I had a quick overnight yesterday in Singapore enroute to Koh Samui (more on that shortly). I find Singapore to be one of the most frustrating hotel markets for a variety of reasons, though am still on a quest to try out as many different properties as possible. This time around I tried the St. Regis given that they had relatively reasonable rates, and it’s one of the hotels I’ve really wanted to try.
I decided to use a suite upgrade for the stay to confirm into a St. Regis Suite, and emailed the hotel in advance to let them know I’d be arriving at around 1PM. They said they’d do their best to accommodate my early arrival.
Sure enough I arrived at around 1PM and the suite wasn’t ready. They suggested I leave my bags there and come back at around 3PM when my room would hopefully be ready. Given that I was leaving very early the following morning and didn’t care that much about the type of room I got, I asked about the possibility of downgrading to a standard room, which they said they could do, though after calling Starwood they said my suite upgrade couldn’t be redeposited.
St. Regis lobby
As an alternative the agent offered a further upgrade to a Caroline Astor Suite for 150SGD. Fair enough offer, though I was leaving early the following morning and planned on spending most of my time outside the hotel, so didn’t want to spend an extra 150SGD on my stay.
So I asked when a suite would realistically be available. She said both suites were still occupied and they both had 4PM check-out, so I’d get whichever opened up first.
Okay, check-in time is 3PM, and realistically it could have very well been 5PM before I had a room. So I asked about the possibility of getting a temporary room until the suite was ready. After checking with the duty manager the agent offered me the Caroline Astor Suite at no extra cost, which was much appreciated.
Caroline Astor Suite
Caroline Astor Suite
There’s an interesting trend I’ve noticed in both the airline and hotel industry lately — day of upsells are getting so much more common. I can totally understand airlines and hotels wanting to “preserve” their premium inventory, because the value of it is diluted somewhat when it’s given away all the time. But at the premium inventory would otherwise sit empty, the cost of assigning it to someone out of goodwill is virtually zero.
And I found this to be an interesting situation because I couldn’t and wouldn’t have been mad if they hadn’t assigned me the premium suite at no additional cost. At the same time it would’ve certainly left a bad taste in my mouth if my suite was only ready at 5PM when another (premium) suite was sitting empty the whole time, especially since I was checking out before 7AM.
So I’m curious, do yo think the hotel did exactly what they were supposed to, or did they go above and beyond?
On the whole I had a lovely stay and would definitely recommend it if the price is right. The Platinum treatment was phenomenal, and even included an evening happy hour by the pool.
Next up I have more on Koh Samui!
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