Booking The Westin Singapore

Is it just me, or have hotel prices gone through the roof in Singapore? For the dates of my stay, The Westin charged an undeniably absurd nightly rate in excess of SGD1000 (£620). Booked in advance, a room would cost at least SGD686. The hotel consistently charges above the night rate of the excellent St. Regis Singapore in Tanglin. I wondered, “How good of a Westin is this to charge a premium over a St. Regis?” At least, that was the consolating thought that helped me book the hotel.

Not wanting to pay the absurd prices charged by virtually every hotel in Singapore, I made the difficult decision to empty my Bonvoy account of any points, booking at an eye-watering nightly rate of 40,000 Bonvoy points. Since you can purchase 1000 Bonvoy points consistently for around USD7.5 during promotions, this amount would equate to around SGD335 a night. Whilst it is less than half the cash rate, it was still a difficult decision to make. 🙁

Location

The Westin Singapore occupies the upper floors of the Asia Square Tower 2, an office tower on Marina View. The hotel is surrounded by offices and not much else. As such, there isn’t much to do nearby for the casual visitor apart from the overpriced Lau Pa Sat hawker centre and the MarinaLink Mall. The hotel is close to two MRT stations: Shenton Way on the Thomson-East Coast Line and Downtown Station on the Downtown MRT Line. The popular Marina Bay Sands integrated complex is reachable within 16 minutes on foot.

Arrival and Check-in

Ground Level Entrance

We arrived at the Westin by taxi. Interestingly, our driver wasn’t sure where the Westin was until we explained that it is located in the Marina Bay area. After getting lost and circling the sprawling Asia Square complex, we finally pulled up at the hotel’s entrance.

After taking out our bags from the boot, a friendly porter showed up and offered to take our bags. With a bag tag receipt in hand, we were invited to use the lifts to ascend to the hotel’s lobby on level 32.

Lobby on Level 32

Since these lifts are dedicated to transporting people between the ground floor and the lobby, it was just a few moments before we exited on level 32. As expected from a sky lobby, we were treated to some nice views of the harbour and the neighbouring skyscrapers. I was honestly quite impressed with the look of the lobby, which seemed a bit more upscale than a typical Westin.

Upon mentioning that we were checking in, we were ushered by a friendly host to an empty desk. After reconfirming our stay details and signing a couple registration forms, we received our room keys. Additionally, a deposit of SGD100 per night was imposed for any incidentals, which is a fair amount. At this point, we also handed our bag tags to the associate at the desk, to have our bags sent to the room.

After the relatively quick check-in, we were pointed to a set of three lifts near the reception desks that led to the room floors. We were assigned a room with ‘nice views’ on level 39, which is a middle floor. The hotel had premium-looking and well-kept hallways leading to the rooms, which I liked.

Our Room

Our Double Guest Room on the 39th floor faced Singapore’s busy Tanjong Pagar harbour. Despite having visited the city many times, this was my first time staying near this area. As such, the view looked quite unfamiliar to me… was I in Singapore? Regardless, it was quite nice to be able to see the ships coming and going.

The Double Guest Room is advertised to be 40 sqm, and it felt spacious as such. The space is divided in a standard manner between the bathroom and the sleeping quarters. Located in the foyer is the closet, as well as a sliding door leading to the bathroom. A built-in luggage rack is available inside the closet. There is also a door that opens to the neighbouring room, should the need arise.

Bedroom

The bedroom area features two double beds, as expected. Since the beds are quite large, this room could potentially fit up to four occupants comfortably. In that way, it does have a good selling point for families travelling with two kids. A pillow spray was left on the nightstand. Notably, the wall behind the bed is posted with leather.

There is also a large lounge chair with a coffee table near the window, in addition to a full-sized desk with a swivel chair and a cushioned ottoman. Located in front of the desk is a mini bar, provisioned with two bottles of complimentary water. Whilst two bottles seem like quite a measly number, I wasn’t bothered due to Singapore’s potable tap water.

Honestly, I liked how spacious the room was but couldn’t help feeling that it looks quite outdated at this point. For a hotel that is just shy of 10 years old, I was quite surprised. Perhaps it was the beige leather headboard and the carpeting that contributed to the room’s drab look. Despite that, the Westin Heavenly Beds were as comfortable as I recall them to be!

Bathroom

The Double Guest Room features a nice, full-marble bathroom. It was evident that they took care of the marble very attentively, as it was still very polished and stainless. The bathroom is equipped with a free-standing bathtub and a separate rain shower stall. The Westin White Tea-branded bath amenities came in large bottles bolted to the shower wall. As far as house-branded amenities go, White Tea is amongst my favourites. I particularly enjoyed the calm scent of the brand.

Whilst the bathroom looks quite nice, I encountered several issues with it. First, the sliding screens separating the bathroom and the room are practically useless. With the bathroom lights on, the screens were completely see-through. As such, there is virtually zero privacy offered by it. I’m not sure what the designers had in mind when deciding on this feature.

Second, it is quite inconvenient to take baths, since all the bath amenities were bolted onto the shower wall. I’m not sure if this is a deliberate decision, but the provision of a portable container for liquid soaps would have been nice.

Finally, I kept on noticing that the bathroom would end up quite wet whenever the bathtub was used. It was only towards the end of our stay that we realised the bathtub’s tap was leaking, causing the wet floors. Oh, dear…

Pool

Perhaps one of the biggest selling points of the hotel is its pool deck on level 35, accessible by keycard. The deck has nice views of the surrounding area, although a panorama of the Singapore skyline is noticeably absent. Much of the view is concentrated on the other skyscrapers in the Marina Bay area, along with glimpses of the harbour, the London Eye Singapore Flyer, and the Kallang area. Sadly, not even the Marina Bay Sands complex was visible from here.

The pool itself is a medium-sized infinity pool which looks very cool when swimming. The pool is surrounded by a trough that catches excess water, whilst also serving as a secondary safety barrier. On the pool edge, there are several sunken loungers. There are also many regular sun loungers on the pool deck, along with a handful of outdoor tables. All in all, it’s not the most impressive pool, although it is quite nice for what it is.

Service

Everyone we encountered at the hotel was generally friendly and sociable. They were also reasonably fast when it comes to fulfilling requests. For instance, our bags arrived within 10 minutes of settling in the room, which I was quite impressed about for a hotel of this size. Furthermore, housekeeping did their job very well, keeping the rooms impeccably clean. Unfortunately, turndown service was also surprisingly not offered during our stay (at least I wasn’t aware of one).

Despite that, I didn’t encounter that many staff members during the stay to elaborate further on the service.

Overall

Overall, The Westin Singapore is a serviceable hotel, with comfortable bedrooms. But given the extortionate pricing, poor room design choices, the bad location, and the mediocre everything else, I was quite disappointed with the stay. I’m quite glad that I paid in points for this stay since I’m sure I’d be very underwhelmed if this was a cash booking.

At the rates this hotel consistently charges, I’d rather stay at The St. Regis Singapore for a better stay or to save money cheaper (yikes!). Even The Ritz-Carlton Millenia across the Bay charges similar cash rates. Given all that, I truly couldn’t recommend The Westin Singapore. I’m sorry 🙁

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