.


Of course there is also a buffet line with the rest of the breakfast items. It's a little smaller than what's on offer at the main restaurant, but between this spread and the ala carte menu, I think all but the biggest eaters will be satisfied.


Oh, and for this trip we also had lunch at Frieda (Kempinski Singapore's German restaurant), which had probably the best sausage & mash that I've had in recent memory.

Anyway to conclude, the Kempinski Singapore is my new favourite hotel in Singapore. The effort that the team took to personalize my stay really made me feel welcomed and cared for (as compared to, for example, the 'thank you for being our Diamond member, here is your key to a low floor room with undesirable view, p.s. there are 500 rooms so we forgot what you want' that I usually get from the Hilton group).

However the Kempinski does have some minor niggles like the weak evening canapes offering highlighted above, and the fact that there is a half-staircase between the Capitol Building and Stamford House parts of the hotel which are annoying for pram / stroller users (and presumably wheelchair users too).

If you've read all the way here and are interested, head on over to their website to check out room rates for yourself! https://www.kempinski.com/en/singapore/the-capitol-singapore/.

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