My 2nd Far East experience this year!

This property was rebranded and relaunched in 2018 from it’s Orchard Parade Hotel identity and the refreshed offerings received rather nice reviews, especially the club lounge. I did remember the old rooms were abit sad. With the low (and sometimes insane) prices on OTAs, I made an impulse booking for the following week and here we go!

Address – 1 Tanglin Road, Singapore 247905. Website.

Contact – Tel: +65 6737 1133. Email: info.orh@fareast.com.sg.

Location – Located right at one end of the Orchard stretch, the property is a 5min unsheltered walk away from Orchard station (NS22) and is not quite smack in the midst of shopping stuff but close enough to not make getting back to your room feel like a trek. For malls, u have sad Forum nearby, then Wheelock further down the road.

Price – Booked via Traveloka during one of their sale hours at $201.27 –> stacked with 2x coupons worth $80 = $121.27nett. Score Score Score! No incentive to book direct since the group does not have a loyalty programme anyways.

Pre-arrival – I reached out via email to the property to request for early check in, late check out, and Club Lounge details and the response from the Club Team was quick including a call to action with regards to your choice of food for the evening session. While I didn’t get my early check in, I was granted late check out of 2pm which was nice.

Check In – As I had limited time, I went anyways on a weekday lunch time and the front desk was completely empty – Check in was really quick and I was able to get my room. Yays. I was also given my Club welcome letter and benefits explained accordingly (psst: free mini bar including beer!).

Room – My Club Room (26SqM) 1706 was actually quite nice! The refurbishments in 2018 worked well to give the room a muted kind of classiness and the perfectly adequate room felt a lot more spacious than advertised. The bed was comfortable and I appreciate having bedside tables on both ends. A sturdy work desk and chair sat in one corner, and a lounge sofa + a coffee table in the opposite corner. The wardrobe, mini bar, drawers etc are then cleverly compacted as part of the walkway from the door.

The wooden furnishing carried on in the cosy bathroom where a single sink with much countertop space sits alonside the toilet bowl which carries a ‘sanitized for your peace of mind” label which I thought was quite cute. The shower is then separated by a glass partition with Naturals- branded shampoo and shower gel (no conditioner) which was okay.

Club Lounge – Also located on level 17, the lounge still feels new-ish and definitely benefited from the 2018 refurbishment. The small–ish space exudes a quiet sense of class and cosiness and feels very much like a super nice atas living room. All seating options offers a proper dining table, with the large corner sofa seats giving a heightened sense of privacy.

• Club benefits*
  • Complimentary breakfast at Club Lounge from 7am to 10.30am
  • Complimentary evening cocktails and canapés from 6:00pm to 8.00pm
  • Complimentary mini bar (including alcohol!)

I was the only guest in the lounge during my weekday evening cocktails – super peaceful! The drink list was more extensive than I expected but I stuck to my Sauvignon Blanc the whole evening.

I need to give a nod to the full portion food which was of great quality – my American burger was great, my calamari and chicken strips even better. Super tasty and served hot / crispy! I understand these are not done in-house but rather, a tabao partnership with Black Angus located downstairs. But they are all plated properly when served to you and honestly they fared much better than some club lounge evening cocktails bites I’ve tried so far.

Liya, the only staff manning the lounge on a weekday night, was an absolute gem. She was faultlessly polite and efficient, taking extra effort to prepare a portion of the food to be placed in my room when my partner couldn’t make it in time. Seeing how much I liked my white, she offered to place a bottle of it in the room for us too. These gestures made my stay, yays!

Breakfast – served at the Club Lounge as there is no hotel-operated restaurant on-site. I was the 2nd guest there at 8am – wasn’t presented with any menus or choices and simply served what I think is a standard set. Unfortunately, quality of the (what felt like microwaved) selection was quite dire. Passable coffee though.

Facilities – Pool and gym are located on level 6 and prior bookings are required. I actually only wanted to float by to take some pictures (versus using the facilities) but was told by the level 6 staff that I need to book my spot in order to do so – had to head down to front desk then went up again. While I appreciate the adherence to rules and staff was apologetic, I wondered if they could be more flexible especially when there was nobody at the pool and one pax in the gym.

Pool was completely hot that day and didn’t look like a very enticing space to be honest. Gym was small-ish and dark so felt a bit claustrophobic.

Check Out – I ended up not needing my late check out as I hopping over to Four Seasons who confirmed my early check in request at 12nn.

In summary,

a very decent value staycay and Liya is an absolute gem. I’m glad I gave this property a chance!