It’s been quite an enjoyable weekend so far, during our stay here at Sentosa. It’s not the first time I’ve been here, but it is the first time staying on the Sentosa Island itself. And what a difference it makes to the overall experience! It all started with a special offer (being cheapskates that we are) that we noticed on booking.com promoting a 5-star hotel for just $175.50SGD per night, called Moevenpick. Prior to this, frankly we have always associated Moevenpick with tasty Swiss ice-creams more than a hotel. Only after seeing it on booking.com, that we realised it’s actually a fairly large chain of 5-star hotels around the globe. And at lower than other 5-star hotel prices (even 4-star hotels), we couldn’t pass the opportunity, and gave it a try.
The location was great, being right next to Imbiah monorail station, meaning we can jump right onto a monorail and get out of the island to Vivo City anytime. The hotel provided us with Sentosa pass that allowed us to travel in and out of Sentosa by the monorail free of charge, which I thought was great. The presentation of the hotel is certainly right up there with other 5-star hotels that I’ve been to, with the added bonus of a rather fragrant lobby area. It’s also right next to the 8.6m tall Merlion, which I’ve always seen during the day everytime I came to Sentosa. Until I stayed on the island, and had the opportunity to see it at night, I’ve never realised just how scary it looked at night! If I saw this as a kid, I’m sure I’ll go home with nightmares!
Now we have plenty to complain about the hotel, with the cheap shampoo, and bath gel that requires at least half a bottle emptied out before it will lather at all. Nor are earbuds, toothbrushes provided until we asked for it, and no inclusion of free internet at all. The drawer in our bedside table came with ‘Durex Intimate Lube’, and frankly I am not sure if this was a ‘thoughtful’ idea by the hotel, or just bad housekeeping by the staff failing to take this out (I believe it’s the latter) .The daily room housekeeping seem completely varied depending on who you get on the day to clean your room, with some days immaculate, and other days a complete mess with nothing replaced (tea bags, coffee, tissues etc etc). Having said all that, we do realise we didn’t pay 5-star prices, and it looked like Moevenpick have taken the budget airline model of charging little for the room, and everything else as extras. I felt like asking them if they are going to charge us for breathing air in their room. My only advise to Moevenpick management is that, cutting back on these ‘little things’ doesn’t encourage guests to come back at all.
Don’t get me wrong, the room is fantastic, and includes some unusual features that I haven’t seen at the other hotels like a Nespresso machine, which came in very handy:
There’s a massive bathroom, with a full sized bath, along with separate cubicles for the toilet and stand up shower, which to me is a bit overkill. Having said that, my wife absolutely loves the bath, and frankly I can’t even remember the last time I’ve used a bath in my life until I rediscovered the joy of using one again.
There’s a very nice gym with very modern equipment, and a very nice outdoor pool which to me, seemed like the most underused feature of the hotel by guests. Doesn’t anybody else like swimming in hotel pools anymore?
And not sure why just about every pool I’ve been to in Singapore hotels so far, featured see-through glass that allows others to perve at swimmers. In this case, the design allowed us to perve at ourselves!
We haven’t had a chance to try breakfast at the poshy looking restaurant yet. It’s a bit steep at $52 (net) for 2 people, and even comes with Internet usage for a day. We might give it a go during the coming weekend.
For the price, we probably would recommend the hotel, if the little things I mentioned earlier doesn’t bother you. Whether we would come back, I certainly don’t have the urge to say ‘yes’ instantly. There’s certainly nothing wrong with the hotel for the price, but just don’t expect 5-star experience if you didn’t pay the full price they are asking for.
