Property: Andaz Singapore
Status: Globalist
Room booked: 1 King Bed, long term stay rate
Room received: 1 King bed, touted as "city view" so no upgrade at all
I had booked this property for an extended "workation" back when Singapore still had pretty strict entry requirements and the gamble has paid off. I love the Andaz brand from other locations and having lived for many years in Singapore in the past, was super keen to check this one out.
I knew already that management here seems to be extremely stingy when it comes to recognises loyal Hyatt members and unfortunately, my stay was no different. There was no proper room upgrade offered which is a disappointment when staying several weeks. In most cases, this goes the other way round as properties understand you need a bit of extra room when staying away from home but I guess it requires a bit of good will and sophistication with their reservation system as otherwise there's always a chance for some nights being "too full" in the better room types. But this experience was actually made worse by the insistence from staff that I get "graciously upgraded to a city view room"- you can probably see the issue here already! The property is starting on level 25 so there's no such thing as a dumpster view meaning that even the least desirable rooms have a "city view". The good views here would be of the marina and the casino etc. which you can see from the pool deck so offering a base room as an "upgrade" is just treating your most loyal members as idiots which is really something I despise. Just say you're full (or stingy) and then end of story but don't treat me like being stupid.
Now that I got this gripe out of the way, it's time to speak about the good stuff. Almost a shame because this one was one of my best hotel stays in a long time and I'd whole heartedly recommend it but that bad taste about the room type unfortunately stayed with me until the very last day. The hotel itself is amazing and interestingly, staffing problems were mostly absent very unlike many places in the US and Europe at the moment. I'm not sure how they do this in Singapore- I'd guess that the supply of relatively well trained underpaid worker bees in neighbouring countries is such that they can just get them in when needed post pandemic. Staffing generally seemed not the issue here, neither in hospitality or elsewhere.
The hotel is in an interesting area of town which many tourists might be scared away by as it's not right in the heart of the city though I'm not sure what would qualify as such in Singapore anyway- I personally find the former glory of Orchard Road rather run down and beyond its heydays these days and rather tend to avoid it while some of the newer 'downtown areas' are rather sterile and a bit boring in my eyes. the Andaz is essential right underneath Bugis MRT interchange which gives super easy access to the "green" and the newer "blue" MRT line which means everything is essentially just a cheap, fast, clean and dependable ride in air conned bliss away from you. I'm usually not the biggest fan of public transport, believe me, but this has to do with having grown up in places like Singapore and Berlin where you can actually use it. The MRT is one of the best ones out there and incredibly, it keeps getting extended and extended and extended. Just excellent in every respect and the fact that almost everyone politely obeys the rules is a welcome bliss to my often torn German soul. And I'm not talking about overly stringent rules that Singapore has been known for and which mostly are gone these days (yes, you can chew gum- just don't spit it out onto your seat you piggy!) but rather sensible stuff. Like, you know, let people off the train first before boarding, don't destruct public property with ugly graffiti and maybe give up your seat for an elderly person. That "stuff" I mean which should be common curtesy anyway.
Back to the hotel itself- great MRT connection just downstairs and very easy foot access to the Arab quarter and, a bit further, Little India. The former is actually more than just some (excellent) Middle Eastern restaurants and a pretty old Mosque but rather has quite a few funky bars, shops and restaurants which I solidly enjoyed. the Andaz high-rise complex itself has quite a few restaurants too (we enjoyed a lovely Fois Gras Pate at the French restaurant down there as well as a very tasty beef hot pot which I's also recommend though my -very- shaky comprehension of Mandarin was almost essential there) and there's also the older Bugis interchange shopping mall and food court connected via the MRT underneath as well. More than enough food choices to keep you happy even if you end up here in weeks of pouring rain, though I'd of course highly recommend venturing further in any case as Singapore has so much to offer.
My room was on the 36th floor with great views of the "city" which is mostly amazing high rises with odd pockets of "heritage" listed buildings and surprisingly many parks sprinkled in. As I used to live here in this city, for me it was mostly just coming home to one of those many homes I have. The room was a bit on the smaller side but very well appointed and featured both a cool design (modern with little local twists to remind you where you're at- the bathroom door for example was a heavy bright yellow wooden door reminding you of the colourful shop fronts of many of the old heritage buildings around) and a lot of well thought through things that so often go missing in hotels: Just as an example, the rather slippery ultra modern control knob in the shower had a tiny little piece of velcro installed on onside which made it much easier to use. Such a smart little idea which makes it so much easier (I had similar stylish polished shower control in the past elsewhere and they can be so hard to use sometimes). Most impressed though I was with housekeeping: With two or three exceptions in over two weeks, they performed both the daily service and a rather full turndown service without fail. And turndown included full towel refresh, freshening up the bed even and refill of any amenities if needed. As with Andaz generally, you had a daily free mini bar refill with non alcoholic drinks and some snacks (a bag of chips and a Kit Kat bar typically) which is just excellent. And ample bottles of free water, couldn't even drink them all which was greatly appreciated. I also never waited too long for any additional requests (wine glasses, ice bucket, that kind of stuff) and bar two instances came through to guest services on the phone without any long wait. Heck, I even had forgotten that Singapore uses UK electricity plugs (and I really should have remembered that) and I asked if they had any converters and it was no issue at all. One day I was in bad need for an old fashioned calculator (yes, I know, I've been happy with my mobile over the past ten years too but this specific work task was just made so much easier this way) and the front desk staff magically got me one to borrow for the day out of thin air. Staff was generally ranging from excellent and super well trained to a bit clueless but still polite and eager to help and the difference could be easily spotted the colour of shirt they were wearing (hot tip: If you see someone in an orange T-shirt, avoid!).
The greatest benefit of being a Globalist was the instantly up front confirmed late check out (I greatly prefer how Hyatt is handling this compared to Hilton or Marriott- instead of having to beg for your benefit with a random reception clerk, you rather get it proactively offered/ confirmed without any issues in around 95% of properties) and of course the free breakfast buffet which was excellent. You get to choose from not one but three different buffets in very uniquely themed areas of the restaurant so you have all the cold stuff and yoghurts, bakery, milks etc. up front, then you have a separate mini-restaurant with all the "usual" Western hot food and finally an excellent Asian show case with super yummy Laksa, dumplings, fried noodles and so on. I always struggle with seafood in Asia and the staff was great at accomodating this in adjusting the food there. The Laksa was to die for (but still had some fish sauce in I suspect as I didn't feel too well afterwards each time I had it- such is life in Asia for me) and I've been told that all the seafood options were particularly excellent. I can say the same thing about the cold cut and cheese platters in the first room too, nothing was cheap but all high quality Italian or French ingredients, even the butter was a French import. They also had what must be Singapore's most famous breakfast waffles- I'm not a super sweet tooth but all kids around us and my partner could not stop eating them so they must be right down everyone's alley (and came with fresh strawberries and mascarpone cream- that wasn't your typical ordinary breakfast waffles). I probably found the hot Euro food the weakest of it all, scrambled eggs were essentially some yellow egg liquid and pretty much inedible and chicken sausages, well, they're a real sin to humanity anyway in my German mind so let's not go there. Luckily, you could also ask for special egg dishes like daily eggs benedict, omelette and the likes which tasted much better. I don't really care that much but as a warning to anyone from Melbourne- there's not coffee tax but while they offer you a Latte and the likes as if there's a Barrista somewhere, in reality you get machine coffee with a topping of steamed milk so beware!
Finally, the pool was nice (infinity pool on level 25 with Marina/ casino views) but tended to get too crowded in the afternoon which could be easily fixed with a second row of sunloungers- I never understand why you wouldn't add some, there was enough space. The pool was also rather stupidly located so that the building itself draws it shade upon it from the early afternoon onwards which is always something that ticks me off (do architects not think for a moment which direction the sun is coming from when planning something like that?) and there was rather annoying construction work on pool deck itself and in all the neighbouring construction zones which is something you can almost expect generally when in Singapore.
Finally, yet another food recommendation: We decided to have proper Bejing roast duck in the Chinese restaurant of the hotel itself for my birthday (I am talking about the proper fine dining Chinese, not the Asian styled breakfast quarter) and despite me always being hesitant with hotel restaurants, this one was excellent. One of the best ducks I've ever had and we also had Fried rice with Fois Gras there which was an amazing treat. I think you can see a theme there and I must apologise to my childhood friend Donald Duck- your breed is unfortunately way too tasty!
All in all, very happy with this hotel, if they just honoured your Hyatt status properly, it would almost be perfect. Strangely after all those days/ weeks and with most staff knowing me in the end, upon check out I wasn't asked how my stay was which I found just plain odd. I didn't really have anything to complain about so I was surprised. And one last tip to finish off: While the MRT is right in the basement so to speak, I would still strongly suggest to take a Grab (Singapore's Uber equivalent) from the airport. It's $18 one way, gets you right to the front door with all your luggage and avoids you having to take the underground maze from the MRT. Especially the green line from the airport is a bit further and while zero issue during the stay, I don't think it's worth it with luggage coming from an international flight- just my personal view.
