PUBLISHED June 16th, 2018 10:00 am | UPDATED July 25th, 2024 01:34 pm
We’ve done some pretty good staycations this year – Andaz Singapore and Sofitel Singapore City Centre stand out in particular – and we’ve got yet another winner with Conrad Centennial Singapore. Fresh from its completed revamp in February this year, the hotel not only boasts redesigned guest rooms and suites, they’ve also introduced a new event space by the pool, The Pavilion (we reckon this will make Conrad an even more popular place for weddings; there were four that we saw during our one-night stay).
Of the 511 rooms – the property is designed to be large to accommodate travelers with business at Suntec Convention Centre – there are only 24 suites. Our Centennial King Suite was extremely spacious at 63 square metres (678 square feet and about the size of a BTO 3-room flat) but that’s not to say the standard rooms are small. At 40 square metres (430 square feet), they’re one of the largest in the city.
Comfortable, would be the one word that I’d use to describe the experience. The layout of the suite utilizes the corner space well. We walked into the living room, which had the minibar – equipped with a Nespresso machine and Ronnefeldt tea – in the corner, a writing desk stocked with stationary, and a long daybed by the windows. The look and feel here is modern and sophisticated without being pretentious, which is achieved by clean lines and a soft neutral and natural palette of fine linen accentuated with lovely pots of orchids and Asian-inspired furnishings.
The style is followed through to the bedroom and the huge bathroom. Wardrobe space is double that of a standard room, and the little vanity table that hides the hairdryer makes doing your hair a lot easier. Alongside a bed that we wished we could stay in all day, there’s an extensive pillow and bolster menu. From firm support feather pillows to natural buckwheat and cuddle ‘U’ pillows, there’s bound to be something for a good night’s sleep with 15 different options. There are also USB charging points by the bed so you can have all your electronics within easy reach.
In the bathroom, the Asian accent comes in the form of Shanghai Tang bath amenities that smell subtly of mandarin tea. There was really a rubber ducky by the side of the tub, waiting for its time to shine when guests can around to using it (bath salts included). I took awhile to understand all the knobs in the separate shower, but at least there was good pressure from the rainfall shower. With so much space comes the luxury of having the toilet in a separate stall too.
The suites and the Executive Rooms include access to the Executive Lounge on the 31st – and the highest – floor of the property, and other perks such as checking in at the Lounge, light pressing for up to three items and two hours of meeting room usage a day. We didn’t benefit from the latter, so we enjoyed the upgrade the best way we could: eat and drink. Too stuffed from lunch at Golden Peony to make our way down for the complimentary afternoon tea (2.30pm-4.30pm) at the Lounge, we checked in for evening drinks and canapes (6pm-8pm).
Make your own cocktail if you’re feeling adventurous enough at the DIY cocktail station. The highlighted spirit during our stay was the G’Vine Floraison gin, which came with a recipe so there’s some form of guidance, not to worry. We went for the Laurent Perrier champagne the entire evening, though guests have a few varieties of white and red wine to choose from. The fried items on the buffet line was oddly soggy, so we skipped that in favour of assembling our own cheese plate with five types of cheeses, crackers and two types of chutney. The Thai beef salad was pretty good too.
There are no restrictions on children in the Lounge, but we didn’t see any during our stay, even at breakfast. We chose a more exclusive brunch space over the variety that would have been available at Oscar’sthier all-day dining restaurant (and not to mention the fact that breakfast at the Lounge also ended at a later time of 11am on weekends). The basics, however, were more than covered. Bacon was crispy as advertised, the scrambled eggs were not stodgy, and the fish congee was excellent. Some of the cheeses made another appearance on the breakfast line. The chef manning the live egg station also put out decent omelettes.
Conrad Centennial Singapore is located at 2 Temasek Boulevard, Singapore 038982.
Top image: Centennial Suite living room