There are a few things that I’d imagine would be terribly easy to fix. They were probably just an oversight. Or perhaps they just hadn’t gotten around to getting those things done yet. First thing is the lack of peep holes on the doors of the hotel room. The second thing is the lack of clock/alarm clock in each room. I’m not sure if it affects all rooms, but the water pressure from my shower head is ridiculously low, even though the water pressure from the other taps were excellent. My colleague complained or erratic wireless signal from his room (opposite end from where I had my room).
The soundproofing of the rooms are very good. I can hear perfectly well anything that happens in the corridors from inside the room, and vice versa. The windows are well insulated though, so you don’t hear sounds from outside the building. Perhaps the door needs a better seal.
I had breakfast in the hotel. The $15 international buffet breakfast wasn’t impressive. There wasn’t much food variety. But maybe I’m overly critical. Afterall, $15 is quite cheap for a hotel buffet breakfast. Still, I think they could do better.
The car park presents some problems. First, there are no direction signs about how to get to the hotel lobby. So I happened to pick the wrong lift lobby and ended up at the service entrance of the hotel, where a staff directed me back out to the road, to get back into the hotel via its main lobby. When I returned to the car park using the correct guest lift lobby, I noticed that the door of the lobby opens up directly into the path of cars. How dangerous.
Some of the staff are still getting accustomed to their work. For example, when I checked out, the cashier took a horribly long time to load paper into the credit card printer. Of course, these are simple problems that can be sorted out in no time.
So there you have it. Despite all critical comments, I do think it is a decent hotel.
My colleagues where talking about their pay-what-you-want promotion. Isn’t it very costly for them if all their guests paid just $1 for the rooms? Well, I don’t think so. The cost of the advertising and marketing of this promotional campaign itself is quite low. Yet, word about the hotel reaches out far and wide, because everyone talks about it. Just think about how many people I’ve managed to tell. I’d call this “viral advertising”. So, I think it is quite a good value for money campaign. Since the hotel is just newly opened, I’m sure they’d benefit from having real guests “test run” the hotel. At this point I doubt their rooms are fully booked, so the pay-what-you-want rooms are just opportunity costs. They still have to run the hotel, pay their staff, etc.
Is it a “waste” that the rooms are getting snapped up by local residents instead of the tourists they ought to be targeting? I don’t think so. Have you heard of Hotel Ibis? I have, but it’s not such a common name that many Singaporeans have known. Have you stayed at any Hotel Ibis? Well, I’m sure after this campaign, not only would you have heard about the hotel, or have gotten the opportunity to experience the hotel standard, now you might even consider staying at their other hotels on your next holiday travel!
