I went into this stay with fairly low expectations. Firstly, I checked-in on the second day after the hotel’s opening; hotels don’t tend to be operationally at their best so quickly. Secondly after my last experience at the sister Pan Pacific Singapore, I don’t have a high opinion of the brand. Around its opening, the Pan Pacific Orchard had been getting quite a bit of media attention (see here and here for some examples), mainly for it’s Jenga tower-like design and its “beach club” and loft rooms with direct lagoon access. Both features are admittedly unique and striking features amongst the more cookie-cutter Orchard Road hotels.
Unfortunately, my stay indicated the hotel was all style, no substance. Second day of operations for a new hotel is never going to be perfect, but after two nights there, I had a long laundry list of issues. Most concerningly is that many issues were fundamental, not teething problems that should sort themselves out over time. The room itself had problems that won’t easily be fixed, which I’ll detail later on. There were also some strange policies and some clear signs of staff training lacking.
While the location was good, and the architecture nice, it’s a hotel I have no intentions of returning to. It may unfair to judge a hotel on it’s opening weekend, but first impressions last. Based on this first impression, I absolutely can’t recommend anyone stay there anytime soon.
Booking
A couple of months prior to opening, the Pan Pacific Orchard unveiled a special opening rate. The rate was discounted by 20% off the usual flexible rate, and guests could opt for 2 benefits from the following list:
- – Daily buffet breakfast up to two persons at the Mosella Restaurant
- Choice of an alcoholic (or non-alcoholic) welcome drink per person at Florette or Pacific Breeze
per stay - Food & beverage discount of 20% during your stay at the Food & Beverage outlets (dine-in
only), in-room dining and mini bar - A complimentary bottle of wine per stay
- Access to Pacific Club Lounge at special rate of S$120++ per person per day, includes daily
breakfast, refreshment throughout the day and cocktails at sunset
I noted that the “special rate” for Pacific Club access was actually the same as the rate difference between a standard entry-level deluxe room and a Pacific Club room, so I’m not sure what’s so special about the “special rate”. In any case, I didn’t feel like paying the top-up so opted for breakfast and the complimentary bottle of wine.
I booked the lead-in Deluxe Room category at SGD337.50 per night, plus 10% service charge and 8% GST, for a total of slightly over SGD800 for 2 nights. I would have liked to try the loft rooms, but these weren’t available for booking yet.
About the hotel
Background and design
The original hotel closed for redevelopment in 2018, and has only now emerged from construction. Part of the long construction period was of course due to Covid-19. For the redevelopment, the hotel owners – UOL Group, also owners of the Pan Pacific Hotels Group – engaged award-winning Singapore-based architects WOHA. The firm is well-known for creating biophilic designs, blending urban and vertical greenery into their projects. Previous hospitality works in Singapore include the Parkroyal Collection Pickering and Oasia Hotel Downtown.
The new Pan Pacific Orchard features four district nature-inspired stacks: Forest, Beach, Garden and Cloud. The Forest stack is the lowest, with the lobby at the base. Because the hotel was built on uneven land, the first level is largely unused, instead a series of cascading waterfalls fill up the space .
Next up is the Beach stack, located on the 5th floor. This is also where the pool is, consisting of a lagoon area and a lap pool, which are interconnected. The space above the “beach” stretches around 5 floors, with room balconies overlooking the “beach”. I’ll talk more about the facilities on this level later in this review.
The Garden stack starts from the 11th floor. It’s mostly an open green space, with cabanas and various seating areas for guests to relax amongst greenery. The Pacific Club lounge is located on this level, as is Florette bar (opening 1 July).
The final stack is the Cloud Terrace. This is on the 18th floor. As suggested by the name, the space and rooms here are the highest zone of the hotel. The Cloud Terrace seemed more of an outdoor event space, especially as the event spaces were on this level.
There’s no doubt this is a rather unique hotel, at least in the context of Singapore. There’s isn’t any hotel that fits in essentially four different space concepts vertically. It’s smart use of the limited footprint, and the urban greenery fits in with the sustainability credentials the hotel aspires to and Singapore’s ‘garden city’ moniker. While the features aren’t necessarily aspects that would attract me to the hotel personally, credit is due to both Pan Pacific and WOHA for conceptualising and creating a rather striking and unique hotel.
Location and access
The new Pan Pacific Orchard is located at 10 Claymore Road, just off Orchard Road. It’s not quite what I’d call the “main” Orchard Road stretch (the stretch between Orchard and Somerset MRT stations). Instead it’s a bit before the “main” stretch. It’s separated from Orchard Road by Palais Renaissance and err, Orchard Towers. If you’ve never heard of Orchard Towers, you can read about it’s sleazy and bloody history on its Wikipedia page. Thankfully, Orchard Towers is in the process of being cleaned up.
The hotel is situated between Orchard and Orchard Boulevard MRT stations, being about 5-10min walk from both. It’s probably marginally closer to Orchard. A cab/drive from the airport will probably take 30min in normal traffic. If you’re planning to drive to the hotel and park, take note the hotel DOES NOT offer complimentary parking for guests. The astronomical parking charges are indicated on its website, but it’s not explicit that guests don’t enjoy complimentary parking. I only found out about this when I double checked with the front desk a few hours after arrival.
Naturally I kicked a fuss, and the Front Office Manager (FOM) immediately offered me a ticket. I am certain I was not the only guest caught unawares, and during a subsequent conversation with the same Front Office Manager, she confirmed many guests had been requesting complimentary tickets. In fact, I saw her issue one without question to another guest during our conversation.
The reason given to me for the lack of complimentary parking was “lack of space”. The carpark was indeed small, but I’m not sure that’s a valid reason. Especially when in the long run most guests will be overseas arrivals and not be driving. At the end of the day, this policy is the hotel’s prerogative. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but as I told the FOM, it sure would be good to make it explicit on the website. For those wondering, my 49h or so of parking came up to SGD156.
Check-in and arrival
We arrived at the hotel around 2pm. I drove up to the driveway and asked the staff there if he knew where the carpark was. Admittedly I knew full well where it was, but I wanted to test the staff preparedness. Rather shockingly and amusingly, he hesitantly replied that he didn’t think there was a carpark and suggested I park at one side of the driveway. No way I was doing that, so I waved him off and continued on to the actual carpark. That very first impression definitely didn’t inspire confidence. As a reminder, guest parking is NOT complimentary.
We eventually made our way to the lobby which is actually on the second level. There was a short wait, but a friendly staff member invited us to take a seat. He then offered to fetch a welcome drink. Confusingly, a different staff member then approached us to enquire what we would like to drink. That was a rather odd welcome, but at least they did eventually get our drink order right (orange juice, no ice).
The lobby is open-air, with part of the space technically also meant to be a bar I believe. I felt like the hotel had tried to create resort vibes with the open-air lobby, but when surrounded by tall buildings nearby, it doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Thankfully, the wait wasn’t too long and we were attended to quickly. My GHA Titanium status was acknowledged, and the front desk staff informed us we’d been upgraded to a Deluxe Room with Balcony. Based on the rates, this should be a 2-category upgrade per my Titanium benefit. He also confirmed the selected rate inclusions, and mentioned that the bottle of wine would be delivered “soon”. Spoiler alert: it didn’t arrive till I spoke to the FOM the next evening about my long list of feedback, one of which was said wine. That was a whole 27h after check-in. Service failures are expected at a new property, but there’s no hiding it was a massive failure.
Check-in wrapped up fairly quickly, and the front desk staff insisted on walking us to the lift after we declined help with our bags.
Deluxe room with balcony
We had been assigned room 718, on the 7th floor overlooking the Beach Terrace. Rather annoyingly, it was very near the lift, though on this occasion I didn’t bother requesting for a new room.
Rooms in the Pan Pacific Orchard are not big. The Deluxe Balcony King we had measures 30sqm. That’s an extra 5sqm over the standard Deluxe room, which no doubt has gone to the balcony.
Bathroom
I’m going to break with my usual order when doing hotel reviews, and start with the bathroom this time. Mostly because that the first thing one notices when entering the room.
Typical of most compact rooms, the Pan Pacific Orchard has adopted an open concept bathroom. Of course, there are large sliding doors for privacy.
The toilet thankfully has its own sliding door too, allowing for privacy without having to close the main bathroom doors. Good for keeping smells contained too.
The toilet was equipped a simple bidet, no fancy TOT washlet here. The shower had both a handheld shower and rain shower. The handheld shower had a fixed mount though, so couldn’t be adjusted for height.
The shower was one of the most infuriating aspects of the room. The water pressure was ok, a little weak for my liking but still acceptable. The temperature was whole other story. The water did not maintain a constant temperature. While the temperature swing wasn’t too wild, it could range from scalding hot to lukewarm. For a brand new property, this shouldn’t be happening. I don’t know if it’s something that will improve as the plumbing gets run through, or there’s some fundamental issue. It shouldn’t be impossible to fix, but it’s a big pain to encounter such an issue.
The vanity area was small, but thankfully the towel shelf below had sufficient space for our toiletry bags.
The toiletries were from Diptyque, well the smaller items like dental kits were the typical Pan Pacific group standard.
The bedroom + balcony
Back out in the room, the hotel has actually managed to pack in quite a bit despite the compact size. At the door was a panel of light switches, which also controlled the do-not-disturb and make-up-room lights. The light switches in the room was little toggles. The panel by the door had no indicator whether the DnD or make-up room lights were activated. The DnD strangely was indicated on the air-conditioning control panel, but otherwise one had to check the indicators outside the room to determine if either of those were activated.
There’s a small wardrobe, with a single large drawer containing slippers, hair dryer etc.
The minibar area was small but surprisingly loaded. The Pan Pacific Orchard has eschewed bottled water, instead installing a Swisspro hot and cold filtered water dispenser. I’m always a fan of hotels that install dispensers, as long as they don’t put it in the toilet. (Looking at you, Parkroyal on Beach Road!) That said, the hot water did taste a bit too funky for my liking.
Empty glass bottles were provided, good for taking out onto the balcony or even down poolside. There was also a Nespresso machine, which thankfully used original capsules.
There was an incredibly shallow minibar fridge. The shelves literally were one drink deep, and the space cutouts were seemingly designed precisely for the contents the hotel wanted to put in. Forget about fitting any of your own drinks in.
Below the countertop was a drawer with glassware. There was a slightly hidden inner drawer, which contained the coffee capsules and tea. The tea was TWG, similar to the sister Pan Pacific Singapore.
Beneath these drawers was the safe. The size of the safe was limited by the width of the minibar area, and it looked like it won’t take larger laptops.
The hotel had decided to squeeze in a sofa, as well as a separate armchair and coffee table. The sofa was more of a chaise, and hard as rock, not the most comfortable. The armchair had a small tray for a drink, which was thoughtful.
When we got to the room, there was an ice bucket with a couple of cans of Coke, a small plate of chocolates and a welcome note outlining my GHA Discovery Titanium benefits. I’m not sure if any of those were Titanium welcome amenities, or just generic opening weekend amenities.
As mentioned earlier, we were supposed to receive a bottle of wine. This didn’t appear till the next evening when I raised it with the FOM. At least it was a drinkable drop when it was finally delivered. (3.5 on Vivino for the 2022 vintage)
Entertainment wise, the TV was a 55inch Samsung LCD TV. The picture quality was acceptable, but for some reason the feed kept hanging. I don’t know if it’s a hotel or Starhub (pay TV service provider) issue, but I was trying to watch F1 and the hanging was worse than the dodgy streams I normally rely on at home.
If you’re planning to use your own devices, there’s some power outlets near the sofa. While the hotel had installed USB-A ports, I was surprised to see all the power outlets were Type-G only. Surely the hotel should have put in one or two universal plugs for the convenience of foreign guests?
The king-size bed supposedly featured 400-thread count sheets. It was pretty comfortable, and perhaps one of the better hotel beds I’ve experienced in Singapore.
While the bed itself was good, my sleep was rudely disturbed in the morning by a blast of sunlight through a tiny gap between the curtain and wall. No matter how hard I tried to pull the curtain all the way to the end, there was always a tiny sliver of space for sunlight to leak through.
It’s not so bad if the windows are a distance away from the bed, but the problem here was that the gap almost directly lined up with the natural position of one’s head when lying down. Blackout curtains these definitely were not. It’s quite clear the rail of the curtain did not extend far enough. Honestly, this is equally as frustrating as the inconsistent water temperature.
The bedside tables were fairly basic. Both bedsides has light switches and power outlets. Again, these were Type-G only. One side had the air-conditioning controls.
The balcony overlooks the Beach Terrace below. It’s not a bad view to be honest, and probably preferably to the slightly more bland Garden or Cloud Terrace. The drawback of course is pool noise, but that shouldn’t be an issue at night since the pool closes.
The balcony had a sofa, ottoman and coffee table. It was actually a nice place to relax. It’s also good for dining if want to minimise food smells in the room.
The balcony had electric blinds for privacy if you didn’t people down by the pool staring into your balcony. Rather amusingly and inexplicably, I found that if I left the blinds open and then return to the room with the balcony door shut, then when I reopen the balcony door the blinds came down. Conversely, if the blinds were already down, nothing happens. This made no sense to me. Maybe it’s a persona preference, but I feel if the blinds were to be linked to the opening and closing of the balcony door, then the blinds should move into or remain in an open position when the balcony door is opened. If I’m heading outside, likely I want to look out the balcony right?
In any case, the controls for the blinds were duplicated inside the room, and also outside just above the sofa.
Another rather odd design choice was around the balcony door. The hotel had opted not to put a handle on the balcony (external) side of the door. The mean relying on friction and palm grip to slide the door open and close from outside. Why would I want to do close the door when I’m outside? The air-conditioning is linked to the balcony door, and it shuts off if the balcony door is open. This design is for energy conservation reasons. In fact, I wonder if the hotel deliberately omitted the external handle, precisely so guests would find it too inconvenient to close the door, and thus the air-conditioning will be turned off. Energy saved = money saved for the hotel.
Overall thoughts on the room
I’m going to be blunt and say the room isn’t good enough. The basic function of a hotel room is a place for guests to comfortably rest, relax and refresh. With this room, trying to refresh is made unnecessarily challenging by the inconsistent water temperature, while the blast of sun means rest may get prematurely curtailed. Add on the suspect TV connection and incomprehensible aspects of the balcony door and blinds, and it all becomes annoying. When a room has issues that potentially affect its basic purpose, coupled with too many weird inconveniences, it becomes quite clear it’s far too flawed to consider staying in.
Food & beverage
During the opening weekend, the only F&B venue operating was Mosella, the hotel’s all-day restaurant. Breakfast is a typical buffet, while lunch and dinner feature “Peruvian-inspired Mediterranean fare”. We only had breakfast there, on both mornings. Breakfast runs from 6.30am-10.30am, while lunch is served from 12pm-3pm (last order 2.30pm), and finally dinner from 6.30pm-11pm (last order 10.30pm).
Breakfast at Mosella
As mentioned earlier, I had selected daily breakfast as one of our rate inclusions. On our first morning, we got downstairs around 9.40am. We were told the indoor space was full, but we could take a seat outside and would be brought indoors “as soon as something becomes available”. This never happened. We ended up eating on the outdoor terrace. Thankfully it wasn’t too hot that morning to be uncomfortable. On our second morning, we went down around 9am and it was a little less crowded. This time, we managed to get a table indoors.
The buffet was broken up into several areas. Around a bar area was all the cold items. There was the usual cereals, cut fruits, various cured meats and cheese, yoghurts, salad and a honeycomb.
Hot food surrounded the semi-open kitchen. There were live stations for eggs and noodles. The hot options ranged from local favourite nasi lemak, to Indian curry and prata, dim sum and all the usual Western breakfast staples such as bacon and sausages. On one side were the bread and pastries.
All beverages were self-serve, including coffee and tea. Like in the rooms, the tea here was TWG. The self-serve coffee machine could prepare many types of coffees, which at least partly made up for it being self-service. This brings me to my next point…
The “VVIP” barista machine
Breakfast on the first morning was also the scene of the most absurd, laughable service failure. Technically, I wasn’t even involved in the interaction, I just happened to be standing right next to the guest involved.
Beside one of the self-service coffee machines, right next to the long queue of guests waiting to get their caffeine fix, was a manned barista machine. While I was queueing to make coffee, the next guest went up to the barista to try ordering a flat white. Naturally, the barista directed him to the self-serve machine. He then asked the barista the same question I had: “Then what is the machine for?” The barista replied it was for (V)VIPs. The guest pressed on, querying who or what is a VVIP. To my amazement, the barista literally replied “the Very Important Persons”. My eyes, and that of my fellow guest I’m sure, flew wide open at that. The responses from the barista were possibly the worst, most tactless thing I’ve ever heard from a staff in any so-called 5* hotel.
I know the other guest was pissed as hell, because I heard him comment to his wife that this hotel was “starting to really bug” him. I can’t blame him, I felt pretty pissed off too, despite not even being a party to the conversation. You just can’t say such things to a guest, even if it’s true. To be clear, I have no issues fetching my own coffee – as I’ve done at various Hiltons in Japan such as Hilton Osaka. I was just utterly flabbergasted in a very negative way as to how a service staff could respond the way the barista did.
The next morning, I sarcastically asked the staff guiding us to our table – in the most polite and innocent-sounding tone I could muster – what it takes to qualify as a VVIP to get barista-made coffee. This confused the staff, who offered to fetch the F&B Director to address the incident from the day prior. Though she gave nothing away in her tone, the F&B Director seemed pretty mortified to hear about the comments from the barista. She clarified the barista coffee was for “specialty coffee” i.e. guests with dietary restrictions who want cow milk alternatives, and also for club guests. It sounded a bit of a cop-out to be honest, but it was clear from my exchange with the F&B Director that the barista had been out of line.
Anyway, she did offer to bring a coffee, but I declined. The F&B Director was far more seasoned and polished, but I cringed hard when she said “every guest is a VVIP”.
Overall thoughts on breakfast
Ridiculous barista aside, I would say breakfast was fine. Some hits and misses as always. The noodle soup was too salty and the nasi lemak a tad too bland. On the positive side, the chocolate coated croissant was decent, while the prata and curry was a winner. The variety was acceptable, but I did note the selection was exactly the same both mornings. I wouldn’t pay for breakfast if not included in the rate, but nor did I feel like I wasted an inclusion by opting for breakfast.
Facilities and Amenities
I’ve already run through an overview of the hotel, now I’ll zoom into the facilities on offer. Nearly all the guest facilities are on the 5th floor, where the Beach Terrace is. Of course, guests are free to explore and make use of the other terraces too.
The pool at the Beach Terrace
The pool is somewhat split into a lagoon area, and a lap pool-ish side. It’s all one big pool though, with a narrow channel connecting the two sections underneath a pedestrian bridge. I have to say, I did like the concept of the pool. IT did have a bit of urban resort feel. It’s certainly more interesting and pleasant to laze by this pool than most generic city hotel pools.
Being semi-sheltered, the pool can be used in most weather conditions too. Though I did feel some rain on the rainy afternoon we decided to laze by the pool. It’s also a little to stare at room balconies, and have guests stare back down, but it’s arguably little different from living in a condo.
Do note around the lagoon pool area are the Beach Club Lofts. These rooms have direct access to the pool, and also private daybeds that stretch into the pool area. Personally I wouldn’t want to stay in one of these due to the potential noise.
The gym
The gym is located on level 5 as well, directly in front of the guests lifts and with a view out to the pool and beyond. It was well-equipped, with a good variety of equipment, all from Technogym.
There was also an outdoor gym of sorts. I have no idea what that equipment is meant to be though.
Other facilities
The hotel has a Pacific Club, and yes it has the same annoying dress code as the sister Pan Pacific Singapore. We didn’t opt for Pacific Club access this time, and given how this stay went, I don’t think we’ll be back to check it out.
The Pacific Club is located on level 11, where the Garden Terrace is.
It appears at some point a St. Gregory Spa will open as well, judging by the temporary sign below denoting the space it will be located at.
Service
I debated whether to address this in the individual room and F&B sections of this review, but in the end I felt it was necessary to carve out its own section. As I said at the start of this review, I expect mistakes and teething problems with service. There’s no doubt they happened here. I’ve already mentioned the absurd barista, and briefly also the slightly clueless bellman who didn’t even know the existence of the carpark. I’ve also touched on the terribly delayed delivery of my wine.
However perhaps the most damming, annoying and yet totally expected failure was housekeeping. The hotel directory states that daily cleaning would take place between 8.30am to 4.30pm. The housekeeper didn’t show up until almost 5.30pm. That’s almost an hour after the entire housekeeping process for the whole hotel should have been completed.
Ultimately, we didn’t receive any housekeeping. I had just come out of the shower and needed to head out for my own family appointment while my girlfriend planned to stay in the room and then have supper together later. I told the housekeeper to hold on while I checked with the GF if she wanted them to come in. The housekeeper then said she will come back later. They took so long to return that the GF gave up and turned on the DnD to do her own stuff.
While this lack of housekeeping was up there amongst the most annoying issues encountered, it was actually the most forgivable. Annoying? Yes. Expected? Also yes. I was not surprised the staff still needed adjustment to the processes, and this was one area I always expected a new hotel will fall short. On a two-night stay, I don’t really need housekeeping anyway. While I can forgive it, ultimately it should not have taken this long to get round to our room in the first place.
The rest of the staff – barista aside – were ok. Most were friendly, and both the F&B Director and FOM I shared my feedback with seemed genuinely interested in addressing my concerns. No service recovery was offered though, but in all honesty the hotel definitely had many issues and disgruntled guests to deal with that weekend I’m sure. I don’t think I will ever forget that conversation with the barista though, and technically I wasn’t even in the conversation! I just hope it was an outlier, and not symptomatic of how well (or not) the staff have been trained.
Conclusion
As expected for an opening weekend stay, it was problematic. Unfortunately, arguably only the housekeeping and delayed wine delivery could be considered teething issues, maybe the laughable barista coffee incident as well. The rest of the issues sadly appear to run deeper. Individually, none may be dealbreakers; collectively they represent a rather poor guest experience. There was no service recovery offered, not that I expected any. After all, how do you do service recovery when there’s almost certainly many unhappy guests? It’s also obvious, and this may unfair comparison given this one is new, that the Pan Pacific Orchard is far less polished than its sibling at Marina Bay.
I really wanted to give the Pan Pacific Orchard a chance, given it’s central location and unique features. In fact, I actually have a second booking for September, the earliest I could find the Premier Lofts bookable. It looks likely I’ll be cancelling that booking. Unfortunately, the Pan Pacific Orchard fails at far too many basic elements. I don’t want to put up with a shower that swings wildly in temperature, nor be blasted by sunlight way too early in the morning due to a badly positioned curtain. Those are issues that may not have easy and quick fixes.
I’m done with the Pan Pacific Orchard, and almost certainly won’t be returning. For anyone looking for a proper hotel that delivers a solid experience and isn’t trying to live off its design, I suggest looking elsewhere. The Pan Pacific Orchard is a no go for me.