Now that our kids are ever slightly older, we’ve also become more comfortable leaving them at their paternal grandparents’ place for them to spend a night so that parents can get a day free of kids. We’ve already had one staycation sans kids this year at One Farrer for our 12th wedding anniversary, and – on a whim – we decided to book another for the New Year eve just a few days before that weekend. A number of properties downtown at this point had already been fully booked, and those that still had room vacancies were presenting rates that were quite a bit higher than normal from the new year surcharges. I finally settled on the M Social Hotel situated in Robertson Quay, bit my tongue and paid the additional new year ‘tax’ for it in the room rate.
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The 293 room hotel is situated at a really quiet side-road that is also adjacent to Singapore River, with swanky looking condos on several sides surrounding it too. There’s a public-accessible carpark beside the hotel – a necessary amenity since there’s no complimentary parking offered by the hotel. But the Sunday weekend and overnight rates were still quite reasonable: we parked from 3pm on Sunday till 9:30am on Monday morning, and the parking fees were about SGD10.50.
Unlike the stretch of hotels along Havelock Road that have been there forever and are really starting to look their age, the couple of properties at Robertson Quay are much newer, and also quite modern in decor and styling. We got quite a hip vibe right away from checking in at the M Social Hotel: with its cool jazzy music in the backdrop, bright-lit lights that provide illumination to an almost underground club setting, and of course the increasingly ubiquitous hotel robots in modern properties here.
Our plan for this stay was to check out a couple of restaurants in the Orchard Central area and also explore Robertson Quay. So, like the previous staycation, any creature comforts offered in the room would be nice but not finally really necessary. The Alcove Cosy room we booked at a SGD228++ room rate, was about the size of the typical Japanese hotel rooms i.e. pretty small. But it had the basic amenities – including bath robes, slippers, a mini-bar fridge, beverage corner, bathroom stall, safe box etc. all there, albeit arranged in a compact fashion. Aside from the fairly small toilet and shower stall, the bathroom sink is in the bedroom itself. This didn’t bother us, but it’s something to be aware of nonetheless if the idea of brushing your teeth right in front of your bed is unappealing!
The room would have felt pretty claustrophobic if it wasn’t for the very high ceiling. As befitting the room descriptor, the alcove-styled ceiling reaches half of another floor, and the full height windows in our fourth floor room offered pretty views of the two condos that faces our side. Unlike the typical heartland condos like our home @ The Minton where there would be rambunctious crowds around the swimming pool and BBQ pit areas, the condos surrounding M Social were extremely quiet for a Sunday afternoon and evening.
In a nice touch, passwords were not needed for the in-room WIFI. Yep, I care about these things haha. You just need to point your device to the appropriate SSID, accept the standard Terms and Conditions for usage, and that’s it. We had no issues connecting up the five devices we had with us: two Samsung smartphones, two iPads – including the newly bought iPad Pro 11 – and also the Surface Pro.
There are numerous restaurants and cafes along the entire Robertson Quay stretch of course, but the only significant mall in the area seems to be Liang Court. Yep, that venerable shopping mall. But I think it went through a recent refurbishment some years back, so it doesn’t look too bad. The riverside cafes seemed to be catering for the high SES crowd and angmos, and the entire area was basically uncrowded – making the 17 minute walk from the hotel to Liang Court pleasant, the rather humid weather notwithstanding that is. There’s also a shuttle bus service working the area that brings guests from selected hotels to various spots around the Orchard Road stretch, including The Paragon and Plaza Singapura, and to Great World City which is a little further outfield.
The complimentary breakfast was pretty average and in itself not really different from what you can find in this class of hotels in Singapore. The hotel restaurant – Beast & Butterflies (what a name LOL) – on the other hand where breakfast was served, like the rest of the hotel, is really cool and chic. Pancakes and omelettes are also prepared by Aurora, the hotel’s Egg Chef Robot, and she was pretty fun to watch too.
Couple of minor annoyances about our stay though: the room is so compact I had to watch where I was stepping on. I stubbed my toe against the desk chair and also the center supporting foot of the bed frame several times while in the room. The room could also use some additional illumination: the only lights we could find in the common area were the beside lamps, overhead down lights in the entrance porch and around the mirror over the sink. During the day time this wasn’t an issue as the window blinds could go up, letting day light into the room. But at night, there were no such anymore and the room felt dark even, for want of a better descriptor! And finally, room soundproofing could also use some work: we could occasionally hear guest voices from outside the room as they walked past our door.
Still, in all, this was a pleasant single night stay for us. The hotel feels and looks new, everything’s pretty clean, and is situated in a scenic and relatively quiet part of Singapore that’s still close enough to downtown. The Alcove Cosy rooms are small though, but it shouldn’t bother you too much unless you intend to spend a lot of time in the room. Recommended for short stays and couples.
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