After my stay at the PARKROYAL on Beach Road, my next stop was the InterContinental Robertson Quay. I last stayed here in late March 2020, not long before everything locked down and hotels closed. The main takeaway from that stay had been the small rooms, though overall it had been a positive experience. I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit the hotel and see how it fared after emerging from the pandemic.
While the small rooms of course remained the same naturally, the rest of the stay was again very positive. The level of service, from front desk to the restaurant was excellent. It’s a hotel I would recommend, if small rooms are acceptable.
Booking
This one-night stay using my IHG Rewards Club points, at 32,000 for the lead-in King Bed Classic room. I was surprised to see a reward night become available the day before my stay date, when none were available in the days prior. I typically purchase (when on sale/100% bonus), and value IHG points at USD0.005 each (USD5 cents per point), so the equivalent cost of this reward night was approximately SGD212. The cash rate was in the mid-SGD300ish, so I definitely came ahead by redeeming points for this stay.
The evening before arrival, my IHG app showed I had been upgraded to a King Bed Classic Riverview. This represented a one-category upgrade. A little stingy, but expected of this hotel and brand.
Location
The InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay is located by the Singapore River, in the…Robertson Quay area. There’s plenty of food & beverage options around, though it’s roughly a 10min taxi/Grab ride to the CBD or Orchard Road areas. There’s no MRT stations nearby unfortunately. The closest are probably either Fort Canning on the Downtown line or Havelock on the Thomson-East Coast line, both of which are minimum 10min walk. That said, if you don’t need to be in the prime Marina Centre or Orchard areas, and you’re fine with using taxi/Grab to get around, the location is pretty central.
Complimentary parking is available for guests who drive to the hotel.
Arrival and check-in
The girlfriend and I caught a Grab from the PARKROYAL on Beach Road, getting to the Intercon RQ a little past 3pm. A bellhop opened the car door and welcomed us to the InterContinental Robertson Quay. No attempt was made to help with our bags. I guess a small backpack, an equally small duffel bag and slightly bigger tote bag didn’t qualify for assistance. We didn’t actually need it, but it would have been nice if it was offered. No offer was made to to guide us to the lobby for check-in either. We were familiar from our previous stay, so we were knew where we going. This was perhaps the only weak service point. The bellhops/concierge at least did greet us (and other guests) every time we went through the entrance.
We took the lift up to the 4th floor where the main lobby is located. The hotel’s décor is mostly marble contrast with a mixture of darker wood and metallic finishes. It gives a a very modern, but slightly sombre feel. That’s compensated by the floor-to-ceiling windows in most of the public spaces, and the rooms. These allow a good amount of sunlight in, at least during the day.
The check-in area is pretty compact, which I imagine could be a problem at peak times. The hotel clearly has experience managing this, since there were some stanchions set up. Fortunately when we arrived there were no other guests checking in. My IHG Diamond + InterContinental Ambassador status was acknowledged by the front desk. I was offered a choice of welcome amenity by the front desk. I noticed the front desk staff went “points, drinks voucher, or….(long pause) breakfast”. While she didn’t hide the option of breakfast, the fact it was the last option and she paused before mentioning it, felt like the hotel was hoping guests won’t pick that as their welcome amenity. That wouldn’t be surprising, since that’s probably the most expensive item on paper. I doubt the actual cost outlay to provide breakfast is that significant though.
The front desk staff also passed me a welcome letter (which I somehow forgot to take a photo of) and noted that my USD20 Ambassador credit converted to SGD27. That was around SGD0.50 more than the spot rate conversion on the day. I was also asked if I needed a late checkout the next day, and I requested the hotel max out my 4pm benefit as an Ambassador.
The rest of the formalities were completed quickly. No offer was made for further upgrades or topping up for Club InterContinental access, nor did I make any enquiries in that direction.
The room
We were allocated a room on the 6th floor, a couple of levels above reception. Room 642 was situated along the breadth of the building.
Most rooms in the InterContinental Robertson Quay measure 24sqm. The exception are corner rooms, some non-river facing twin rooms and suites of course. To be honest, 24sqm for a brand of the calibre of InterContinental is rather compact. The designers have attempted to cleverly maximise the space, but there’s no mistaking that this is a small room. The room is reasonably long, but rather narrow.
The room décor continues the use of wood panels, interspersed with black and dark grey paneling. The floor-to-ceiling helps brighten up the room during the day. Without the natural light, the room did feel a little dark and moody.
Upon entry, there’s a decent sized wardrobe. Some space is taken up by the the iron and ironing board. There’s a safe below the luggage shelf. The safe sits a big drawer, but itself is rather tight. I doubt it’ll actually anything but the smallest laptops, if at all. The wardrobe is passably useful, but it’ll probably be a struggle to fit more than one guest’s clothes and luggage.
To get to the bed, one has to walk through the bathroom. In this room, the shower and vanity were to the left, while the toilet was on the right. The toilet’s sliding door doubles as the wardrobe door, depending which end it’s slid to. InterContinental hotels, including this Robertson Quay one, announced a switch to full-size Byredo bath amenities around a year ago. Coincidentally the same brand that Conrad uses, though a different scent. InterContinental use the Bal d’Afrique scent. I found this scent too sweet for my liking, and prefer the Mojave Ghost Conrad uses.
Since the toilet door doubles as the wardrobe door as well, the hotel at least installed sliding doors to separate the entire bathroom from the bed area. That helps cut light at night for guests like me who prefer to leave the bathroom light on during the night. Of course, it also gives privacy if you’re staying with someone who’s not your partner. Although frankly I wouldn’t want to stay with anyone besides a partner in this room given the relatively confined space.
The hotel has tried to pack in as many room features as possible. There’s a 49″ TV of course, an empty minibar, and a small desk. In my previous stay in March 2020, that room didn’t have a desk, but had an armchair and round side table The area where the desk is was taken up by a bench seat. I actually preferred the configuration of the room I had previously. With that configuration, two people could sit down at the same time, without anyone having to sit on the bed. With this room, there was only one chair at the desk.
The hotel was fairly generous with the complimentary bottled water, providing four bottles. There was a Nespresoo machine and capsules, while the tea was from Monogram.
The window blinds are controlled electronically, with the switches at the bedside. There’s a sheer layer for daytime, and a solid blackout blind for nighttime. The power outlets were universal plugs, while the bedside nearer the bathroom gets a USB charging port and clock with wireless charging. On the bedside phone, there’s also a QR code that leads to the hotel directory and digital concierge.
As with the Hotel Indigo Singapore Katong, the InterCon Robertson Quay continues to take the IHG Clean Promise seriously, including the card informing guests which housekeeper cleaned the room.
The bed was pretty comfortable, though I still prefer those at the Conrad Centennial Singapore. It was a good firmness. My main complaint was the room temperature. The control for the air-conditioning would not go any lower than 20 degrees Celsius. This was confirmed by the front desk when I checked out. I like a cold room for sleeping, and I can imagine most guests from temperate countries would too, given the stifling Singapore heat outside. The floor-to-ceiling windows were both a blessing and a curse, since leaving the blinds open for natural light obviously results in a warmer room.
The front desk staff were apologetic and promised to check if the air-conditioning was functioning properly. I wouldn’t expect them to change the lower temperature limit though.
Apart from that, the intimate – to phrase it nicely – room size is the only main drawback. I’d have also preferred the configuration I got on the previous stay. Otherwise, the room maximises the space available. It’s also a more modern style, good for InterContinental brand loyalists who don’t like the traditional luxury styling of the IC Singapore in Bugis. The room size works for guests on shorter stays with less baggage, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a longer stay. Unless you absolutely need to stay in the Robertson Quay area.
Food & beverage
While there’s a number of restaurants within the same building, the only restaurant affiliated with the hotel is Publico. Previously the hotel also had Marcello, but that space has been taken over by a third-party restaurant. Publico is where breakfast is served, which I had selected for my welcome amenity. It’s also the only real restaurant to use up the Ambassador credit. I stopped by Publico for supper, after an unsatisfying dinner event earlier that day.
For supper, we ordered a couple of drinks, a burrata & cherry tomatoes, and a Nutella pizza. Traditionalists will probably scream in horror at the Nutella pizza, but I enjoy a good dessert pizza. The food was decent, but not fantastic. The burrata was not as creamy as I would have liked, while the pizza crust was was too hard. Some parts of the crusts were more like a biscuit unfortunately. The total bill for 2 drinks, the starter and dessert pizza was SGD95 before service charge and GST. I charged to my room and the Ambassador credit was duly applied at check-out.
I quite liked the setting of Publico, particularly the outdoor area we were seated at. We went quite late, around 9.45pm, so it wasn’t too crowded. The crowd around – including the surrounding restaurants – wasn’t too noisy even though Robertson Quay is a nightlife area, so it was quite pleasant to dine riverside. Service was great, although they seemed a little understaffed. The staff were friendly despite the late-ish hour, and our orders were brought out by a polite and enthusiastic staff member.
We returned to Publico the next morning for breakfast. I guess too many guests have gotten lost or confused, as there was a sign outside the hotel entrance to point guests to Publico.
We were seated outdoors again, though a different outdoor area. This was a pretty nice spot, beside a plant wall.
Breakfast was buffet style, with an egg station. Again the service was excellent, with a very friendly and cheerful staff member taking our egg orders and delivering them to our table later. The buffet wasn’t the biggest, but had all the usual items – cereals, fruits, breads and pastries, cold cuts, salad bar, hot Asian and Western options. The fruit options stood out to me, as the hotel opted for some more unusual choices in the form of grapefruit and white dragon fruit. One oddity was that there was several columns of dim sum baskets, but there was only item – chicken char siew bao – on offer. It would have been nice if the hotel could offer a couple of other types such as har gao (steamed prawn dumpling) or siew mai (steamed pork dumpling). Barista-made coffee was available and could be ordered through the waitstaff.
We didn’t eat too much, but of the food we had, the quality was good, but not great. The nasi lemak (not pictured unfortunately) was sadly rather tasteless and the accompanying chicken wings equally bland. The fruits were pretty sweet and juicy, which was good. Strangely, the guest at the next table piled his plate full of food, but he ended up barely touching any of it. Instead, he went back to the buffet a couple of times to get the waffles. Perhaps I will give the waffles a try if I stay here again.
Facilities & amenities
The InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay is a rather compact hotel (much like its rooms!), but is still equipped with a small gym and a swimming pool.
The gym is located on ground level. Getting to the gym requires exiting the lobby and heading a side door (opposite to the front entrance) and walking along the building to the end. There’s signs to guide the way. However since the gym is glass-walled and at the end of the building, anyone in the gym is exposed to the general public walking by.
The gym is small, but seemed well-equipped to my untrained eye. There’s the usual assortment of cardio machines, free wights and resistance machines, from Technogym. There’s a water dispenser and towels are provided too.
Along the way to the gym, one would pass the hotel’s fleet of Tokyobikes. These are available for guests to rent.
The small lap pool is located on the 4th level, same as the front desk. It was actually pretty crowded when I stopped by on Sunday afternoon, with all the loungers taken up. I didn’t want to snap any pics the amount of guests in and around the pool, so here’s a photo from the hotel’s websiteL
The hotel of course has a Club InterContinental. Unfortunately we didn’t book a room with club access this time. I don’t recall being overly impressed by the Club InterContinental on the last visit, so I personally wouldn’t book a Club room unless the rate is really attractive.
Conclusion
The main drawback of the InterContinental Robertson Quay is undoubtedly the small rooms. Perhaps in keeping the vibe of its surrounding neighbourhood, the hotel is meant more for guests who prefer to be out and about instead of spending time in their room. It also perhaps doesn’t quite have the same luxe feel as its sibling, the InterContinental Singapore in Bugis, and arguably suffers from a poorer location. It is however a more modern and intimate hotel, and doesn’t lack for amenities and facilities despite the relatively small footprint. It’s a nice hotel for sure, and the service standard, at least during this experience, was excellent. Given it’s usually priced lower than its Bugis sibling – likely partly a function of having smaller rooms – it’s a good alternative if one can accept the small room sizes.
Have you stayed at the InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay? How was your experience?