[Anonymous]

[JeffD]

The Royal Hotel – Newton Rd Singapore

I arrived in Singapore and was booked into The Royal Hotel, Newton Rd. On entering the reception I thought I had entered a time capsule, it was out dated, dirty and old. As the check in time was 2 pm, I asked if I could book a day room, my first mistake. The room as damp, smelly and generally uninhabitable. There was a thick covering a dust of the air con unit, the windows were covered in green mould. I then wnet down for breakfast which is served in the coffee shop. I managed to find a slice of bread which had been out for several hours as it had already started to curl up and hard. The powdered orange juice was served in plastic beakers, need I say more, it was appauling and at a cost 18 dollars was a rip off.

Later that afternoon we checked into our rooms, I have to say these were slightly better almost uptp 1 star guest house / BB standard. The room was dirty, dusty and generally unpleasant. we were only booked for one night and edcided to bite the bullet and stay.

If you sit in the reception around 7.30 pm there is a constant stream of young ladies, how can I put this “dressed for work” strutting through the building. To the left of the reception there is a “VIP” area with pictures of the “artistes” on the door. I am afraid it looked like a cheap hostess bar.

The next moring at check out I encountered Dorothy Han, and to put it politely she had the customer skills of a warthog. She was aggressive and rude. Initially she refused to accept I had left a cash deposit ( decided not allow them access to my credit cards), she did eventually accepted the receipt was not a fake and reluctantly returned my deposit. She also tried to charge me for ite,ms from the mini bar.

All I can about this hotel it shoul be rebranded a hostel and should be avoided at all costs. There are many excellent hotels in SIngapore so please take my advice.

[LuganoPirate]

Thanks for the tip. Just wondering though, how you ended up in such a joint? Just seen they are offering rooms for about €60 which in fairness is extremely cheap for Singapore so would not expect much, though no matter the price it should be clean and habitable!

[CathayLoyalist]

Jeffrey- Having lived here in Singapore for a while if it is any consolation you caught them on a good day. I can only assume you must have upset whoever booked you in there so they got their revenge!!. The hotel caters for primarily tourists and local businessman on a small budget (Karoke girls aside). A mere 1500 metres away in Scotts Road and close to Orchard Road are several very good hotels if you need to be in the that area. Hyatt, Marriott, Royal Plaza on Scotts, Hilton. Chalk it up to experience

[TominScotland]

Jeffrey, that sounds really awful and its important to “name and shame” so that perhaps the message will get through to places like this.

Many moons ago, I worked with the then Singapore Tourism Promotion Board, now the Singapore Tourist Board. They used to actively solicit information on “problem experiences” such as this in order to investigate and, if necessary, penalise establishments. I think you should do more that learn from the experience, you should formally write/ e-mail the hotel and copy this to STB, noting that you are doing so in the e-mail. Singapore is very image sensitive and they should take notice.

[OzTraveller]

In this day and age, you get what you pay for. If you had checked TripAdvisor you would see the very negative comments from all previous guests. Singapore hotel rates are nowhere as reasonable as they were a few years ago and at Euro. 60 a night kinda tells you what you are in for.
Thanks for the report, we need more of these accurate factual reports, good and bad.

[PatJordan]

OzTraveller, you are spot on about trip advisor. I tend to favour hotels where management post replies to reviews, whether good or bad. If a manager takes the time to do this, he/she obviously take customer service seriously.

This forum is always good for advice on hotels, etc. The majoirty of contributors are regulars and this adds to their credibility.

[Author]

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