I actually stayed here too long ago prior to their much needed refurbishments. It was nice but forgettable but then again, I wasn’t so much in hotel reviews back then. After much mucking around trying to find a good spot for a 2D1N family staycay, I landed on this and figured time to go back!

Address – 80 Middle Road, Singapore 188966. Website.

Contact – Tel: +65 63387600. Email: singapore@ihg.com.

Price – I initially booked at $296++ = $348.50 * 2 Club Continental rooms under the IHG 72-hour flash sale in Jan which is supposedly 40% off the Best Available Rate. But I got distracted by their Room Stay Cash Voucher sale in February which was going at 35% off and snagged a $1,000 room stay voucher for $650, and re-booked their Stay and Savour package at $440++ as my cash outlay will be the same. AND THEN I decided to swap out one of the bookings using Hotelux’s rate to get more mileage out of my stay albeit a slightly higher cash outlay. So my stay ended up to look like this:

• Club Continental Twin @ $440++ = $517.88 (Stay & Savor: breakfast for 2pax and $50 F&B credit)
• Club Continental King @ $470++ = $553.19 (Virtuoso Region Apac: breakfast for 2pax and USD100 F&B credit)

With the $1,000 voucher bought for $650, my total cost for 2 rooms with 4 pax club access is $771 with ~$180 dining credit all full lounge access, not so bad in my opinion! (This later became $200 due to adjustments by the hotel).

Location – The property enjoys direct access to Bugis Junction by a sheltered entrance which will offer plenty of dining and shopping options, alongside Bugis+, a sister mall which has a more ‘youthful’ vibe for some reason. The property is also seamlessly connected to Bugis station ((EW12/DT14) which is the interchange of the East West Line and Downtown Line, , making it super easy to get around if need be.

Pre-arrival – no pre-arrival email was sent which I thought was unusual especially for Club guests. Ah wells.

Check In – The lobby was peacefully empty at 12nn on a weekday and I was attended to immediately. Because of the seemingly confusing booking permutation, check in took almost 20mins to be sorted out. My requests for early check in, later check out (4pm), connecting room arrangement, and room upgrade was all granted with no problem albeit with a little nudging on the upgrade.

I was also given my Club welcome letter as well as the all-you-need-to-know stuff on a one-pager.

Rooms – [1212] Club Intercontinental Double / [1214] Grand Deluxe King:

Club Grand Deluxe King (40SqM) upgraded from Club Intercontinental King – I really liked this layout of this room! A cushy king bed was separated by a partition which holds the 2x TV on each side; with the other side being the ‘living room’ area which holds a super nice lounge-y sofa, the work desk and the wardrobe stuff. This smart use of space made the room feel much bigger than it is and the living area was our family hangout for the entire stay. Couldn’t get a decent shot to show the layout itself, sorry!

Club Intercontinental Double (38SqM) – the connecting twin room holds 2x mega single beds (is there such a size?) alongside a single couch, the work desk, TV, and wardrobe area. Due to the longish layout, the room felt a little squashed but perfectly okay for a short stay.

Both bathrooms were similar in the look and feel, spotless but dated like in it’s pre-refurbishment era. Toiletries were Agraria (Lemon Verbena) which smelt nice and does what it does.

The hotel also prepared a super nice welcome amenity for a special occasion in the living area of the main room:

Club Intercontinental:

This is one club that received plenty rave reviews in the staycay crazy era and I was excited to check it out! This exclusive space is located on level 2 and it’s highlights are listed on their website here

• – A la carte breakfast from 7.00am to 10.30am
  – Afternoon tea from 3.00pm to 5.00pm
  – Evening cocktails and hors d’oeuvres from 6.00pm to 8.00pm
• A premium selection of coffee and loose-leaf tea throughout the day
• A private library featuring Peranakan literature and reference books
• Professional secretarial services
• 25% savings on all laundry services
• High-speed wi-fi throughout the hotel

I have to agree that this is one of the prettiest Club Lounge I’ve seen and the space is absolutely brimming with Peranakan touches – think plenty of wood in the furniture, dark classy color tones, plushy couches with rich prints, and heritage ornaments prominently displayed all over. Multiple seating configurations also makes it easy to accommodate various group size and dynamics.

It is also one of the biggest Club Lounge alongside JW Marriott South Beach’s. Service was faultlessly attentive and all smiles even during busy times. They even took note of dietary restrictions and would later highlight any items to take note of in accordance to the restrictions – a great service touch which I have not experienced anywhere else. The ladies really took care of us and made sure we were all suitably overfed and waddled out after each session.

I also liked that you are presented with a classy printed copy of the menu for each session explaining your options, though we didn’t get one for the hors d’oeuvres for some reason (was getting a little QR-code scanning fatigue by this points). No bookings are also required which made the experience more relaxed.

Breakfast (7:00am-10:30am) – between 4 adults, we tried 5 mains alongside a bread basket and fruit platter. Most were good, with the American seeing properly made bacon and actually good quality sausage. The Chief Executive’s Dim Sum also really scored – great quality and worthy of seconds if you have space. The only fail was the coffee – weak and uninspiring quality which unfortunately proved to be the same throughout our stay.

Afternoon Tea (3:00-5:00pm) – due to our late checkout, we managed to get through 2 sessions: both had great variety and quite tasty too though sweets did not fare so well. The deep fried siew mai was super nice! I have also to my dismay recently developed an unhealthy obsession for scones and am pleased to confirm that these one served here are also good especially when warm. And.That.Cream.Is.To.Die.For.

Evening cocktails and hors d’oeuvres (6:00-8:00pm) – we were more than happy to stuff our faces here as the variety is more than adequate as dinner especially when items are refillable. Again, savouries fared better than sweets with the beef pastrami being the star of the evening. Alcohol wise, the Sauvignon Blanc was the only one I liked, alongside a rather nice gin tonic.

Dining Credits – we had an unfortunate incident where confusion arose about the total dining credits we were entitled to for total of our 2 rooms. At check in, I confirmed that it was SGD$50 (Stay & Savour) + USD100 (Virtuoso). But later in the day, the concierge told us that was incorrect and the USD100 credit from Virtuoso is in fact made up of SGD$50 + a bottle of wine. Huh?

Annoyed, I contacted Hotelux for assistance and the Hotelux staff offered to get in touch with the hotel directly. Not long after, I got a call from the front desk to clarify that we were in fact entitled to SGD$200 total because we had 2 rooms. And because the hotel front desk did not mention any interaction with Hotelux, I didn’t really understand if this was the result of their discussion with Hotelux, or their own rectification somehow. But it was a good outcome for us!

This was what we spent the $200 on:

Man Fu Yuan – we had a rather nice dim sum lunch which was about $90+ after a 20% discount for in-house guests. Quality of food was good but the space was really noisy and service was s….l….o….w with the wait between some dishes taking up to 20mins even though the space was not full. We also tabao-ed 3 more deep fried choices for later eating.

Lobby Lounge – we had better coffee here, a beer, and truffle fries which was $53++ (20% for in-house guests) couldn’t be stacked. Then a Botanist Gin Tonic ($18++) to burn off the balance before we departed.

Facilities – Both the outdoor pool and fitness centre are located on level 3 and booking is required for usage. Both were surprisingly completely empty on a weekday morning at 9+am: the pool had a sort of resort-ish vibe and rather inviting waters, though the tiles looked like it has seen better days. The gym felt quite new and I would honestly do a workout here if I had brought my gear.

Check Out – Painlessly done at 4pm and completed within 15mins.

In Summary,

A nicely refreshed property with a great quality club lounge is a winning combi in my opinion. I could be tempted to come back via Hotelux if I spot good rates but the USD100 dining credit cannot be used for in-room which is a bummer. Ah well, I’ll figure out the problem when I have it!