S T.
Yelp
I would leave zero stars if I could. When we got to what is typically a $1200/night room, it smelled of paint and the fumes made me nauseous. When I asked if we could switch rooms, the guy who showed us to the room said that the other rooms would be no different because they had all just been painted and renovated. He said he would send an air filter up to the room. I tried to make the best of it as we were only there one night but as we sat in this room, I became more and more nauseous from the paint fumes. 2 minutes into our stay, there was a loud hammering noise coming from upstairs. They were obviously doing MAJOR renovations that were unfinished and had made a ridiculous decision to do what they kept calling a "soft opening" for the hotel while they were still doing these renovations (from the looks of it they had at least 6 more months of renovations that they had left to do). When the banging started and would not stop, my husband tried to get on the internet to book as another room so we could get out of there as quickly as possible but the internet was also not working! I had to call downstairs three times to let them know about the fumes, the noise, and the internet, and they just kept saying they would contact the manager to see if they could find a "solution." I finally had to physically leave the room after about 15 minutes because the fumes were making me ill. I went downstairs and could see the extent of the renovations they were doing on almost every floor of the hotel. I heard drilling as I went down the elevator and continued to hear drilling as I sat in the lobby waiting for my husband to finish booking a new room for us at the Ritz Carlton. I also noticed that the lobby also smelled like paint fumes. The people at the front desk should have apologized right away and offered to refund the money, help us book a new room at a different hotel, and ordered a car for us, but they would not admit that anything was amiss and just kept saying they needed to consult with the manager for a "solution." The assistant manager finally came and was apologetic but still acted like it was perfectly normal that they were booking rooms in a hotel that was clearly not ready to be occupied. We had to find our own "solution" by booking a room for ourselves at the Ritz and instead of offering to drive us over (the Ritz is just 3 minutes away), the manager suggested at one point that we walk over there with all our luggage. They could have at least paid for the taxi ride. BTW I used to stay at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore all the time (yearly) before Covid and it used to be excellent. Also stayed at the ones in Bangkok, London, and SF (they were always my favorite hotel chain). It also did not need these ridiculous renovations that they were doing as it was a beautiful and classic before. The inside of the hotel with the new renovations and loud colors now look like a cheap three-star hotel in Miami. The inside of the hotel room and the fixtures also look really tasteless, cheap, and gaudy now. The assistant manager was nice enough and said that he would give us one night complimentary stay the next time, but I was thinking that there was NO WAY that I would EVER COME BACK. Something really lacking with upper level management and whoever is managing Singapore location that we experienced this at all. I would even be reluctant to go to the other Mandarin Orientals because this was such a truly far out there experience. BTW, my husband had initially booked us a pricey suite and they contacted us the night before and switched us to a regular room for half-off because they said the suite was being renovated (they could have mentioned to us that the entire hotel was being renovated!). We should have known that something was wrong then. We are very happy with our experience at the Ritz Carlton (room, food, spa, service) and will stay here from now on when we come to Singapore.