Background
The Conrad Centennial Singapore completed the refurbishment of 487 guest rooms and 24 suites in January 2018. In November 2018, the hotel also unveiled a newly refurbished lounge on level four (called Lounge by the Pool), as well as its new Conrad Spa and Fitness Singapore, also on level four.
The hotel is 20-minutes drive (without traffic) from Changi Airport and adjacent to Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.
While I was in Singapore for Chinese New Year, the hotel invited me for a private tour of the new facilities.
The new rooms
The hotel has tapped interior designer Jaya Ibrahim Design to redesign the rooms, which “incorporate a new style of contemporary design whilst maintaining Asian touches”.
I had a look at a 17th floor Deluxe King Room, measuring 40-43 square metres. Here is the bed, which – according to Chloe Lim, sales executive at Conrad Centennial Singapore – has been repositioned so that it faces the television…
The hotel decided to do away with the traditional writing desk, as it believes travellers prefer not to come back to their room after a day’s work to a regular office style desk, Lim says. Therefore, the hotel changed it to a more casual-style round table that can be used as either a desk or an in-room dining table.
The hotel seems to be trying to outdo other properties with its impressive pillow menu, which offers a whopping 14 pillows – more than the combined pillow menus of the JW Marriott Hong Kong and the InterContinental Grand Standford (two other hotels I recently reviewed).
Inside the stationary drawer there is a jogging map of the local area…
There are plug sockets available for your devices…
A Nespresso machine is now available in all rooms. Previously, this was only available in the executive rooms.
The view from the room overlooks Suntec City, as well as the Fountain of Wealth.
The in-room safe is, unlike some hotel room safes, big enough to store a laptop. This is useful if, say, you have a dinner to attend and want a safe place to store your laptop while you’re gone. It also adds an extra layer of security if your laptop has confidential business information stored on it.
The room has a choice of two bathrobes: a Japanese yukata…
…and a Western-style bathrobe…
As for the bathroom itself, it comes equipped with a bath, shower and double sink…
Toiletries are from Shanghai Tang, but you can use the Hilton Honors app to change them to other brands if you prefer…
New executive lounge
The Conrad Centennial has two lounges: one on the 31st floor and one on the fourth floor. The latter, called Lounge by the Pool, has been refurbished in November 2018…
New leisure facilities
The November 2018-renovated gym is of a decent size, has abundant natural light, and is well-equipped…
New meeting space
The hotel’s new 234 sqm glass-enclosed meeting space, The Pavilion, caters up to 140 guests banquet-style and 160 guests theatre-style. Guests can lower the blinds for an “intimate event”.
The new space overlooks the hotel pool, which has been spruced up with some new poolside seating.
Lim says that although some people may find it distracting to have the pool so close to the meeting space, the pool only tends to be used in the late evening and does not have a high utilisation during the daytime, when most meetings will take place.
Verdict
The refurbished rooms look fresh, clean and inviting. The refurbished lounge on the fourth floor is nice, although overall I preferred the 31st floor lounge, which is more spacious and has a better food selection.
The new meeting space would work well for an awards dinner or similar function, providing the hotel’s promises about the business of the pool hold water.
